Praia da Lota

Manta Rota

Manta Rota is where the Ria Formosa runs out: the barrier-island system that shadows the coast for tens of kilometres finally joins the mainland here, and from this point east the beach becomes one unbroken run of sand towards Monte Gordo and the Spanish border. The village, in the parish of Vila Nova de Cacela in the municipality of Vila Real de Santo António, is small and unshowy: low houses, a handful of restaurants behind the dunes, and a summer population many times the winter one. The beach is the reason to come, and it is a serious beach: wide and flat, with warm, calm water that shelves so gently you can wade out a long way, dunes at your back and space in both directions. Walk west along the sand and you reach the channel below Cacela Velha, one of the finest stretches of coast in the eastern Algarve; walk east and there is essentially nothing but beach until Spain. July and August bring Portuguese and Spanish families and the grills come out; by November the village is close to silent. Manta Rota suits pure beach people: no monuments, no marina, no strip, just sand, sea and lunch.