Praia dos Salgados

• 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 dos Salgados stretches between Galé and Armação de Pêra, a dune-backed beach beside the Salgados lagoon and its birdlife. The Lagoa dos Salgados behind the dunes is one of the Algarve's best-known birdwatching sites, with flamingos among the species recorded, and boardwalks cross the dunes to the sand. The beach itself is long, open and Atlantic in feel, part of the unbroken run of sand between the two towns, with room even at the height of summer. There are no cliffs here, just dune, sand and sky. It suits walkers, birdwatchers and families who prefer space and openness to sheltered coves.