Discovering Portugal: road trip on the Southern Coast

Although I have already written two posts about our experiences in Portugal (Lisbon, Porto), everything started with a one-day road trip on the Southern Coast. We were on holidays in Islantilla, a coastal area in the South of Spain, very close to the Portuguese border, when one morning we spontaneously decided to get into the car and drove a good 160 km along the ocean. Our goal was to reach the westernmost point of the peninsula, or in other words the edge of Europe, but we stopped our trip at Lagos and its beautiful beaches.

As always, we left a little bit later than expected but with great enthusiasm and a hot sunny weather. I remember the sun heating constantly on my side, so by the time we arrived to Lagos my thighs, my right arm and my right cheek got a refreshing red colour.

We didn’t go right until Lagos though, but had a longer stop in the small town, Tavira with a population of 26000 inhabitants. It is a lovely place that looks really Mediterranean with its colourful houses, narrow streets and hanging ropes between the walls with a bunch of drying clothes on them. Besides exploring the place a little, we had a delicious lasagne in one of the city’s Italian restaurants. Being in Portugal, we should have probably tried something traditional, but when coming across an Italian restaurant, we just couldn't say no.

Then we got back on the road and decided not to stop again until we reach our final destination. However, we needed some advice regarding which beach to choose, so we tried to ask for directions once in a while. We were told to look for the place called Lagos as it had various fascinating beaches. So this is what we did.

We arrived around 4 pm and fortunately the weather was still amazing. I remember we tried to take a dip in the ocean, but it was freezing cold! Only stepping inside with my feet was literally hurtful. Still, I took a deep breath and dived into the water for about 20 seconds. And that was enough. From that onwards, I was just sitting outside watching my boyfriend playing the cool in the ocean. It was a moment to remember.

Later, we found the Praia Dona Ana, where we were considering to pay for a short motorboat trip, but we didn’t have any money with ourselves, and so we had to run back to the car and get it. A little surprise was waiting for us there: a fine on the windshield. We got quite demotivated and by the time we got back to the beach, all the motorboats were gone.

Although we were slightly disappointed, we still had a great day behind us; we walked back to the car and left for Islantilla.

I believe the pictures can tell how amazing the places we have been to are.

Photo gallery