CENTRAL COASTING
The central coast is home to sprawling waterfront resorts like the gorgeous 192-room Lake Resort Hotel, as well as world-class golf courses—the setting for the 2007 Portugal Masters. But while Vilamoura’s maze of Mediterranean-style high-rises built around its marina seems to trap tourists in its circles, the Moorish town of Albufeira, eight miles to the west, has old-world charm. The town’s hilly streets lead to a spectacular beach, the gold-sand Praia des Pescadores, which stretches out below a rugged cliff topped with bright white houses. The seaside cafés are ideal for a midday beer or coffee, but for a full meal, head inland to the more modern “new Albufeira.” Três Palmeiras, a tiny, unassuming restaurant, serves excellent fish dishes like giant prawns and monkfish kebabs on rice.

The town of Galé, four miles west, is so small that its few visitors seem to have accidentally stumbled upon it. The simple beachside restaurant at Praia de Galé hums with happy multilingual chatter. Servings are big: $8 will buy you a plate of six large charcoal-grilled sardines doused with olive oil and crunchy sea salt—glistening like copper in the sunlight—plus a couple of beers and a mixed salad. For a more sophisticated and likely unforgettable meal, try the elegant Vila Joya hotel, about 100 meters up the road. Here, at Portugal’s only Michelin two-star restaurant, Austrian chef Dieter Koschina uses local ingredients for gourmet dishes like a salad of pigeon on truffled black salsify and sautéed duck liver—served in a garden bursting with hibiscus and lavender. A five-course tasting menu easily extends to 10 with surprise treats from the chef.

EASTERN PROMISES
The less-developed eastern Algarve is exquisitely low-key—except for busy Faro, the region’s administrative capital. Faro’s palm trees line wide avenues of pastel-colored commercial buildings that evoke Miami but without the glitz. Eleven miles northwest, Loulé, like many Algarve towns, was nearly leveled by the earthquake of 1755 but still holds the remains of the gothic Church of Saint Clemente. The town landmark is the Moorish-style market hall, which reopened last year after a lengthy renovation. It’s a lively place to shop for handmade copper pots and leather belts, as well as fruit and sea salt.

Skip the less-than-inspiring border town of Vila Real de Santo António, and drive to the rural hamlets of Cacela Velha and Fábrica, about 10 miles west, which many locals don’t even bother to visit. Their austere farmlands and vineyards resemble the Portugal of 50 years ago. O Costa is a remarkable fish restaurant in Fábrica, set on a lagoon filled with tiny fishing boats. At the start of the meal, a waiter swings by with bread, sardine paste, a plate of olives—grown nearby—and a round of fresh goat cheese. (In Algarve restaurants, this is known as the couvert or “cover”—it costs about $2, and while you can easily refuse it, you might regret doing so.) Ask the waiter which fish is freshest—the skilled chef will grill it up with some potatoes.

Modernism came late to Tavira, the medieval center of the Algarve, where you can find 22 churches, a main square with the remains of an ancient amphitheater, and two pedestrian-only bridges connecting each side of town. The best view is from the top of the Tower of Tavira, which has been converted into a camera obscura—one of 100 left in the world—that projects real-time panoramic images of the town on a large screen while a guide narrates the history. For example, that magnificent yellow pousada was a convent, then a military base, before its $17-million transformation in 2006 into a luxury hotel. And those salt banks on the edge of town produce 6,000 tons a year of the world’s finest sea salt, once used to pay the army. (Portuguese dishes are often flavored with flor de sal—the highest-quality crystalline form.)

The most popular restaurant in town is the riverside Beira Rio, which serves steak and pizza. But residents agree that the best fish restaurants in the entire Algarve are five minutes away in the sleepy town of Santa Luzia de Tavira, also known as the “king of the octopus.” In summer, even the locals line up at the bare-bones basement restaurant Alcatruz for fantastic octopus salad and arroz marisco (seafood with rice).

ALL THE WAY WEST
In the western Algarve, the beaches are windier and more isolated. The port of Portomão is the home of the beloved Praia da Rocha resort. Luz, near Lagos, is a small but cosmopolitan beach resort where black volcanic rock rises from the sea. And the beaches in Alvor are quiet and often deserted. Among the many restaurants in this Arabic-looking hilltop town, the place to stop is Restaurant Búzio, known for its bacon-like black pork.

In the 16th-century town of Vila do Bispo, whitewashed walls are striped with bands of bright red and blue, and carved stonework decorates the doors and windows. Don’t let all the closed curtains deter you—the traditional restaurants here are blocking out the hot sun, not you. Café Correia, a cool, dark room frequented by regulars, serves some of the region’s best-prepared specialties, like frango (chicken grilled with spicy piripiri sauce). Their stews arrive steaming in the small pots in which they were cooked.

At the southwestern tip of Europe lies the unspoiled town
of Sagres, surrounded by cliffs that drop dramatically into the Atlantic. Because the shores here are shielded from the roughest seas, Sagres was a popular launching point for numerous early explorations, many initiated by Henry the Navigator and the school he started on the Cape of St. Vincent.

This cape is also home to one of Europe’s oldest lighthouses—which may or may not be open to the public, depending on the owner’s whim. Either way, it’s thrilling just to sit on the windswept cliff, watching seagulls glide by and imagining 14th-century pioneers pondering the mysteries lying beyond the horizon—which does indeed look like the flat end of the Earth.

The most exceptional restaurant in Sagres, Vila Velha, is a warm trattoria that casts a Dutch flavor on typical Portuguese dishes, like polenta made with the local wedge clams, and stuffed quail in a Madeira-raisin sauce. Down the road is Henry the Navigator’s 15th-century Fortaleza (scheduled for restoration in 2009), where you can wander past cannons, lookout points and fishermen casting from atop the cliffs. The gift shop sells first-rate history books—a rarity, since the Portuguese are notoriously mum about their not-so-victorious past.

“You can find more information in an American library,” says Clive Jackson, the technical director of Tavira’s camera obscura, who moved to the Algarve 15 years ago from England. “But there’s no question that this is the best place in the world—if you just want to relax.”