Praia da Ilha de Faro

• In the town ofFaroFaro is the Algarve's capital and its most underrated stop: most visitors see only the airport, which is their loss. The old town, the Cidade Velha, sits inside a circuit of walls entered through the Arco da Vila, where storks nest on the stonework. Inside, cobbled lanes lead to the Largo da Sé with its orange trees, the cathedral with a tower view over the lagoon, and the municipal museum in a sixteenth-century convent. Beyond the walls, Faro works as a real city: the university keeps it young all year, the mosaic-paved pedestrian streets fill in the evenings, and the Igreja do Carmo hides the Capela dos Ossos, a chapel lined with the bones of monks from the old friars' cemetery. The city faces the Ria Formosa, and boats from the marina and the Porta Nova quay cross the lagoon to Ilha Deserta and Ilha de Faro, barrier-island beaches where the Deserta in particular keeps its space even in high summer. Faro suits people who want a city and a lagoon rather than a resort: real Portuguese life on the streets, proper restaurants, and beaches you reach by boat.

Praia da Ilha de Faro is the one Ria Formosa island beach you can drive to, a narrow strip of sand reached by a small bridge near Faro airport. The island is a slender bar between lagoon and ocean, houses and a road along its spine, with the Atlantic beach on the south side and the calm ria on the north. Cross the bridge and, within minutes of the airport, you are on open sand that stretches away for kilometres in both directions, quieter the further you walk. Its accessibility makes it Faro's everyday beach. It suits families, and anyone arriving or leaving who wants a last swim without a boat involved.

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