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The Algarve's animation film festival returns for its fifth edition across Faro, Castro Marim and Olhão, 24 to 27 September.
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ANIMAGORIA is the Algarve's own animation film festival, the self-styled Festa do Cinema de Animação do Algarve, and its fifth edition runs from 24 to 27 September 2026 across three towns: Faro, Castro Marim and Olhão. Over four days the festival brings animated cinema out of the big cities and into the region, with screenings and a student film competition at its core. The 2026 edition carries a pointed theme. Its striking poster, by artist Ibon Adarne, answers the question "what do you think of when you think about the future?", and the festival frames this year around human connection in artistic creation: in an era of mass artificial intelligence tools, what place can animated film hold, and how can art keep cultivating sensibility, imagination and critical thinking? Student film submissions have already closed, and the full programme, venues and session times are still to be announced. Keep an eye on the festival's site and social channels for the line-up as September approaches.
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Flat lagoon-side tracks between Faro airport and Quinta do Lago where flamingos feed in old salt pans. The Ludo estate is the Ria Formosa at its most generous: former salinas and freshwater ponds threaded by sandy service tracks that anyone can walk or cycle. Flamingos are the headline act and are present most of the year, joined by spoonbills, black-winged stilts and, in the pines, chameleons you will almost certainly not spot. The route connects to the São Lourenço birdwatching trail, so you can make a morning of it, and the airport runway makes a surreal backdrop for photographs. Start from the dirt road off the Praia de Faro bridge or from the Quinta do Lago side, go early for the light, and bring binoculars.
The southernmost tip of mainland Portugal: an uninhabited barrier island of white sand and shell banks, a short boat ride from Faro. Ilha Deserta, officially Ilha da Barreta, has no town, no cars and a single restaurant by the jetty. Most visitors settle within sight of it, which is why we send people the other way: follow the boardwalk or the tideline south-west towards Cabo de Santa Maria and within fifteen minutes you have kilometres of beach to yourself, with shell drifts underfoot and the whole Ria Formosa at your back. Boats run from Faro's old town pier year round, more often in summer. There is no shade beyond the restaurant, so take an umbrella, water and a hat, and note the time of the last boat back.
The long wooden footbridge across the Ria Formosa at Quinta do Lago, at its best in the hour after sunrise. By mid morning this boardwalk is a procession of beach bags, but at dawn it belongs to herons, joggers and whoever bothered to set an alarm. The bridge crosses lake, marsh and dune on its way to Praia da Quinta do Lago, and the low light across the wetland is the closest the Golden Triangle gets to wilderness. Anglers work the channel below, and the São Lourenço nature trail begins by the lake if you want to extend the walk. Park at the Praia da Quinta do Lago car park at the end of the avenue; arriving before eight in summer also means beating the parking queue.
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