Portugal – Algarve – 07/2021
Portugal - Algarve with child
I was planning to visit Algarve in south Portugal for a long time and we decided to visit it this year in July. There are really many beautiful beaches, beautiful ocean, amazing cliffs, rocky formations and caves. But if you don’t like spending the whole holiday on the beach, you will definitely not be bored either, you can do walks / hikes along the coast, where you can enjoy beautiful views of the ocean, rocks, beaches, etc. So this destination is very interesting even in low season, when in addition there are usually very cheap flight tickets. And during this holiday we bought a beautiful apartment near the beach, which you can use for your vacation as well 🙂
Date: 14.7. – 22.7.2021
Itinerary
- Departure from Brno + night in Vienna
- Departure from Vienna to Faro + Portimão
- Portimão, Praia do Alemão, Praia do Amado, Praia dos Três Castelos
- Lagos – Ponta da Piedade, Praia do Camilo
- Carvoeiro, boat trip Benagil – Praia da Marinha
- Percurso dos Sete Vales Suspensos, Praia da Marinha
- Praia do Evaristo, Praia do Castelo, Praia da Coelha
- Sand city, Portimão – Praia dos Três Castelos
- Departure from Faro to Vienna
Visited places
The Algarve region offers a beautiful coastline washed by the Atlantic Ocean and a big number of beautiful beaches, from large long beaches to small beaches where you are almost alone. In my post you will find detailed information from our vacation and lots of useful advice, so if you also decide to visit the Algarve, my article will definitely help you plan your vacation.
Originally, we only planned to visit Madeira in the summer, because I wanted to show my parents, in addition to this beautiful island, also our apartment, which we bought there last year. But due to a temporary Covid law banning the termination of long-term rentals, we were afraid that tenants who had a contract till the end of June would not be willing to move out, so we decided to go on holiday in the Algarve as well so that we would not be without a summer vacation if we would not be able to visit Madeira . And fortunately, the tenants found a new rental, so in August visited my favorite Madeira as well.
And also this visit to the Algarve was very successful – we managed to choose a beautiful apartment that we bought and you can use it for your vacation as well 🙂
Vacation rental – our apartment in Algarve
We offer accommodation in our apartment, a studio in Portimao at affordable prices. The apartment is located near the beach, the center and the beautiful promenade along the river Arade.
More information and price list can be found here – https://lenkacestounecestou.cz/en/portugal-algarve/
Flight tickets
As always, I searched for flights via Skyscanner and bought tickets directly from the airline (Ryainair). I bought tickets already in February, and because I was quite limited by the date, so that it would be during the holidays and July, so that we could visit Madeira in August, we didn’t have much choice and as it was a full season, the tickets cost us about 4000 CZK / person (including the priority boarding with 10 kg hand luggage). But otherwise (especially in low season) flight tickets from Vienna are very cheap.
We are from Brno (Czech Republic) so we like to fly from Vienna. So I bought a direct flight from Ryanair from Vienna to Faro. The flight takes about 3.5 hours.
Skyscanner – https://www.skyscanner.cz/
Ryanair – http://ryanair.com/
Accomodation
In regards to accomodation, I don´t like hotels anymore, so I prefer accomodation in private flats. As we were travelling with my parents and my son, I chose a 2 bedroom flat in Portimao.
In case you are travelling alone or you will be 2 persons, I can offer you to rent our flat for your vacation, more information here – https://lenkacestounecestou.cz/en/portugal-algarve/
Car rental
I originally wanted to rent a car from a Centauro car rental company, which has very good reviews and it was the only car rental company with full insurance where I found that they did not require any deposit or credit card (but the rental fee was more expensive than elsewhere). But for the return (departure 7:30) we needed to drop off the car at about 5:15 and there was no possibility to return the car at this hour at this car rental company. Of course, their offices are closed at this time, and there was no way to throw the keys just in a box like in other car rental companies. I checked it even by email and they said that there is no possibility of returning car at this hour… Interesting approach, seems they don´t mind to lose all clients with a morning departure…
Drive4Fun
So I was looking for another car rental company, ideally without a credit card and without a deposit, as I’m used to in Madeira, but I really didn’t find any other here (if you know one, I’ll be happy for a tip in the comments). So in the end I chose Drive4Fun, for which I also found very good reviews.
They had good prices and a deposit (block on the credit card) 320 EUR (300 EUR for possible loss of car keys and 20 EUR for possible use of the highway. If you don´t use the motorway, the deposit will be returned). It was not necessary to use the highway only once on the way to Portimão, so we avoided the highway and drove to Portimão for about 1 hour 15 minutes on smaller roads. So it was not a very fast ride, many villages and I was surprised how many roundabouts and speed bumps.
After we left the airport hall, it was necessary to walk to the P4 parking (https://mapy.cz/s/jecekosuvu), where there was a stall with an office for several car rental companies. No one was in front of us, so we took over the car relatively quickly. As always, we had full insurance.
A car rental worker gave us the documents and said that we should check the condition of the car to see if there were a few small scratches that he had marked on the document. We found another 2 small scratches so he also marked them there and at the same time I took a photo of them. But I guess it was just a formality because we had full insurance.
We only took a car of the lowest class here (a Peugeot), no mountains were waiting for us, so we thought that would be enough and my father said that he was satisfied with this car.
On the way back, we handed over the car at 5:30 in the morning, and all we had to do was take a parking ticket at the entrance and put it, together with the car keys, up on the shade. So the car was actually left open in the parking lot.
Price – 195 EUR for 7 days (i.e. 28 EUR / day), with full insurance (+ booster seat cost 3 EUR per day)
Drive4Fun – https://drive4fun.pt/
Parking
The vast majority of the car parks we came across were for free. We paid for parking only once, in Portimão near Praia do Amado beach (https://mapy.cz/s/dofajuhohe), because the free parking lot was already full. In the center of Portimão there are sometimes paid parking lots, but even in the center we have always managed to find free parking.
Otherwise, there is often an official parking lot near the beaches (standardly unpaid, we didn’t come across any paid parking) and when it is full, most of the cars were parked by the road where it was possible, there were no parking bans.
Wheather
The Algarve has very stable and sunny weather in July. Now in July we had a sunny day without a single cloud and about 26-30 ° C. It was warm even in the evening, only one evening it was a little colder and I wore a thin sweatshirt, otherwise in the evening I had always T-shirt with short sleeves.
If you do not want to spend a lot of time swimming on the beach, but rather do trips and hikes, then I recommend going in low season when it will not be so warm.
The water temperature
Do you think that the Atlantic is very cold? Are you curious what is the water temperature here? It was a nice surprise for me that in July the water was not cold at all but around 24°C.
Covid formalities
Traveling in the time of the covid is a bit more difficult due to various formalities, but don’t worry about it at all and go for vacation 🙂 And if you’re already vaccinated, it will be very easy.
If you are from Czech republic, you can have a look on my post in Czech language where are detailed information about travelling from Czech republic
https://lenkacestounecestou.cz/portugalsko-07-2021/#Covid_formality
Passenger locator card
When going to Portugal it is needed to fill-in online passenger locator card, link below.
Link – https://portugalcleanandsafe.com/en/passenger-locator-card
Current rules in Portugal
You can find the current rules related to covid in the link below:
https://www.visitportugal.com/en/content/covid-19-measures-implemented-portugal
https://www.visitportugal.com/en/content/covid-19-frequently-asked-questions
https://covid19.min-saude.pt/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20210202_Postos-colheita.pdf
Covid test
As I was not fully vaccinated yet in that time, I had to go for test which was the rule for return to Czech republic in July. In case you need a covid test for return to your country, you can find information regarding my experience.
Hospital de São Camilo
I decided for Unilabs laboratory at the Hospital de São Camilo. They were there from 9:00 to 18:00.
It was necessary to make an appointement either by phone or online through their website. I ordered online and unfortunately there was no way to choose the exact time, just whether in the morning or in the afternoon. So I clicked in the morning and wrote in a note that I would like to come with my son ideally at 9:00. After a while, I received a confirmation and a separate email that they made reservation for 9:00 and 9:05 for my son.
After entering the hospital, it is just needed to turn right, where was the place where Covid tests were done. Here, the antigen was as deep in the nose as PCR used to be in our country.
The results were supposed to be within about 4 hours, but they came to us by SMS and e-mail within about 40 minutes.
I paid EUR 25 per person for the tests, it was possible to pay by card. I don’t know the prices elsewhere, neither here nor elsewhere was the price listed on the website.
- Price – 25 EUR/person
- Opening hours – 9:00 – 18:00
- Scheduling appointement – needed online or by phone (at least24 hours in advance)
- Address – São João de Deus 8500-508
Website for scheduling appointement – https://www.grupohpa.com/en/covid-19-analysis/
https://www.grupohpa.com/en/covid-19-test-hpa-gambelas/
Link for map – https://mapy.cz/s/fujebunaro
Den 1
Night in Vienna
Accomodation Vienna airport
Moxy Vienna Airport
As the flight was at 12:20 and it would not be easy to get to Vienna for 10:00 having also a reasonable time reserve, we preferred to spent a night in Vienna just a few meters from airport
Cena – 880 Kč/osoba
Day 2
Departure from Vienna to Faro + Portimão
It flew at 12:20 and we landed in Faro at 14:55. Fortunately, we were not late, so we immediately went to the P4 car park to pick up the car at the car rental and went to Portimão (for more information on renting a car, see the Car Rental section).
Upon arrival, we stayed in a private 2 bedroom apartment, which I found via Booking. Right after that we went for a meal, specifically in this part of town there are not many restaurants, they are rather closer to the center or the beach. Information about restaurants, prices and photos of dishes can be found in the Restaurants section.
Then we visited the viewpoint Miradouro dos Três Castelos (https://mapy.cz/s/maruhagapu), from where there is a beautiful view of Praia da Rocha and Praia dos Três Castelos
Then we walked along the beach Praia dos Três Castelos and along the promenade by the beach.
Day 3
Upon arrival, we decided to first explore Portimão and the surrounding beaches.
Praia do Alemão
In the morning we went to the beach Praia do Alemão. It is a very nice beach, but there were big waves that brought a lot of algae to the beach, but fortunately only to a part of the beach. Parking was free of charge. You could park practically anywhere in front of the official parking lot. It was possible to park by the road in the shade under the trees.(https://mapy.cz/s/nesovocade).
From here there is a very nice short hike along the coast with wonderful views of the rocks and beaches.
Some tiny beaches are not so well accessible so you can find there only 1-2 couples. We didn’t try to go down on these beaches, we didn´t have enough time.
Unfortunately, we had little time, so we did not go the entire hike(https://mapy.cz/s/recenosuvo).
Praia do Amado
This is also a very nice beach with beautiful rock formations. Parking is small and for free (https://mapy.cz/s/defoheloge), so it is not easy to park if you do not come in the morning, but we were lucky and found the place. But otherwise right next to it is a paid parking lot, where an hour cost 0.80 EUR I think. (https://mapy.cz/s/fuduhusovo).
Praia dos Três Castelos
Another beautiful beach with beautiful rock formations. One beach passes into another, so can do a nice walks along the coast.
And here you will find a map of visited places in Portimao.
Portimão
Portimão is a very nice city with many beautiful beaches. The city is dominated by 1 km long Praia da Rocha, which is bordered by rocks. We don’t like big beaches, so we didn’t swim on this once and we went to smaller beaches. So we made a photo of this beach from the viewpoint. The beach has a promenade with many restaurants, bars and a souvenir shop, so in the evening there were quite a lot of tourists (in hight season).
In the center there is a very nice promenade around the river Arade (https://mapy.cz/s/kezurahete), where in the evening there are very nice walks with very few of tourists. There are also boat trips on the river (1 hour about 12.50 EUR) and can be purchased at the stalls with local agencies directly by river (Zona Ribeirinha).
In the center you will also find the old bridge (Ponte Velha), which is accessible not only for cars but also on foot.
In the center you will find a large number of restaurants, many times with prices 8-10 EUR per meal and with a side dish included. If you want to save a little, you can have a daily menu (so-called prato do dia), which is available all day (or until sold out, but we used to have it even in the evening), it costs about 8 EUR, in cheaper restaurants for locals and less, around 6 EUR.
In Portimão, the same as in entire Portugal, you will find houses where you can see instead of facade the typical azulejos (tiles). But there are not as many as in Lisbon, for example.
Shopping
Not far from the center you can find a large hypermarket Continente (https://mapy.cz/s/hugucuvoju).
There is also Lidl (https://mapy.cz/s/janefufebo) and Pingo Doce (https://mapy.cz/s/busenuhepa), frequent Portuguese supermarket chain. There is a cheap restaurant in Pingo Doce, I thought it would be the same style as in Madeira, where the food was weighed and prepared in large bowls as for all inclusive hotels and one could get a little out of everything. Here, only the side dishes and salads were in this style, but the meat had to be ordered separately and prepared fresh. So we didn’t try it here in the end, but the food here was also very cheap (around 6 EUR, but I don’t know if the side dish was included in this price).
Mercado Municipal
The Mercado Municipal Market is also worth a visit, with plenty of fruit and vegetable stalls. Fortunately, it’s here for standard prices for locals, so you don’t have to be afraid to buy fruits and vegetables here, there are no overpriced prices for tourists, it’s a market for locals.
Now in July they had excellent ripe figs, both green and violet (price 5-7 EUR / kg). But otherwise the trees at this time were not ripe yet.
If you like passion fruit, there was some stand with passion fruit as well, but usually we bought passion fruit at Pingo doce. It is not entirely common to be in every supermarket, for example in Continente they did not have it at all this time.
You will also find here a fish market, which I also recommend visiting, you will find a lot of fish and seafood.
Buses
I haven’t tried the buses in person yet, because we rented a car this time, but there are several lines that run quite often and it is not a problem to get a bus to the various beaches in Portimão. Otherwise, Portimão is quite a small town, so it is not a problem to move around the city on foot.
Day 4
Lagos – Ponta da Piedade
The next day we went to the town of Lagos, which is about 25 km from Portimão. Unfortunately, we didn´t have time to visit the town itself, so sometime next time 🙂
A place you should definitely not miss here is Ponta da Piedade, where there are really beautiful views of the ocean and orange-colored cliffs. It’s an absolutely amazing spectacle.
It was possible to go down the stairs to the sea, from where are small boats for a boat trip around the rocks.
From here, a long path along the coast leads along wooden paths. Everyone can do it as it is an easy hike on a flat land. Unfortunately, we didn´t have time, so we just looked at it and I’ll do it next time.
For lunch, we went straight to the restaurant by the parking lot. I was surprised that even in such a tourist place, where there was only one restaurant, the prices were ok. More information, prices and photos can be found in the Restaurant section.
Praia do Camilo
After lunch we moved to Praia do Camilo beach. Parking here was ok (official free parking – https://mapy.cz/s/pejagevaje), or anywhere by the road when there is no longer a parking space on official parking.
These are 2 very nice beaches next to each other, the acces to the other is through a tunnel in the rock. A total of 220 stairs lead to this beach.
Walk along the coast
And because I don´t like just swimming and lying on the beach, I went for a short walk along the coast towards Ponta da Piedade. Here, too, the views were literally breathtaking.
In some photos you can see some clouds – or rather they were not clouds, but smoke from a fire that was near Lagos. When we returned to Portimão in the evening, we found that the smoke had moved here and there was a little smell, but fortunately not enough to breathe harder. Fortunately, the next day it was fine and the smoke was gone.
Day 5
Praia do Carvoeiro
The next day we went to the town of Carvoiero. There is also a very nice beach. I know, I keep repeating myself, but the beaches here are really beautiful. As for the beaches, for me it is the most beautiful destination in Europe.
Here it is a bit worse with parking, there is no larger parking lot at the beach. So we parked about 900 meters in front of the beach and walked to it and we stopped for lunch (more info and photos in the Restaurant section).
First we went bathing on the beach Praia do Carvoiero.
Boat trip Tour completo Benagil – Praia da Marinha
Then we went on a boat trip along the coast. I booked the trip online a few days in advance from company Carvoeiro Caves (https://www.carvoeirocaves.com/passeios/tour-completo-benagil-praia-da-marinha/).
There are several companies that do boat trips, but I definitely recommend ours, everything went great and we were really satisfied. When choosing a boat trip, it’s a good idea to find out how big the boat is, because some companies also make trips along the coast, but it’s a bigger boat that can’t go to individual caves. Prices are usually similar and if there is a trip for a lower price, so often because it is a shorter ride.
I assume that it is not a problem to book a trip on the spot, the question is whether you will be able to choose the time that suits you. If the whole family goes, for example, it is definitely better to book a trip in advance, after all, the boat is only for 8 people, so there might not be a place for the whole family.
It was needed to come to a stall on the edge of Carvoeiro beach 30 minutes in advance to make check-in. But our boat had a small delay, so they said we could still go to the beach and arrive at 15:20. Then they gave us life jacket. If you have a bigger bag with you, you can leave it at their stand.
Even now, in the time of the covid, all the boats we met were mostly full. But we were very lucky, I chose a great time (15:00 – 16:30) and we were completely alone on the boat, only the 4 of us, and guides Ana and João, who drove the boat. So we had a beautiful view, and I could practise with the guide Portuguese and I partially translated it for my parents. So great that we had a private ride for the price of 25 EUR / person (child 20 EUR) (otherwise a private ride cost 200 EUR).
Fortunately, I understood very well to Anna, she spoke slowly. I chose the time on purpose in the afternoon, I read that after lunch it is better because of the light and it is true that the sun was already behind us, so we were not there against the sun on the way and so it was ideal for taking photos. On the way back, it was no longer possible to take pictures, because it was pretty fast ride and the boat was jumping and it was a super fast ride, which we all really enjoyed.
We visited a lot of beautiful caves, including the most famous one Gruta de Benagil (https://mapy.cz/s/lomebojuhu), which you certainly know from the photos. However, we did not get off the boat, so we only took a picture of the cave from the boat. This cave is only accessible from the ship. I don’t know if some other companies get off the boat, I noticed that only people got off the kayak.
This trip lasted 1 and a half hours and went to the famous beach Praia da Marinha. It was a great trip, I recommend.
Carvoeiro caves – tours – https://www.carvoeirocaves.com/passeios/tour-completo-benagil-praia-da-marinha/
Then we drove a short distance away and we visited a small cave Boneca (https://mapy.cz/s/ceduculula)
and a beautiful natural lake in which it was possible to take a bath. Above the lake you could walk to the ocean, and from there people jumped right into the ocean, and a short distance away they always climbed and jumped over and over again.
Day 6
Percurso dos Sete Vales Suspensos
The next day I decided to go on a short hike along the coast, which begins just behind Carvoeiro at Praia de Vale Centeanes beach and finishes at Praia da Marinha. Basically almost the same part as we went across the sea by boat (I just started a little behind Carvoeiro). I went alone, my son didn´t want to join me due to hot weather and he was mainly looking forward to swimming and I needed my parents to drive to Praia da Marinha by car so that I could only go one way and not have to return to the car. Thanks to such coastal hikes, you will not be bored here even in winter. Well, acually it is a great destination for the whole year because there are pleasant temperatures all year round.
Praia do Vale Centianes
The hike starts at Praia do Vale Centianes (https://mapy.cz/s/holotovuza), which is also a very nice beach. There is a small beach on one side, which is not even marked on the map as a separate beach, but because everyone is probably heading straight for the big one, this one was really empty at the time of my visit, there was only one lady.
I continued on the path along the coast. It is a beautiful hike with breathtaking views of the ocean and rocks. It is an easy route, leading mainly on flat land.
There are also so-called “algares“, holes in the ground that are formed by erosion. These holes are surrounded by a fence so that no one falls into them.
At the beginning, I was practically alone on the route, I met only 2 couples in the opposite direction. Then I met a little more people, probably most people walked only a small part of this hike.
Farol de Alfanzina
Praia do Carvalho
Here you can find some photos from Praia do Carvalho beach.
Praia de Benagil
If you do not have enough water with you, you can buy water on the beach Praia de Benagil (but I have no idea if the snack bar on the beach is open even in low season). There is also a kayak rental on this beach.
Just before Praia da Marinha there are beautiful rock formations. One of them resembles a heart shape when you are standing in the right place (approximately here – https://goo.gl/maps/v6dm59zJyvgzuh3Y8, https://mapy.cz/s/hotutuvatu ). It was necessary to go behind the railing to see the shape of the heart.
Here you can also see beautiful wrinkled sandstone rocks.
Trail – https://mapy.cz/s/cuhuhucete (6,2 km, based on mapy.cz 2:14 hrs.)
Well I spent on this hike much longer, about 3 hours because it was hot and I also took a lot of photos and enjoyed the beautiful views.
Praia da Marinha
When I came to Praia da Marinha beach, there were already many algae, but during the day they were not there. Sometimes the waves just bring them, so in such case it’s better to go to the beach just next to it and most likely there will not be any algae. This beach has won various awards and is considered one of the most beautiful beaches in Europe / the world …
Day 7
The next day, my son and I went for an antigen test at 9:00, which had to be completed no later than 48 hours before boarding the plane (for people without vaccination). So we did it in the morning so that it wouldn’t break the program during the day. More info including links can be found in the Covid formalities section
Then we headed to the beach towards the town of Albufeira. We wanted to go for lunch first, but some restaurants don´t open until 12 or 12:30, so it was impossible to stop somewhere, and when we came across a restaurant, the prices started at 20 EUR… So we thought we would go to restaurant right on the beach. Well, is wasn’t the best choice either, but we didn’t want to spend time looking for a restaurant anymore. It was a fish restaurant that wasn’t very cheap and didn’t even have a menu, and all the fish was just by weight. And when the kilo cost 70 euros, then I’m a little afraid to have a fish so that they don’t give me a bigger one and lunch didn’t cost, too much, especially when I know that in other restaurants the fish cost 8-13 EUR. And apart from fish, they only had grilled chicken for 12 EUR and some expensive beef steak… So we chose chicken, it was not bad, but elsewhere I had significantly cheaper and better. So if you don’t want to spend too much, I don’t recommend this restaurant. We had also dessert and it wasn’t great either considering the price, I expected more from the lemon cake and the chocolate mousse which was quite liquid.
Next to the restaurant there was a snack bar where they made toasts and French fries and some salads.
Praia do Evaristo
After lunch we went to the beach Evaristo. We were especially excited about this beach, it is a beautiful smaller beach with lots of interesting rock formations, completely different from elsewhere.
Praia do Castelo
Then my dad and I went for a short walk along the coast. First we came to the beautiful beach Praia do Castelo.
Praia da Coelha
Then we continued to Praia da Coelha, which means “shell” beach. But we didn’t go down, it was still quite a long way to go and I still wanted to show this beach to my son, so we thought we would drive there in the evening. It was not possible to drive all the way to the beach, but it was necessary to park a short distance from the beach and walk to the beach. It is a very beautiful beach with a lot of shells, unfortunately a lot of them are broken, but you can find quite a lot of undamaged. They are really big, I haven’t come across such a large number of big schells elsewhere in Europe. But otherwise shells can be found on most beaches in the Algarve, but not so many.
At the end of the beach you can go through a small tunnel to the next small beach, it is relatively low, so you need to crawl on all fours.
On the way back we wanted to go to dinner, but either we came across again really luxurious restaurants, where the food started at 20 EUR and more, or it was full or we did not want to eat Indian cuisine in Portugal, but local cuisine, so we went on and we thought we would eventually eat in Portimão. Just before Portimão, I found Churrasqueira Brenda on Google. This was a restaurant for the locals, we were really the only tourists there and the prices were very cheap, but the food was good. So we came here for lunch and dinner the next day again. More information about prices and photos can be found in the Restaurant section.
Day 8
Sand city
The next day we went to Sand city, which I came across here when I saw the ads on the billboards. It is a complex with sand constructions that are really nice. You can find here, for example, sand sculptures representing various countries, including the Czech Republic (Karlštejn and the Astronomical Clock in Prague).
Furthermore, there are various characters from animated fairy tales and movies or various celebrities. At each place you can find an English-Portuguese description of what the statues represent.
Admission cost 11.9 EUR adult and 5.9 EUR child. Tickets can also be bought online, but we bought them on the spot. We really liked this place, I recommend it. There weren’t many people here in the afternoon, we were almost alone here.
Map – https://mapy.cz/s/lonukozuha
Web – https://sandcity.pt/
Portimão – Praia dos Três Castelos
We spent the rest of the day in Portimão on Praia dos Três Castelos beach. It is a beautiful beach with beautiful rock formations. I think this beach is the best for a child, in the water there is very fine sand, no stones and for a long time shallow, so ideal for a child. But otherwise all the beaches were fine for the child here.
Restaurace
Musím říct, že obecně úroveň restaurací je tady dobrá, nemůžu říct, že by nám někde nechutnalo.
Ceny jsou celkem v pohodě, dají se vybrat i levnější restaurace, kde se najíte za 8-10 EUR, ale samozřejmě záleží, v některých turistických lokalitách je běžná cena tak 12-15 EUR. Ceny už jsou většinou včetně přílohy. V restauracích mívají také „prato do día“ (jídlo dne), něco jako naše polední menu a to bývá levnější. Servis je tady dobrý, vždy si nás všímali, zda ještě něco nechceme, jestli je vše v pořádku a obsluha byla vždy velmi příjemná. Prakticky vždy rovnou nabízí předkrm, nějaké drobnosti jako nějaké jednohubky nebo pomazánky, nebo třeba olivy, většinou se to platí zvlášť tak se případně nebojte říct, že předkrm nechcete.
Tady je mapa s restauracemi, které jsme navštívili
Portimão
Churrasqueira do Ruca
Naše neoblíbenější restaurace v Portimão, kde jsme byli celkem 3x. Jídlo je zde opravdu výborné, za dobré ceny, velmi milá obsluha a o víkendu zde byla živá hudba. Ceny byly včetně přílohy a často i salátu. Posezení na zahrádce bylo také velmi příjemné, bylo teplo až do večera. Poprvé jsem měla pražmu (dourada), což bylo jídlo dne za pouhých 7,75 EUR (prato do día) a byla opravdu výborná.
Také zde měli výborného králíka, kuře piri-piri, hovězí espetadu (takový špíz) a tresku, vše tady bylo opravdu výborné. Tuhle restauraci opravdu doporučuju vyzkoušet.
Dourada assada com batatas (pražma) – 7,75 EUR
Frango do churrasco com piri-piri (kuře piri piri) – menší porce 6,50 EUR, velká 12 EUR (velká stačí pro 2)
Espetada de carnes (hovězí špíz) – 11,50 EUR
Coelho frito ao alhinho (králík) – 9,50 EUR
Restaurante Nave
I had very good sardines, and my parents had frango no churrasco and some pork cubes with potatoes, quite good but nothing special. But the prices were good here.
Sardinhas – 8,50 EUR
Frango no churrasco (grilled chicken) – 8,50 EUR
Carne de porco a Portugal – 10,50 EUR
Restaurante Mira Vau
Here, too, the prices were very good. I had a grill mix with french fries and my parents and my son had sardins and slice of chicken with mushroom. The food was good. An ideal place for lunch if you are looking for a restaurant near Praia do Amado.
Sardinhas assadas – 8,50 EUR
Grelhada mista de carne – 9,90 EUR
Escalopes de frango com congumelos (child menu) – 6,25 EUR
Parchal (close to Portimão)
Churrasqueira Brenda
This was a restaurant for the locals, we were the only tourists there and the prices were very cheap, but the food was good. So we came here for lunch and dinner the next day as well
Prices here are around 7-8 EUR for most meals and prato do día around 6 EUR and a dessert (pudding, it was like French creme caramel) for only 1.50 EUR. But otherwise do not expect any beautiful modern environment with nice equipment, it is really a very ordinary restaurant.
Lagos – Ponta da Piedade
Sol Nascente
This was the only restaurant on Ponta da Piedade, and since we wanted to go to the nearest beach from here, we decided to eat right here. I was surprised that this restaurant only has a rating of 2.9 on Google, but we liked it here. I had a very good cod, my son salmon and my parents wanted something smaller, so they had an omelette.
Bacalhau grelhado (cod fish) – 13,50 EUR
Salmão (salmon) – 12,50 EUR
Omeleta cogumelos – 8,50 EUR
Carvoeiro
Oasis
We enjoyed this restaurant a lot. I had an octopus, which was really great. My son had a chicken skewer with peanut sauce, which was also delicious. Skewers (espetada) are generally excellent everywhere, the meat has always been very tender and not dry. And my parents had pork medallions with mushroom sauce.
Polvo a lagareiro (octopus) – 15,50 EUR
Espetada de frango com molho de amendoim (chicken skewer with peanut sauce) – 13,95 EUR
Medalhões de porco com molho de cogumelos – 13,95 EUR
Casa Algarvia
We also really enjoyed this restaurant. I had tuna steak, my parents a skewer with bacon and this time my son chose a hamburger from the children’s menu. Everything was really great.
Atum a Algarvia com cebolada (tuna steak) – 14,50 EUR
Espetada de frango com bacom (chicken skewer with bacon) – 13,50 EUR
Hamburger com batata frita (hamburger from child menu) – 6,50 EUR
Vimar restaurante
This restaurant was also good, we had a chicken steak on mushrooms and sea bream. The appetizer was for free here.
Dourada grelhada – 13,50 EUR
Peito de frango com molho cogumelos – 9,50 EUR
Okolí Albufeira
Restaurante Evaristo
This restaurant was not the best choice, but we no longer wanted to spend time looking for a restaurant. It was a fish restaurant that wasn’t cheap and didn’t even have a menu, and all the fish was just in weight. And if a kilo cost about 70 EUR, then I’m a little afraid to have a big fish that will be very expensive, especially when I know that in other restaurants the fish cost 8-13 EUR. And apart from fish, they only had grilled chicken for 12 EUR and some expensive beef steak… So we chose chicken, it was not bad, but elsewhere I had significantly cheaper and better. So if you don’t want to spend too much, I don’t recommend this restaurant.
Frango (grilled chicken) – 12 EUR
Water – 3,5 EUR (the most expensive water we had, elsewhere the normal price was 1,50 EUR for 1,5 l)
Ice cream– 3,80 EUR
Torta de limão (lemon cake) – 4,5 EUR
Chocolate mousse – 4,5 EUR
Costs
Well, in the end this holiday was not the cheapest, per person 650 EUR, but we had relatively expensive flight tickets, an unnecessary cost for the Covid test, which I didn´t have to have if I was vaccinated but in that time I had just first dose. Also we went to restaurants for lunch and dinner, and we paid hotel in Vienna too, there is not always a need, so if you want to spend less on holidays, it would not be a problem. Especially in low season you can save a lot on flight tickets.
Here you will find a breakdown of costs for me and my son to give you an idea.
- Total– 650 EUR/person (16900 Kč/person
- Flight tickets – 8100 Kč (4050 Kč person)
- bus Gepard Express to Vienna (980 Kč) – 490 kc/osoba
- Accomodation Portimao – 280 EUR (140 EUR/person)
- Accomodation Vienna airport – Moxy hotel Vienna – 67,7 EUR (33,85 EUR person)
- Boat trip – Benagil caves – 25 EUR adult, 20 EUR child
- Sand city – 11,95 EUR adult, 5,9 EUR child
- Covid test (antigen) – 50 EUR (25 EUR person)
- Flixbus Vienna Brno – 933 Kč (466 Kč osoba)
- Restaurants – 281,42 EUR
- Food – 41 EUR
- Car rental – 56 EUR osoba (total for car 216 EUR)
- Petrol – 26,5 eur (17,75 Eur/person)
- Insurance – 0 Kč (I have insurance within my debit card even for my family)
Links
Flight tickets – https://www.skyscanner.cz/
Ryainair – http://ryanair.com/
Transport from Brno to Vienna – https://www.gepard.com/
Transport from Vienna to Brno – https://www.flixbus.cz/
Car rental Drive4Fun – https://drive4fun.pt/
Boat trip – Carvoeiro Caves – https://www.carvoeirocaves.com/passeios/tour-completo-benagil-praia-da-marinha/
Sand city – https://sandcity.pt/
For Czechs – situation regarding travelling to Portugal
Passenger locator card for Portugal – https://portugalcleanandsafe.com/en/passenger-locator-card
Current situation in Portugal
https://www.visitportugal.com/en/content/covid-19-measures-implemented-portugal
https://www.visitportugal.com/en/content/covid-19-frequently-asked-questions
https://covid19.min-saude.pt/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20210202_Postos-colheita.pdf (current Covid numbers based on regions)
Covid test Portimão – Hospital de São Camilo
https://www.grupohpa.com/en/covid-19-analysis/
https://www.grupohpa.com/en/covid-19-test-hpa-gambelas/ (link for reservation)
Rules for return to Czech republic
Public Health Passenger Locator Form for Czech republic – https://plf.uzis.cz/
Hotel Vienna – Moxy Vienna Airport
