Start from 36 curated places around Algarve, PT, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Restaurante Marisqueira Rui
A no-frills seafood institution in the centre of Silves that draws regulars from across the Algarve for its cataplana, whole grilled fish, and fresh shellfish. The room is simple — tiled walls, paper placemats — but the tank of live lobster and the speed at which tables turn over tell you everything. It's been operating since the 1970s and the quality hasn't slipped.
Vila Velha
The consistently best restaurant in Sagres — a small room with a garden terrace that serves an honest Portuguese-Mediterranean menu with several genuinely good vegetarian options, which is rare in this corner of the Algarve. The kitchen uses local fish and regional produce, and the wine list is well-curated for a town this remote.
Trails & outdoors
Percurso dos Sete Vales Suspensos (Seven Hanging Valleys Trail)
The Algarve's signature clifftop walk — an 11.5km linear route along the coast between Praia da Marinha and Praia de Vale Centianes, passing over seven collapsed sea caves that create dramatic vertical drops to hidden beaches below. The trail is consistently rated among Europe's most beautiful coastal walks. Limestone arches, natural tunnels, and the occasional sea cave visible from above.
Fisherman's Trail (Trilho dos Pescadores — Rota Vicentina)
The southern section of the Rota Vicentina follows the Atlantic shore of the Vicentine Coast Natural Park — a rugged, unspoilt coastline where surfers, fishermen, and migrating birds are your company. The full route runs 226km from the Alentejo to Lagos, but the 3–5 day southern section between Vila do Bispo and Lagos is the most dramatic: sheer cliffs, hidden beaches, and track cut from red earth with no development in sight.
Things to do
Museu de Portimão
A prize-winning museum housed in a former 19th-century sardine and mackerel cannery on the Portimão riverfront — the original canning machinery is still in place and walk-through dioramas recreate the production lines with sound and light. The museum covers both the industrial history of the cannery and 5,000 years of Algarvian archaeology across two buildings. One of the best regional museums in Portugal.
Museu Municipal de Faro
Faro's archaeological museum inside a 16th-century convent in the old town — the cloister garden is quiet and beautiful, the Roman collection is strong (particularly a 3rd-century floor mosaic of Oceanus), and the temporary exhibition space hosts the best contemporary art shows in the Algarve. One of the most peaceful hours you can spend in the region.
Landmarks & sights
Ponta da Piedade
A dramatic headland south of Lagos where ochre limestone cliffs collapse into arches, sea stacks, and turquoise grottos — some of the most photographed coastline in Portugal. You can walk the clifftop boardwalk for the bird's-eye view or take a small wooden boat to float inside the sea caves at water level. The cave interiors are best in morning light when sun streams directly in.
Castelo de Silves
The best-preserved Moorish castle in southern Portugal, built of deep-red sandstone on a hill above the town of Silves — the former Moorish capital of the Algarve. Inside the ramparts you can walk the full circuit of the walls and look down over orange groves and the Arade River valley. The archaeological museum underneath the castle courtyard has Roman and Islamic artifacts found on-site.