Another week has flown by with both kids back in school. Luckily, this one was short since we had a four-day weekend for Labor Day. Friday, we left the house at 3 a.m. for our 5:50 a.m. flight to Faro, Portugal, in the Algarve region.
The flight to Faro was the first flight of the day, and we hadn’t gone to sleep very early the night before, so we were all exhausted. Although our flight was scheduled for 5:50 a.m., we ended up being delayed. The flight crew announced that we had to wait for the noise ordinance that expires at 6 AM to pass before the engines could be fired. So German!
We landed in Faro at about 9a.m and picked up the rental car. We drove through downtown Faro, had breakfast at McDonald’s, and then headed towards the hotel, stopping at Decathlon on the way (we can’t resist stopping!) to pick up some beach toys and water shoes.
We were pleasantly surprised when we finally made it to the hotel. We were staying at a hotel that Marriott had just taken over, called the Residences at Salgados. All rooms at this hotel were apartments, and we ended up with an enormous two-bedroom. The resort had 10 pools spread out across the property, so we were never crowded among other people at the pool. It felt like we had our own private pool at most times!
We were all so tired from our early morning flight, so we laid in pool chairs and swam all afternoon until we could get into our room around three, then it was time for a nap.
When we woke up, the kids were both still sleeping and didn’t want to get up, so Matt and I grabbed dinner at the Marriott hotel next door’s Asian-style restaurant. The food was OK, but the best part was the view from the rooftop terrace, where we watched the sun set.
The next morning, we were up bright and early again. This time we were going to Benagil to kayak to the world-famous caves. We were on the first kayaks of the day at 7 a.m. A friend recommended going early to avoid crowds entering and exiting the caves and on the water and this ended up being great advice.
The tour’s first stop was in the largest and most famous cave. It is huge and has a massive opening in the ceiling that lets light in and turns the water bright green; it is beautiful! The one downfall to coming so early was that there was not as much light streaming through the opening at the top of the cave, so it was not as lit as I’ve seen in other pictures.
We continued the kayak tour along the coast, seeing other famous caves, including the Gorilla and Crocodile caves, and rock formations like the Heart Rock.
Then we stopped at the beach, Praia da Corrdoura, for a break for our legs. Ryan played in the water and the rest of us walked along the beach until it was time to return to the marina.
As we kayaked back to the marina, we saw how crowded it was with other kayakers and boaters. Trying to kayak between them to get back to where we started, you can see why starting early was beneficial.
After we had returned our kayaks, we went on a hike on the Seven Hanging Valleys Trail, where we could see the caves and the ocean from the cliffs above.
It was getting close to lunch, and we were starving, having been up since 6 a.m. At the end of the kayak tour, the guide had recommended a Brazilian all-you-can-eat restaurant called Master Chef for a great price. We stopped and had a fantastic meal for only €11 a person. Then we headed back to the pool for an afternoon of laying out.
That evening, we had dinner at an Italian restaurant down the street from the hotel called Bellavita.
We allowed ourselves to sleep in a bit before heading to Lagos on Sunday for another boat tour. This time, though, we were riding, not kayaking.
The boat tour took us around the Ponta de Pieda and the famous rock formations around the coast of Lagos. The rocks were really cool and definitely a geologist’s dream. The guide was so funny and kept us all laughing with the names of the rocks and the stories behind them.
It was a little cloudy during our boat tour, so we didn’t get the full effect of the bright green water, but it was still a perfect hour on the boat.
After the boat tour, we walked around the cliffs and took pictures of the rocks from the hiking trails above.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at another restaurant, Wok Algarve, recommended by the kayaking guide. It is a huge Chinese buffet, and the food was so good! They had everything from sushi to lo mein to stir-fry dishes. We left absolutely stuffed!
We returned to the hotel, changed, and headed to the beach. I had been begging to go the whole trip, and the family finally obliged me. It took a lot of effort to get there. First, we had to wait for a shuttle and then ride the shuttle down to a parking lot. Then, it was an almost 10-minute walk down a boardwalk to the beach.
When we finally got there, we found some loungers with umbrellas, which were great. Ryan headed straight to the water and came back really quickly, exclaiming about how cold it was. We came here in late August because so many friends I talked to about the cold water in Portugal, and we thought it would be warmer. Because it is the Atlantic Ocean and we are pretty far north, it doesn’t actually warm up. It’s a shame because we really loved the Algarve so far and wanted to love the sandy beach!
After about an hour, we decided it would be better to return to the pool, so we made the long journey back to the resort and spent the rest of the afternoon there.
For our final dinner, we drove into Albufeira to an oceanfront restaurant called The Beach Basket. It was hilarious trying to find a parking spot and driving through the tiny streets of Albufeira. Our car was so small and had such a small engine that if we had to stop going uphill, we had a really hard time getting started again, and people were running and jumping out of the way as Matt revved the engine and lurched up the hill. 😂 Dinner was great, and there was a beautiful sunset.
On Monday, our flight was probably the last flight of the day returning to Stuttgart. The hotel let us hang out by the pool all day, and we left around 4p.m. for our 7p.m. flight. Our flight ended up being delayed again, and we didn’t land until after midnight and didn’t get home until around 1 a.m. The alarm definitely came way too early on Tuesday morning!
We all loved the Algarve so much! We even said as we were pulling away from the hotel, that we were sad to leave! This is a little strange because we don’t usually allow ourselves to become too attached to anywhere we visit. We’re always going so many places that it’s hard to find places we love. The hotel and resort were great; The people of Portugal are so lovely, and if you avoid the very touristy areas, it’s actually relatively cheap to eat. The landscape and towns are also so beautiful, and we loved being back on a sandy beach after all of Europe’s rocky beaches.
We were in love and ready to buy a vacation property until we felt the freezing cold ocean, plus the flights to get there are pretty pricey. We would love to return, though, especially because a huge golf course is connected to the hotel that Matt didn’t even get to try out. It would be a really fun group trip in the future, or just to come back and hang out by the pool again!
Gilcrests Abroad 