Lagos

Lagos is a city in the Algarve which was in my opinion one of the highlights of my visit to Portugal. Because this place offers many different options to spend your vacation time in an enjoyable way. First of all, Lagos has a nice old town with good restaurants and is located near the beaches. On the beaches, you can relax but they invite you for a hike too. A lot of these beaches are connected to each other and there is a well-marked hiking trail. Because they are an element of a very scenic coastline that can be compared with the Twelve Apostles in Australia. The absolute highlight of this coastline are the cliffs of Ponta da Piedade. A walk from downtown Lagos to these cliffs is about half an hour.

In Lagos, many companies offer boat trips to Ponta da Piedade and Benagil. I did both excursions in one day. The first one to Ponta da Piedade is about 75 -90 minutes. The second one to Benagil lasts about two hours. Both are worth and have different kinds of nature. So the first one you can do in the morning and the second one in the afternoon after lunch. For Benagil you have to keep in mind the boat trip is done by speedboat which can get quite rough on the sea. In Benagil you can’t walk on the beach in the cave. If you want to enter this cave you will have to take your own transport to Benagil and rent a quite expensive boat over there to cross some sea.

Lagos is well-connected by train to the coastal cities in the Algarve like for example Faro, Albufeira, or Portimão. To Lisbon, your best connection is by bus and this journey will take about four hours.