Even though Easter is quite early in 2013, you have to keep in mind that is a very popular holiday for the Portuguese as well as for the British and the Irish, and tourist from the British Isles are quite a common occurrence here normally, so on such an important occasion you can be sure that they’ve already booked their accommodations well ahead of time.

We should also note that while Good Friday – Friday 29^th March – and Easter Sunday – Sunday 31^st March – are national holiday in Portugal as well, Easter Monday isn’t, it won’t really affect you per se, but just a heads up so you’re not astounded when you see people going about their business as usual on Monday.

The Algarve attractions are pretty much the same regardless of the time of year that you visit during however, we’ll talk now a bit about the average temperatures that you should expect while visiting towards the end of March since this may not have been the time that you considered initially.

Now the average temperatures during March hover around 15 Centigrade – 58 Fahrenheit – however, since you’ll be going there right at the end of the month, looking at the highest temperatures might be a good idea as well. The highest temperature on average in March in the Algarve is 19 Centigrade or 66 Fahrenheit, with the lowest being around 10 and 52, so you should expect decent temperature and weather during this Easter stay. The weather can however vary quite a bit depending on the region that you’ll be based around so keep that in mind.

Even though you’ll be going to attend a religious holiday and religious event, whether or not there’s sun will surely influence your other activities, so you’ll be glad to hear that in March there are on average seven hours of daylight and in April nine, so somewhere in between.

Regardless of how long a time you’ll be spending in the Algarve or where exactly you’ll be staying, you should strongly consider some Lagos car hire services.

We’ve talked about, and most likely we’ll continue to talk about the wonderful weather, beaches and culture of the Algarve in the future, but today we’ll focus on things that are less obvious, although just as popular once you get there.

Boat trips

Considering the size of the coastline and the weather, one should think these are a given but you’d be amazed how many people just think of the beach as their main go-to activity – or lack of activity. You can take a variety of pleasure boat trips from many of the resorts and towns on the coast. This way you can get to see some of the wonderful cliffs and hidden beaches and grottos.

Fishing trips

Yet again, those who are interested in fishing will head for the Algarve for this reason, rather than the beaches and great weather – although the weather helps with their pass-time as well. This is a region rife with big game fishing, and Portimao hosts daily fishing trips between June and September.

Check out a colorful Algarve market

Across the entire region there are regular market days and times being held. They all depend on the town or village that you’re in or near to because there is something quite wonderful about seeing one of these markets live. There are even tourist markets held in some places, such as the one held in Loule on Saturday mornings.

Golf

The Algarve is one of the best destination for golfing enthusiasts of all ages and experience level. The large number of sunny days combined with the large number of top-notch golf courses makes the region a Paradise for golf players.

This has been just a quick introduction to what the Algarve really is, for more information check out the rest of the website and don’t forget to consider our Algarve car rental services when you’re planning a trip to the region.

Well while in the summer its high temperatures and warm waters definitely attract the most of its visitors, one should also be aware that during the winter season, while most of Europe is encased in rain, snow or ice, or all of them, the Algarve is still wonderfully sunny.

In fact for quite a few potential visitors the winter season is by far the best time to see what the Algarve has to offer thanks to several reasons, not least of which being the considerably lower prices than those that you’d find during the summer peak season.

Golfers enjoy the Algarve already, thanks to its large number of top-notch golf courses, the place is that much better during the winter season because the weather is great during the daylight hours to spend on a course. This wouldn’t be possible in the summer season except for those very accustomed to those types of temperatures.

Winter in the Algarve is great for those who don’t like visiting crowded places, because usually the region is quite crowded, however in the off-season the number of tourists is almost negligible, which makes for a much quieter and easier time, getting access to attractions and the like.

Despite it being winter though, the water might actually be acceptable to those who love a chilly dip, however you can totally be lucky enough to get some sunny days which will actually allow you to lounge on the beach for a bit of a tan, it can happen.

Whether you’re choosing this period to explore a new location, or whether you want to see how places like Albufeira, Carvoeiro or Vilamoura are during the winter, keep our Algarve car rental services in mind while on your winter Algarve holiday.

Most people will know by now that the Algarve is quite well known both in the Europe as well as all around the world for being a great tourist destination for those looking for sun, sand and wonderful weather all year-round.

That is still true however recently it appears that the Algarve will start being promoted as a health and wellbeing destination as well.

The first Congress on Health and Wellbeing Tourism took place in Faro on 9 November and it spawned the idea of promoting the Algarve region as an ideal destination for health and wellbeing as a way of attracting more tourists to the region and as a way of fighting growing unemployment.

The event consisted of the first general assembly of the Portuguese Association for health and Wellbeing Tourism, during which its commission for this new organization was also formed.

The  association was built on a national level and it will include members from throughout the country, including the islands of Madeira and the Azores, and also take into consideration the various sub-products related to health and wellbeing tourism.

The goal of the association is to improve the position of the region’s tourist appeal as a way of attracting more tourists to the region. By doing this they wish to boost profits for the partners that join the association and at the same time stimulate employment.

The thinking behind it is that as unemployment rises, so does criminality, and an increase in criminality will then have a negative effect on the tourism which would then spiral continuously downward.

Now this might be a bit odd considering how the concept of health and wellbeing tourism is linked with the private sector however the public sector has a very important role to carry out as well by guaranteeing the safety of the destination.

This is expected to have an effect on all the businesses in the region, including the Algarve car rental one.

You can win a FREE Car Hire group A vehicle for a week during your rental period worth 130 Euro. In case the winner wants to rent a car from a different group, then he or she will only have to pay the difference between what would be the price of their chosen vehicle and the price of a group A vehicle.

In order to enter the competition for this FREE car hire for a week in Algarve, you’ll have to book online a car between 1 Nov 2012 and 31 March 2013 and also be a fan of our Facebook page which you’ll find here.

Free Car Hire – Algarve, Portugal

At the start of each month we’ll be randomly choosing a client who made a booking in the previous month, and they will then be notified via email and receive a FREE CAR HIRE voucher, and all that winner will have to do at that point is present the voucher at our office.

We’re running this competition as part of our winter promotion, during this very low season the prices that we offer are lower than those during the summer high season so this offer means that you could afford to rent a much bigger car, obviously that only makes sense if you need one.

As we’ve been talking on the site, and we’ll continue to do so, the Algarve is a great holiday destination in the off-season as well, thanks to its wonderful weather, celebrating Christmas here or just taking a break from the cold winter in the rest of Europe can prove to be a great choice, keep our Faro airport car hire services in mind.

The settlement that is today known as Silves, has always been an important one in the region because thanks to its positioning, it lay at the entrance to the inland areas of the Algarve. Going there now, you can’t really see it, because the river is now too silted up to allow large vessels to travel it, but in centuries past, that was not an issue.

Any Silves guide is pretty much obliged to mention the most prominent monument in the city, namely the Castelo de Silves. This is now the best preserved castle in the region and it towers above the town alongside the nearby Cathedral. Being a fortress it was built on an overlooking hill, obviously so the views from the battlements are quite spectacular. The castle features eleven towers, two of them being barbicans, and its thick walls still enclose an area of about twelve hundred thousand square meters. Four of the towers were rebuilt during the 14^th and 15 centuries and as such feature Gothic doorways.

The defensive walls and towers which protected Silves have disappeared long ago, however one of the four gates still remains up, the Torreao da Porta da Cidade – the interior of the tower features two rooms and annexes in which you can now find the Municipal Library.

The earlier mentioned Cathedral is the Se de Silves one of the few remaining Gothic monument in the Algarve; it features ancient tombs and a network of old and narrow, cobbled streets will take you down into town from here.

One other both important and interesting monument that you must visit while here is the Cross of Portugal. This is a three meter tall limestone cross which dates back to sometime during the 15^th or 16^th century, you can find it to the right of the roundabout that takes you to the castle at the eastern end of the river front. This brings into discussion the method of transportation that you will be using while in Silves, and while you can reach Silves by using some Silves transfer from Faro Airport, you can also enjoy more of it and its surroundings with the help of Silves car hire services, but it all depends on what it is that you need from your transportation during your stay. For those who will have a car at their disposal during their trip, they should know that Silves has made some serious improvements to its road layout, so that the city maintains its picturesque quality while also allowing people to move around it at a decent clip.

The local town square, the Praca do Municipio features a lot of greenery, an unexpected amount for a town center actually. There are gardens, flowers and palms as well as a paved river front. The nearby swimming pool has a fitness area and an outdoor ‘play area’ for adults. The weather is definitely nice enough to encourage activities in the sun light.

Silves is a very relaxed city indeed, a great place to visit and enjoy the weather and local culture, especially when considering the large number of cafes and restaurants which offer outside seating. Simply walking around town will offer you a great experience since many old buildings have survived, these were built by rich merchants and are still in use, even if under different management.

The local gastronomy is definitely a major part of any trip to the Algarve, and visiting in Silves is no different. The city offers a good selection of places to enjoy some very tasty local dishes as well as wines.

The surroundings are just as interesting and in case you tire a bit from exploring the city, you can look into the option of boat trips to and from Portimao.

There are obviously many things to see and do while in Silves, much more than we can talk about in this article, rest assured that you will surely have a booked schedule once you’re there.

One of the main reasons why Portugal is such a popular holiday destination is its absolutely wonderful climate. The average summer temperature hovers around thirty degrees Centigrade and while that may not sound like anything special since in the summertime it’s hot in most temperate zones and most of Europe.

The great weather is just part of Portugal’s popularity

There are so many other factors which make it a great holiday destination

Portugal Beach

It deserves mention that in those regions the average temperature might jump well over thirty and that makes for a solid amount of discomfort so an average summer temperature of thirty is great. Also coupled with this is the average winter temperature in Portugal which never falls below fifteen degrees Centigrade very often, and while that may not sound like anything special, one has to consider the average temperature in the rest of Europe during the winter months in order to truly appreciate it.

Now the great weather would be enough of a pull to visit a foreign country but that’s hardly the only thing that attracts people to Portugal, its other great feature is its eight hundred and fifty kilometers of coastline which offer some of the best beaches and resorts on the globe.

While the entire country has many attractions and interesting sights, when it comes to the best combination of weather and geography, that would be the Algarve region, which is situated in the southernmost part of the country.

The Algarve itself is possibly the most visited region in Europe, if not the world, and for good reasons because it features the most spectacular beaches possibly on the entire Mediterranean coast.

There are several places where you can start your Portugal adventure, however some of the more popular arrival destinations are Lisbon, Faro and Madeira. Their airports are very accessible from pretty much anywhere else in Europe or the rest of the world so that is part of why they are popular. The other part has to do with the fact that they themselves are interesting places to visit on their own, Faro for instance being used as something of a gateway to the Algarve for many tourists but it is also an attraction on its own.

The whitewashed buildings and cobbled streets coupled with plenty of museums make for a great introduction to the country as well as a good stepping-off point for other destinations in the Algarve region.

Portugal offers a lot of holidaying option to its visitors and it has something for everyone, it all depends on what it is that you are looking for when traveling to a foreign country. If you’re interested in lounging on a beach, soaking in the sun and enjoying some water sports then surely you can find it here; if you’re interested in having a more family-oriented relaxing trip in which you can explore the country’s culture, traditions and history, Portugal has that as well; if you happen to be a golfer, the Algarve region especially has over thirty world-class golf courses which await your swing.

Whether it’s summer or winter in your home country you can rest assured that the weather in Portugal will be at least fair and depending on what your goals and preferences are you can surely find a region or a particular place in the country that satisfies them, so make sure to strongly consider Portugal as the destination for your next holiday.

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