A flying visit to Faro, Portugal
13th June 2018
At the beginning of May, my fiancé and I took a spontaneous trip to Faro, Portugal. It was very much a flying visit but we managed to make two whole days feel as long as humanly possible!
We landed at around 5pm and had a swift transfer to pick up our hire car, before heading to the accommodation to drop our bags and dash straight out for dinner.
Bearing in mind we hadn’t done much research at all into the area, we were very pleasantly surprised to find that after a 2-minute walk from our apartment we landed straight onto the restaurant-lined harbour front.
It didn’t take us long to find something more than suitable to satisfy our appetite, 7imeio – a very Pinterest-looking cocktail bar and restaurant that served tapas and sushi (as if one wasn’t tantalising enough!) We darted in, ordered drinks and got stuck into the menu.
We ordered some tapas before our next course, sushi (too excited to take pics of this, sadly!). I can tell you it was one for the eyes and the belly!
Followed by the gooey-est of desserts.
Chocolate mousse… although I have to say there was nothing mousse-y about it, I’ve had enough raw brownie mixture in my life to know that’s exactly what it was! No complaints from either of us!!
Feeling well and truly sunken into our mini holiday (metaphorically and physically!) we meandered back to our apartment, enjoying the last of the day’s heat.
The next morning was just what I’d pictured.
I really can’t imagine many better ways to start the day, than stepping out onto a balcony from your bedroom, the bluest of skies gleaming back at you and filling your lungs with the sea breeze.
We wandered to the harbour and breakfasted on fresh strawberries, coffee and Pastéis de Nata – when in Rome!
After a little research over breakfast, we decided to visit two of the top 5 beaches in the Algarve, only being a short drive from each other.
We hopped in the car and had the prettiest drive for just over an hour to our first stop, Praia de Benagil. It’s a small beach near Lagoa, set between two golden cliffs. It’s very sheltered which makes it all the more relaxing but it doesn’t take long to catch some rays – you’ll soon want to jump into the glistening blue!
An added attraction of this particular beach is an impressive sea cave known as Algar de Benagil. Many people take boat trips right into the cave but if you’re brave you can swim from the beach, round the headland straight into it!
It’s a pretty cool view from the top too.
Our second stop was at Praia de Marinha where we had a spot of lunch, drinking in the view before clambering down to the beach to settle in for the afternoon.
Having got a healthy dose of sand, sea and sun we took the scenic drive back to Olhão, cracked open a bottle of wine and soaked up the sun from our balcony, before heading out for dinner.
We’d been told that the market on Saturday mornings was the place to be, so it would’ve been rude not to check it out!
There are two huge market halls – one with a plethora of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat and the other entirely dedicated to fish, as fresh as you could get it!
On Saturdays, the market comes to life outside of the halls, with a whole array of stalls selling all sorts of wonderful and tasty things.
After fuelling up on fresh orange juice and almond cookies, we headed out to Old Town Faro – a gorgeous part of the city filled with Roman passages and enough cobbled streets to get lost in for a few hours!
We passed the church (which was stunning but sadly I don’t have a picture) just in time to see a whole wedding party spilling out onto the steps into the sunshine. Even though they’re complete strangers, it somehow seems hard to tear yourself away without getting a little glimpse of the bride and groom and seeing the huge smiles on their faces!
We made our way to New Town Faro for a late lunch then headed to Faro beach. The beach is on an island called Ilha de Faro which has a sea-facing side and a sheltered lagoon-facing side and the natural park of Ria Formosa. This is where we spent our last couple of hours before catching a flight back.
It may have only been two days but our flying visit to the Algarve left us feeling well and truly blissed out.
