Praia da Galé

• 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 Galé, west of Albufeira, is where the cove coastline ends and the long open sands begin, running unbroken towards Armação de Pêra. Its eastern section is classic central Algarve, low rocks dividing the sand into sheltered pockets, while westwards the outcrops give way to a wide, dune-backed beach that continues for kilometres past Salgados. That makes it two beaches in one, with easy access points along the low clifftop. The water is generally calm on the rocky side and more open further west. It suits families around the rocks, walkers heading west along the sand, and anyone who wants room to spread out.