The Eastern Algarve — Ria Formosa and Tavira
Sixty kilometres of lagoon, barrier islands and salt — the half of the Algarve most visitors never reach.
Ria Formosa is a protected lagoon, not a beach resort.
A shifting chain of barrier islands and sandbanks runs from Faro to Cacela Velha, sheltering channels, salt pans and mudflats. It is a natural park and one of the most important bird sites in Europe — flamingos, spoonbills, and the purple swamphen that is the park's emblem. Clam and oyster beds are worked here commercially.
The islands take a boat, and that is the point.
Culatra, Armona, Farol, Tavira Island and Cabanas are reached by short ferries or water taxis. There are no cars. Beaches are long, flat and, outside July and August, close to empty. Culatra has a working fishing community rather than hotels.
Faro is more than an airport.
Behind the marina, the Cidade Velha sits inside its walls with a cathedral you can climb for a view over the lagoon and a bone chapel at the Carmo church. Olhão, next door, has the best market building on the coast and a North-African-looking cubist quarter behind it.
Tavira, and the salt.
Tavira straddles the Gilão on a bridge with Roman foundations, and keeps thirty-odd churches and a castle garden above the roofs. The salt pans outside town still produce flor de sal by hand, and the same water feeds the spa pools people now swim in. Cacela Velha, further east, is one white church, one wall and one enormous view.
When to go.
The east is warmer and calmer than the west, with sheltered water good for families. Spring brings the birds and the wildflowers on the sandbanks; September and October keep the sea warm with far fewer people.