Happy Monday my babes! Let’s defrost by traveling through my second week in Portugal. My family, husband, & I had an awesome first week adventuring in & around Lisbon. This second week we headed south to Algarve (the southern region of Portugal). This area is home to Lagos, Faro, Albufeira, Sagres, & so many more little towns. This week for us was planned to be more relaxing & chill than the first. We rented a beautiful home with a pool in Albufeira about 15 minutes from the beach & downtown area, This was about a 3 hour drive from Lisbon.
It was my first time visiting Algarve, the natural beauty of the limestone formations all throughout the coast is breathtaking (pictures don’t do it justice). Downtown Albufeira is right on the beach, filled with restaurants, & bars. The nightlife is booming & there are people in-front of the bars & restaurants selling you to come into their place of business. This was something I wasn’t used to. I also noticed a lot of tourists from all of Europe. It was the last week of September & the weather was still perfect to go to the beach.
We arrived late afternoon on a Sunday we settled in & went downtown for dinner. The food throughout this second week remained the same with a variety of fishes & meat in my favorite dishes. Not being so close to downtown we picked up things at a local market to make breakfast at home in the mornings.
Our first adventuring day we headed to Lagos where we took a little boat tour of the limestone formations. We saw some historic sights from the water like a Roman bridge, little water pockets, & made out images like an elephant. Lagos is about a 30 minute drive from Albufeira, we had lunch there & headed to Sagres (about a 45 minute drive from Lagos). Sagres is the southern most part of Portugal. We went to explore the fort which is a huge maritime museum & includes a light house. It is literally a top this huge cliff & the sight is just stunning, miles & miles of ocean.
The second day trip a handful of us did this week was go to Sevilla, Spain! The drive was about a 2 hour drive from Albufeira. We rented bikes & rode around this fabulous city taking in all the sights. This was my first time to Spain & this little taste gave me the desire to visit again. This was a great active day which ended with beers for the guys, rosé for me. To be honest, I enjoyed the rosé more in Spain than Portugal it was drier whereas in Portugal it tasted more buttery (if that makes sense).
The rest of the week was spent at the beach! We went to Praia de São Rafael & a couple others. The waves were great for body surfing. The last day I bought a blow up swan to surf the waves for only 15 euro, I named her Alexandria. We enjoyed the sun, played beach soccer, ate prosciutto sandwiches, & sipped fruity beach drinks like piña coladas.
Algarve was beautiful & relaxing. It was so great to just spend time with my husband & family soaking up the rays not thinking about the responsibilities back home. Vacation is such a valuable thing & it’s important to keep your sanity. We all work so hard it is nice to take time off to recharge.
Well babes, this concludes my Portugal vacation. We drove back to Lisbon & flew out on Saturday back to our dog, Audrey. It was a wonderful 2 weeks, we made a lot of memories & it was a trip to remember forever. Where will Ricky & I head next? We have been talking London, I’ll keep you posted. Till then tell me where some of you favorite vacations have been, I want to hear!
