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Trip report for Algarve, Carveiero Portugal, SPECTACULAR!

From, first time Europe traveler., mother and daughter...
Traveled here from Seville. We chose to hire a private car as there is no train and the bus trip was long. So took Day Trippers service which picked us up at our hotel in Seville and took us to Faro where I rented a car. Our driver was Rosa, she is from Lisbon, lives in Faro. So enjoyed taking with her and learning more about the the area, the drive was almost over too soon. My daughter and I spent two nights here the first of November. Stayed at the O'Castelo Guest House. Fabulous terrace with beach and Atlantic ocean view. Great little breakfast served in picnic baskets at our door to take out to our terrace overlooking the beach and ocean. Cute little town with a nice boardwalk up over the cliffs. The first night we had dinner at O Cantinho, a traditional Portuguese restaurant as recommended by our host at the guest house. Dinner started with a complimentary glass of a sparkling peach wine, pretty good, not too sweet, I had Monkfish rice, oh, soooo good. After desert we had a complimentary glass of port, not my favorite type of drink but it hit the spot. next day we woke up and there was this great sunrise, but looking at the beach the waves seemed enormous. We walked down to the beach and the power of the ocean and the waves was awesome. We then drove to Praia Da Marinha and hiked the first half of the Seven Hanging Valley Trail, Hiking above the cliffs, spectacular rock formations below. At the time we did not know that that there was an severe weather alert on the coast for 15 meter waves, but it was not really windy, actually it was pretty sunny and very pleasant, 68 degrees. All along the trail people kept saying wow did you see that! We did not hike the whole trail, we went about half way. Mostly pretty easy, but there were a few spots where going up or down over rocking areas was a bit challenging and you are very much going to hike from above the cliffs down to the beach. The half way trip took us about 4 hours, lots of picture taking. Later in the afternoon I dragged my daughter down to the beach, being from the Pacific NW, we are accustomed to cooler ocean temperature waters, the water temperature here was much warmer, but standing on the beach and seeing those 30 plus foot waves hitting the shore right in front of us was just amazing, almost knocked us on our butts a few times. The next day we drove to Lagos and walked the board wall/ It was nice, but not nearly as rugged, wild and scenic as what we experienced staying in Carveireo. If you are going to go to Portugal, which I loved, highly recommend this town and the Algarve, at least in the late fall, probably crazy in the summer.

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Carvoeiro is lovely and not over busy even in summer. It mostly offers self catering accommodation appealling to families so it’s always quite a chilled out place.

The Algarve doesn’t have loads of big historical sites but it’s a great place for a relaxing holiday.