Dramatic Coastline of Lagos, Portugal

The Algarve region of Southern Portugal is known for its pristine beaches. Lagos is one of the largest coastal towns of Algarve and is known of its dramatic coastline and rock formations. We spent two days in Lagos and loved every bit of it. We saw some of the most amazing cliff formations ever! Since it was November, we couldn’t really swim in the sea but that gives us good reason to be back in warmer months! On the brighter side, it was really less crowded and peaceful.

How to get there: The best way is to take the morning train from Lisbon which takes about 3 hours and 40 minutes. You will have to change at Tunes to the slower, regional train. Our train from Lisbon to Tunes was delayed but the Tunes-Lagos train waited for us. So if you have booked both tickets in advance and one train gets delayed, do not worry!

Where to stay: We stayed at Villas D. Dinis which is a 5 min walk from Camilo beach and a 10 min walk from Ponta Da Piedade. We have fabulous stay and the staff went out of their way to make our stay comfortable.

How to get around: Its a small town so you can manage to walk around if you fitness levels are decent and you don’t land up there in the middle of summer. Otherwise, there is Uber and it is cheaper than hailing a taxi.

Itinerary

Day 1: We reach around noon at Lagos train station and were picked up by the hotel staff. After a 15 minute ride we checked into our room, freshened up and walk to Cafe MAR for a lovely lunch with views of the Atlantic ocean.

They best way to appreciate the dramatic coastline is to hike from the cafe all the way to Ponta Da Piedade. This hike will take you through many beautiful beaches, the most prominent ones being Praia Do Pinhao, Praia Dona Ana and Praia do Camilo. We started after lunch and reached Ponta da Piedade in time for a gorgeous sunset. Ponta Da Piedade is an amazing natural cliff formation and perhaps the most photographed cliffs of Lagos.

It was an absolutely wonderful hike in that cool weather. The landscape was brilliant and the water a beautiful deep blue. I even managed to get into the water and get my feet wet! Apparently, Atlantic waters are colder at 17 degrees celsius even in the summer.

Day 2: After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we went to Camilo beach. Its a very picturesque beach and you can easily identify it through the staircase that leads to the beach.

We then went to Lagos marina for our grotto tour. This tour basically takes you on a speed boat to the grottoes of the coastal cliffs including Ponta da Piedade. We went almost till the end of the rocks until all we could see was the vast ocean and the driver informed us that if we keep sailing we will reach Africa! It was a truly fascinating tour especially the parts where we went inside the grottoes. While coming back, we came at super high speed and it was such a fun ride.

 

We then wandered around the beautiful Lagos town centre– just loved the pastel colours! After a nice seafood lunch at Adega Tipica A Forja, we went back to the hotel.

We were picked up by our guide, Sandros, from the Sagres Discovery tours in his jeep for our sunset tour. Sagres was considered as the end of the world due to its location as the extreme South west point of  European continent. The we first drove to the Sagres lighthouse. the drive itself was pretty scenic and the lighthouse has some amazing views of the cliffs and the Atlantic ocean.

After this, the trip became truly off the road as we saw a hidden surf beach and had a picnic watching the sunset at a very special location. I don’t know the name of the beach so I named it black pebble beach due its shiny, black pebbles. Reaching this beach on your own can be quite difficult and there are no directions to it!

We were at the edge, there were stunning cliffs on either sides and the bright orange sun was dipping into the blue Atlantic ocean. It was one of the most memorable evenings and we enjoyed it with delicious chorizo sandwiches and wine.

We dropped back to our hotel and we bought some croissants and fruits for our breakfast next morning since we had an early morning train to Porto,

Lagos was great in every way- beautiful, great food and very nice people. I am definitely coming back again to swim in those unspoilt beaches!