Why this distinction? Well because of the way in which the payment options have been implemented, it’s relatively easy – even if annoying – for Portugal residents to pay the tolls but for those who come into the country from abroad there are numerous problems to solve.

In case you’re arriving from Spain in a foreign registered car

At the border on the A22 you’ll find automatic vending machines from which you can rent a transponder by entering your car’s registration number as well as your credit card number. When you return you can drop off the transported at the last service station in Olhao where you’ll get part of the original cost refunded. The tolls are charged to your credit card and in case the vending machine is busy you can also rent a transponder at the Olhao service station. You can also rent the transponders at any Post Office as well as from the Faro Airport Post Office.

There are also some other alternatives in the form of pre-paid passes which you can purchase from any Post Office.

In case you’re planning to employ Faro Airport car hire services

This has been a major problem ever since the tolls were applied with rent a car companies having been in discussions with the government for several months but a solution might be close to being implemented.

Basically the rental car companies will be installing transponders in all their cars, which will add 1.5 Euros per day to your rental costs, plus the tolls of course.

You’ll be better served to talk to your car rental provider about the details related to the A22 tolls, because information is constantly changing because nobody is happy with the current system and the authorities are trying to deal with it.

Everybody is taken aback by this decision, residents, visitors and shop-owners alike.  Shop-owners especially are quite vocal about it because they claim that the idea is not only not lucrative but it is actually causing losses, alleging that restaurants are seeing less traffic adding that paid parking is also putting potential shoppers off.

This idea was challenged last year when a group of shop-owners from the up-market Quinta Shopping and the adjacent Bougainvillea Plaza shopping malls joined together and when to the mayor of Loule.

The meeting resulted in the idea of taxing parking spots being withdrawn much earlier than planned and the group thought that the concept was completely scrapped, apparently they thought wrong.

On the other side of the coin, the administrator of the municipal company which manages public parking has said that the idea of taxing the mall parking was meant to guarantee the availability of parking places for the more demanding clients on a permanent case.

He continued to explain that 75 percent of all parking is still free of charge for any client or employee at all times, even when considering the fact that there is demand for parking in the area which far exceeds the availability of existing spaces, so the system was implemented in order to guarantee some free parking spots – 85 spots – for those demanding clients who are also willing to pay in order to ensure they can park their cars as close to the entrance as possible.

However, the authorities in Albufeira have started a campaign to alert all beach-goers about the problem of possible cliff-falls, the campaign will be active till the end of August.

This campaign will be carried out across all the major Albufeira beaches so as to inform visitors about how to prevent accidents as well as warn them about various other hazards. The municipality authorities are distributing bilingual pamphlets and bracelets as well as organizing informative sporting activities in order to raise awareness about the potential dangers.

The authorities have been taking this problem very seriously for a long time, and they have been preparing the terrain long before the bathing season actually started. Quite a few controlled rock demolitions were conducted under the supervision of the environmental authorities in order to prevent as many possible accidents during the summer as possible.

The main alderman for the Albufeira civil protection – Carlos Quintino – stressed in a statement that despite the very active efforts of the authorities to minimize these risks, nature is still unpredictable – and so is human nature we might add – so respecting the warning signs is absolutely necessary.

We mentioned earlier that the Albufeira authorities have been looking at the problem for a long time, and 2013 will be marking the fourth consecutive year in which the ‘Proteja-se das Arrivas’ campaign will be organized by the Civil Protection of Albufeira.

For a bit of history, the campaign started because of the collapse of a part of a cliff on the Maria Luisa beach in Albufeira – four years ago – which killed five people, the gravest accident registered on Algarve beaches. If you want to visit Algarve beaches we suggest that you take an private Albufeira transfer so you can enjoy the best holiday.