It’s not easy getting from northwest Colorado to . . . just about anywhere, especially the southern coast of Portugal. After twenty-six hours of travel, with a stop in London, we arrived in Faro, the capital of the Algarve region, and bleary-eyed, we dragged ourselves out of our hotel room after checking in 7:00pm to stretch our legs by wandering along the town’s waterfront, eventually finding a seat at a table inside O Coreto, a welcoming cafe overlooking the towns marina. The servers were friendly, smiled at our feeble attempts at Portugeuse and insisted on using English to recommend some dishes and take our drink order. After a couple sips of cold and crisp white wine we began to come out of the travel ‘funk’ and started to feel human again. Then the platter of steamed clams, fried potatoes, salad and grilled bread arrived and we were invigorated. We were impressed by the delicious food and delectable wine and that set the table for our expectations of the important things to come – food and wine. A good nights sleep followed and we were ready for some sightseeing the following day. It doesn’t take long to see the main sights – the Arco da Vila (the arched entry to the old town), Igreja de Santa Maria (the 16th century cathedral that looms over the square of the same name), and the cobbled streets of the walled town, as well as another walk along the marina left us plenty of time to relax at the Olde Tavern with mugs of Sagres beer and glasses of white wine to wash down the chilled octopus salad and platter of leafy greens, veggies and local cheese. Another night of sleep got our internal clocks adjusted to local time and we were ready to pick up our rental car and head to the beach.

Our first Portuguese meal sets a high bar

Colorful tins of preserved fish (of all varieties) at a shop in Faro

Storks nesting above the Arco da Vila, Faros

Lagos, our home for the next five days, can get pretty busy during the high season. But in late April, we felt like we had the entire three-mile stretch of Maia Praia, the main beach across the Bensafrim River from town, all to ourselves. Just behind the beach a boardwalk traverses the dunes and provided the perfect opportunity for morning walks, easily reachable from our accommodation overlooking the sea. A handful of restaurants were nestled in the dunes, offering a bounty of fresh seafood, fantastic wine and cold beer. In town, along with the tourist crowds, were an endless array of restaurants, gelateria, gift shops and charming squares. A walk out to Ponta da Piedade, at the end of the peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic from Lagos town, provided plenty of viewpoints from which we admired the limestone pillars and cliffs that fronted the ocean. After the seven mile roundtrip we found a small pizza joint and feasted on southern Italian-style pizza, salad and wine. After strolling around the old town on another day we found a table at Adega da Marina, one of Lagos’ most famous fish houses, to dine on grilled sea bass and swordfish steaks. On evenings out at the beach we enjoyed stewed baby squids and grilled turbot at Quintal do Peixe and more grilled sea bass at Gaivota Branca. One day we drove west out of Lagos to Sagres on the southwestern tip of Portugal to visit the town and the lighthouse on Cabo Sao Vicente. In Sagres we couldn’t resist the smell of barbequed chicken over a charcoal fire and had an impromptu lunch before getting back in the car for a short drive to the seaside village of Salema. From the fishing village we walked a couple miles along the clifftops to Praia Boca do Rio before returning to town and finding the lovely little terrace of Olhos N Agua, right on the waterfront. It seemed wrong not to stop for a pitcher of sangria, munch on a bowl of olives and indulge in a starter of baked goat cheese topped with honey and toasted walnuts, followed by a bowl of linguine tossed with shrimp. And yes, it was all delicious. Everywhere we went we found fresh seafood at reasonable prices, friendly service and outstanding views. The Portuguese wines were lovely at prices that couldn’t be beat. Before I knew it Lagos had won me over.

There’s a lot of empty beach outside Lagos

The view over Maia Praia from our rental

The landscape at Ponte de Piedade

Looking back towards Salema while walking to Boca do Rio

Waterfront dining at Salema

All too soon our week on the Algarve was coming to a close. We loved the lack of crowds during the shoulder season, but would have loved for it to be just a bit warmer (temps hovered around the low-to-mid 60’s) and for the wind to have died off (there was a definite chill to the north winds that were blowing) so we could’ve enjoyed that uncrowded beach a bit more. Alas, as we loaded the rental car for our drive out to the wild western coast of the Alentejo region, the wind did die off and we departed under a cloudless sky. Hopefully that’ll hold out until we return for our final three nights in another week and a half. In between we’ll undertake a coastal walk in the Alentejo, visit a medieval hilltop village north of Lisbon and explore the Douro Valley before our return to the Algarve.

A pour of complementary port wine from a very large bottle into very small glasses following dinner at Gaivota Branca