Monchique

Caldas de Monchique Spa Woods

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.