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Monchique market on the second Friday of the month — regional handicrafts, smoked sausages, medronho and mountain produce.
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Spots found by members, the town’s own circle, and people who answer whatever you want to ask.
A tiny spa hamlet in a wooded mountain valley, taking the waters since Roman times and shady in the fiercest August. Caldas de Monchique gathers around a sloping square where the buildings are pastel, the tree canopy is deep and the only sounds are birdsong and running water. People have come for the springs for some two thousand years; King João II arrived in 1495 hoping the waters would cure him. Above the square, the thermal park climbs the stream in a series of pools, bridges and follies, and paths continue up into the eucalyptus and cork woods. It is the Algarve at its most unhurried. Park in the lay-by on the main road and walk down into the hamlet; mornings smell of wood smoke and wet leaves.
A necropolis of 5,000 year old monumental tombs in farmland behind Alvor, with a walk-in burial mound at its heart. Alcalar was the ceremonial centre of a Copper Age community that farmed this corner of the Algarve, and restored Monument 7 is the showpiece: a stone mound with a low passage leading to a corbelled chamber, engineering from around 3000 BC that you can peer into from the entrance corridor. Several more tombs lie around it in various states of excavation, and a small interpretation centre sets the scene. Few people come, so you will likely share the site only with larks and the wind. It is signposted from Mexilhoeira Grande off the N125; combine it with lunch in Alvor or Figueira.
Silves' whitewashed old bridge and the riverside beneath the castle, best at low tide when egrets stalk the Arade mudflats. Everyone climbs to the red castle; far fewer linger on the river. The multi-arched Ponte Velha, medieval on older foundations and long nicknamed the Roman bridge, still carries foot traffic across the Arade, and the banks around it are Silves at its most local: anglers, café tables, market mornings and storks clattering on the chimneys. At low tide the river drops to channels where egrets and waders feed, with the castle and cathedral stacked above the whitewash behind. Cross to the south bank in late afternoon for the view back over town, then take a table near the municipal market as the light turns orange.
The town circle
Ask the locals, share what’s on and keep up with life in Monchique.
Ask it here. People who live in the Algarve answer, and no question is too small.
Oil paintings of the Algarve coast and landscape by self-taught artist J. Eduardo, free to visit at Lagoa's Convento de São José.
Centro Ciência Viva de Tavira runs free night-sky viewing on Praia do Barril from 21:00 on 6 August 2026.
A ten day crafts fair fills Tavira's riverside Rua do Cais with traditional trades and live demonstrations.
Weekly colour parties with free colour shots, face painting and giveaways every Friday at Matt's Bar in Albufeira, July to September.
by Matt's Bar