Tag Archives: pirate raids
Olhão guide
The city of Olhao is located in the eastern part of the Algarve, not far away from the capital of Faro, and is the largest fishing port on the Algarve coast. Similar to the other Algarve cities and resorts Olhao is rich with Moorish-style houses, however having been a port city for so long, it also shows influences from Africa thanks to its commercial links to the northern African coast.
Although the city was first mentioned in a document in 1378, it only became an important town during the 19th century, however it was sufficiently important in the 17th century to need the building of the fortress of Sao Lorenco in 1679 to protect it from pirate raids. Our short Olhao guide will try to give you a bit of an idea of what to expect from this town of many faces.
We said many faces because depending on where you approach it from, Olhao, Portugal will look different. For instance if you approach it from the side where the fishing port is located, it will look very industrial, and hence not extremely attractive to tourists. However if you’re driving to Olhao along the water front road then you’ll get a different view altogether. You can use Olhao transfers from Faro Airport to get here right from the airport.
Praia da Rocha – Great beach and wonderful scenery at the second-largest Algarve resort
The Portuguese resort town of Praia da Rocha is located on the west side of the Algarve, at about a fifty minute drive from Faro Airport and situated rather nicely between Alvor and Portimao.
What started as a quiet and very elegant resort back in the 1930s only started to develop at a major rate once cheaper flights started to be offered in the 1970s, which in turn spurred on a boom in apartments being built, and steadily and surely Praia da Rocha became the region’s second-largest resort town.
There are basically two types of travelers in the world: those who haven’t been to the Algarve yet, and those who return there year after year, but what exactly makes the latter do this?
