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Published: December 6th 2014
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Portugal 2014 Our last trip of the year, 8 days in the Algarve.
We stayed in Portimão, about an hours drive from Faro airport if you avoid the toll roads, we hired a car for a change as it simply worked out easier to do so (driving on the right was rather weird for the first few hours lol)
We were very off season so alot of places were closed but it also meant that we had whole beaches to ourselves pretty much everyday and we got plenty of attention at bars/cafes and plenty of good deals and offers and even some free shots at bars who were without any customers during this period 😊
one of the best ones was the Irish Rover in Portimao, there were loads of Irish bars around but this was the only real one we went into (I mean it was actually owned and run by Irish people), they were from Cork city and very friendly and chatty, pretty much knew their life stories by the end of the night and got into quite a competitive game of pool with the owner (also got
a free shot of sambuca each) so it was a fun night (again we were the only tourtists there but the place had a bunch of Irish and English locals keeping it lively)
Having a car really helped as getting around, we visited quite a few different towns. Some I'd recommend would be Sagres (the fortress was very cool), Silves, Faro and definitely go see Carvoeiro (we spent a long time exploring around the caves and cliffs, maybe not for the faint hearted though, little cliff paths with no safety rails so be careful not to fall!).
Another place we loved was the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, it's a bit hard to find as it's out away from everything else, we had to actually use the places coordinates in the sat nav to find it (37°13′19″N 8°37′46″W) but we ended up going back again a couple days later for more outdoor karting, great fun and we were the only people in the place so it felt like the whole thing was our playground 😉
the weather was lovely most of the time, but it did get cold once the
sun was set each night (but still a lot warmer than England!).
Oh and I tried queijadinha cakes for the first time and loved them! Need to try and find some in London at some point 😊
Overall it was a beautiful place to relax for a week, I wouldn't recommend going at this time of year if you are after a party atmosphere as most clubs were closed and there just wasn't really anyone around but that was fine for us as we just wanted to get away for awhile and chill out, having nearly the whole Praia da Rocha beach to oursleves was amazing.
Would definitely go back again someday, though probably at a different season, we heard it's great at christmas when they set off fireworks along all the beaches 😊
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