Portimão at the mouth of the Arade

1 brewery · 3 venues

Portimão lies at the mouth of the River Arade on the western Algarve coast, a historic fishing and shipbuilding town that has grown into one of the region's liveliest seaside cities. Golden beaches backed by cliffs, the Ria de Alvor lagoon, grilled sardines and boat trips along the coast make it an easy place to enjoy the south of Portugal.

People settled here very early: a few kilometres from town, at Alcalar, a prehistoric community lived about 5,000 years ago in a walled village beside a group of megalithic tombs, now a National Monument. The sheltered mouth of the Arade later became a small trading port for Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians, and the Romans left remains nearby at Quinta da Abicada. Under the Moors the river gave access to Silves, then capital of the Algarve, and in 1249 the Knights of the Order of Santiago took the area for the Kingdom of Portugal. Portimão became a town in 1435, protected from pirates by the Fort of Santa Catarina and, across the river, the Castle of São João in Ferragudo. Shipbuilding, fishing and, from the 19th century, fish canning drove the local economy, and in 1924 the town, until then called Vila Nova de Portimão, became a city during the presidency of the writer and politician Manuel Teixeira Gomes, one of the notable figures linked to the city.

Start with the Portimão Museum, housed in a former sardine canning factory by the river, which tells the story of the canneries, fishing, archaeology and the region's identity. Climb to the 17th-century Igreja Matriz on the highest point of the old town, with its late-Gothic portal, then head to Praia da Rocha, where the Fort of Santa Catarina, built in the 17th century on the site of a chapel to St Catherine, overlooks the beach and the sea. Out of town, visit the Alcalar Megalithic Monuments interpretation centre, where two of the tombs are open to the public.

Spend the morning in the old centre and the museum, the afternoon on the sand at Praia da Rocha or Três Castelos, and the evening by the river over a plate of sardines. Another day, take a boat trip along the coast, explore the Ria de Alvor, or walk part of the Via Algarviana. The marina sits at the Arade estuary, and the sea here is popular for sailing, windsurfing, diving and dolphin watching.

Portimão station is on the Algarve railway line, and the municipal Vai e Vem buses get you around town. The tourist office is in the old fish market building by the river.

After a day of beaches and boat trips, Portimão has 2 craft beer bars waiting. Rinse off the salt, find a seat and toast the Algarve sunset with a freshly poured glass.