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Manta Rota's patron saint festival culminates in the Banho Santo, a costumed re-enactment of a holy bath on the beach.
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Manta Rota's summer festival runs for a week around the feast of Sao Joao Baptista, with free concerts and dancing each night in the square in front of the old casino building, now the local Arts and Crafts Centre. Acts vary from year to year but the format is constant: live bands and balls from Friday through to the closing Sunday.
The best-known moment is the Banho Santo on 29 August, when people dressed as montanheiros re-enact a historic beach bathing tradition, followed by a procession, open-air Mass in honour of Sao Joao Baptista, an evening ball and fireworks at midnight.
Every part of the programme is free to attend.
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A few minutes from the venue, and taking bookings or requests.
Grilled fish restaurant on the Manta Rota road, highly rated for tuna ceviche and whole sea bass, closed Mondays.
50 m from the venue
@restauranteofinalmente
Traditional Portuguese restaurant in Manta Rota serving Algarve cuisine since 1978.
100 m from the venue
Seafood house and lounge by Manta Rota beach, serving shellfish, fish and grilled meats from 11:00 to 23:00, Tuesday to Sunday.
300 m from the venue
Beachfront restaurant at Praia da Manta Rota, open daily for lunch and dinner.
600 m from the venue
Beachfront restaurant at Praia da Alagoa in Altura, Mediterranean and Portuguese home cooking a short walk from the sand.
2.1 km from the venue
Restaurant in Altura open since 1981, serving lunch and dinner in a seaside village with landscaped walkways. Closed on Tuesdays.
2.1 km from the venue
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A tiny whitewashed hamlet above a lagoon where, at low tide, locals wade across to an empty white sandbar. Cacela Velha is barely a dozen houses, a church and an old fort on a bluff at the eastern end of the Ria Formosa. The magic is below: when the tide drops, the lagoon empties to warm shallows and you can walk out to a long ribbon of white sand with clear Atlantic water on the far side. Oysters are farmed in the channels, and the view from the churchyard wall is one of the finest in the east Algarve. Park at Fábrica or above the hamlet, check the tide table before you go, and carry everything you need, as the sandbar has no shade or facilities.
A small waterfall and deep green lagoon hidden in the Asseca valley, a ten minute drive inland from Tavira. Fed by the Ribeira da Asseca, the falls drop over an ochre limestone ledge into a pool that local legend swears is bottomless. Generations of Tavira families learned to swim here, and on summer evenings you will still find people picnicking on the rocks while teenagers dare each other off the lower ledges. Wildfires and storms have battered the old walkways over the years, so the setting is rougher than the postcard suggests, which is exactly why it stays quiet. Park by the lane above Santo Estêvão and walk the last stretch down; go on a weekday morning for the clearest water, and carry your rubbish out.
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