Monte Gordo

• Resort Town
• Lively
• Beaches
• Casino
• Family Fun
• €€

Monte Gordo is the eastern Algarve's resort town, minutes from Vila Real de Santo António and the Spanish border. It began as a fishing settlement, with boats launched straight off the sand, and grew into one of the region's earliest beach resorts; the high-rise front and the casino date from that first wave of tourism. The beach remains the argument: enormous, flat and golden, with sea that is among the warmest in Portugal and shelves so gently that the water stays shallow a long way out. Behind the town spreads a national pine forest planted to hold the dunes, laced with flat walking and cycling paths towards Vila Real de Santo António. The promenade runs the length of the front, lined with cafés, and fish restaurants work the streets behind. In summer the town fills with Spanish and Portuguese families; in winter it becomes a long-stay favourite for northern Europeans who come for the mild months and the level ground. It is not chic and does not try to be. Monte Gordo suits people who want warm sea, flat walking and a proper expanse of sand, with Spain and the Guadiana a few minutes up the road.