Albufeira to Sagres….a day trip to the most southwestern point of Continental Europe

Portugal 2024, 2017

November 10, 2024

The previous evening we wandered into the Old Town for dinner at the Restaurante Solgamba which features a traditional menu… pleasant interior with ambient lighting (we hate overlit restos) and a friendly waiter. Curiously we found featured on the menu Ukrainian food > it turns out the waiter was the owner and Ukrainian. He, his brother and their families had emigrated to the Algarve many years ago (I am quite sure there is more to this tale)…from there on we conversed in a patois of Polish/Ukrainian. Although we did not partake of the Ukrainian fare we settled on Linguine with Shrimp and a Seafood Linguine with a rather good though modestly priced bottle of white wine > an absolutely excellent meal! Accompanying the bill was a beaker of Port compliments of the House which we “had” to consume …nice touch. With a parting “Slawa Ukraina” we meandered uphill to our digs…a lovely evening!

Restaurante Solgamba

Starter with tasty tune spread

Shrimp Linguine

A beautiful morning greets and we go into hurry-up mode to finish breakfast and get on our way. We have been waiting for a perfect day to visit the much-hyped Sagres area. There are two ways of driving between towns in the Algarve: on secondary roads or the paid highways…we found taking secondary roads to be quite slow and seldom particularly scenic so we have generally opted for the autoestrada, using the secondary roads when we want to visit additional towns, beaches etc, along the way. The Farol (Lighthouse) do Cabo de Sao Vicente is as far west as we can drive or fall off the edge of Continental Europe > 92 km and about 75 minutes of driving…

Following the A22 you arrive at Val do Bispo where, on a whim, we decided to drive to the Praiha Cordoama. Our son Steven had sent us an article describing some beaches in southwestern Portugal as some of the best in Europe. Although the ones noted were a bit far for this day trip we said, “Let’s take a look anyways”. It is only 5km outside of Val do Bispo along a narrow paved twisty road leading a mirador over the coastline …

….then followed by a 1 1/4 lane sharp descent to the beach:

Praia Cordoama

We saw a couple on the beach and the fellow had a fishing rod…. I asked if he spoke English…yup, from San Francisco, having moved to Northern Spain 25 years ago, his wife is Spanish and they spend winter in the Algarve…there is good shore fishing in the area….hmmm, next time the fishing gear comes with me. This is the type of beach we love and apparently, the area is sprinkled with these jewels, many accessible with a normal vehicle. There are many trails along the cliffs some also leading to hidden beaches!!! Another day trip is warranted and if we return to the Algarve being closer to this area would be super cool.

Time was running so the next stop was the Farol do Cabo de Sao Vicente….you cannot access the lighthouse, but you can spend some time with the vendors and the view is great. About 1 km from the lighthouse is the Fortaleza do Beliche, built in 1632 on the site of an older fortress it cannot currently be entered due to erosion issues which raise safety concerns.

Farol do Cabo de Sao Vicente.

Cabo de Sao Vicente.

Fortaleza do Beliche

Sagres is a surfing mecca with the added benefit of being situated on two coasts: when the waves get too big on the west coast, you can still surf on the south coast, with protection from the wind and the very big swells. There are many beaches to choose from with waves suitable for the full range of surfers from beginners to pros. It was fun to watch this multinational fraternity in action… cars loaded with boards, and camper trucks occupying the parking lots with folks putting on their wetsuits, showering etc….lots of energy! We visited two such beaches: Praia do Beliche

Praia do Beliche Parking Lot

Praia do Beliche

…and then Praia da Mareta

We watched a father shepherd and his 3 kids into the water > the kids had florescent lime green tops on making them highly visible in the waves > smart father.,,they looked like they were getting the hang of it pretty quickly!

Praia da Mareta

All this gawking at the surfers left us hungry which can quickly turn to “hangry” so the wise course of action was to pass on visiting the Fortaleza de Sagres….well actually a great excuse to come back in a week or two. We headed back to Val de Bispo as we had read there was a very good Portuguese restaurant > Ribeira do Poco, so with high expectations we headed into this tipico resto, with seafaring decor > nice, the waiter was ok, and ordered the pratos do dia (it was Sunday mostltly Portuguese clients) a turbot with boiled potatoes, veggies and a small salad…well, we were underwhelmed, it had to be the smallest turbot in the ocean and of mediocre taste…..oh well, you can’t be right every time…and it wasn’t bad, just not great.

With that we took the slow road back to Albufeira stopping briefly in Salema and Luz, both very nice beachside communities, the latter in particular being quite busy with a very nice beach and boardwalk…we felt a bit done and took the autostrada home.

All in all a super day trip…