Praia da Cova Redonda

• In the town ofArmação de PêraArmação de Pêra sits on the central Algarve coast between Albufeira and Carvoeiro, and its name tells its story: the armação was the great tuna net that fishermen from the inland village of Pêra once set off this shore. The fishing quarter survives at the eastern end of town, where wooden boats are still drawn up on the sand and the day's catch goes straight to the grills. The beach is the main event, one of the longest town beaches in the Algarve, running past the small old fortress on the seafront, with its chapel, then east towards Praia Grande and the Lagoa dos Salgados, a lagoon where flamingos and other waterbirds pull in birdwatchers all year. The town is honest about what it is: apartment blocks from an earlier era of tourism line the front, with a long promenade, cafés and seafood restaurants at street level. Head west and the sand gives way to ochre cliffs and cove beaches around the clifftop chapel of Nossa Senhora da Rocha. Armação de Pêra suits beach-first holidays: Portuguese families in August, long-stay northerners in winter, and anyone who rates sand and grilled sardines above polish.

Praia da Cova Redonda is a small cove at Porches, reddish cliffs and outlying rock stacks enclosing a sheltered pocket of sand. It sits just along from the Senhora da Rocha headland, reached by a stairway down the cliff, with rock formations rising from the water close offshore. The enclosed shape keeps the water calm in most conditions and gives the beach a contained, private feel despite the development above. High tide narrows the sand considerably, so a falling tide shows it at its best. It suits families with children who like calm water, snorkellers around the stacks, and those after a smaller alternative to the long beaches nearby.