Praia do Zavial

• In the town ofSalemaSalema is what the western Algarve looked like before the volume went up: a small fishing village folded into a valley mouth, ending in a beach where the boats are still drawn up on the sand. It belongs to the parish of Budens in Vila do Bispo, on the quiet stretch of coast between Lagos and Sagres where planning protections have kept the building low and the coastline honest. The beach is the daily event: broad, gently shelving and Blue Flag awarded, with a short seafront where the restaurants grill fish landed a few metres away. At its eastern end, the tilted rock slabs hold something unexpected: dinosaur footprints, pressed into what was soft lagoon mud around 125 million years ago, and visible to anyone who knows to look. Beyond the village, the coastal path towards Burgau and Sagres gives cliff-top walking with barely another soul in sight for most of the year. There is no strip and no nightlife to speak of, and that is the point. Salema suits travellers who measure a place in swims, long lunches and early nights, and it rewards anyone who stays past the day-trip hours, when the village gets its beach back.

Praia do Zavial is a south-coast cove west of Salema, where a green valley opens onto sand and one of the region's best-regarded surf breaks. The beach faces south, so it catches swell wrapping around the cape while escaping the worst of the north-west wind, a combination surfers prize when the west coast is blown out. Rocky points frame the sand and the shore break can be heavy on bigger days. On calm summer days it settles into an ordinary, quietly attractive cove with room to spread out. It suits surfers above all, and swimmers who choose their day with care.