Moncarapacho is located in the Olhao district and has only relatively recently gained city status, back in 1985.

It is set in a deeply agricultural area and well worth the journey because, a bit unexpectedly, it’s home to a museum – Museu Paroquial – that features a pretty solid display of artefacts from all time periods in the region. Outside the museum building, in the courtyard, you can see a collection of Roman pillars, carved marble finials and pre-Roman stone drinking troughts, great examples of Roman-time life.

It’s a bit weird to see such an impressive collection of artefacts in a small farming village, but most of the items were indeed found thanks to the farming activities, having been disturbed from the ground when planting crops and trees, so that explains it.

Since this is an agricultural area, there’s a large market festival held here in August, which is attended by locals from many surrounding villages celebrating their crops and partying with live music, food and wine well into the small hours. Obviously it is not exclusively for locals, all being welcomed to join in the fun.

Those of you who will be visiting will notice some unusual architecture in town, with the occasional Moorish façade here and there and the elaborate stone carved doorway of the main church – which dates back to the 18^th century.

Nearly all the streets and pavements are done with the traditional cobbled stone, giving the town the particular Algarvian charm, alongside the typical Algarve one-story houses, featuring highly decorative parapet walls and rather grand chimneys.

The main square of Moncarapacho is planted with palms and trees and there are the ever-present cafes and bars here to enjoy.

If you’re traveling around the region with a car rental then make sure to stop in Moncarapacho for a bit.

Algoz hosts several events each year however, your best bet is to show up during monthly market day, because it is the largest in Central Algarve.

The village takes its name from an Arabic word which itself is derived from the name of an Asian tribe which dates back to the 12^th century. Despite its current spelling, it was seen on maps as recent as the 18^th Century as Algos.

The Algarve experience that you’ll be enjoying if you were to visit Algoz will be quite different than the ones that you’ll experience on the coast’s resorts; the small village has two banks as well as a solid selection of shops and a daily fish, meat and fruit market that is open until 1PM, so it’s a great destination for self catering individuals. Even non self-catering individuals will find it easy and cheap to eat in Algoz, the village has around ten restaurants, and most of them are dish-of-the-day type restaurants, where a three course meal with wine will cost you very little. Keep in mind that the restaurants tend to get busy with locals between midday to 3PM.

Simply walking through the village will allow you to see houses boasting some very elaborate stone carvings on parapet walls and round windows, thus showing that the village used to be inhabited by merchants in the past. You can find old oil presses and stone thoughts along the grass verges and there was also a public open air laundry which was closed in the 1990s.

The village centre features a very picturesque church with a clock tower and a cockerel weather vein.

Reaching Algoz, or other Algarve destinations, shouldn’t be difficult, with the help of our Algarve car rental services it can only be a few minutes distance from Armacao de Pera.