Algarve

In 1997, my first trip without my parents. At those days it was just the place for me, no too much tourists :D In some restaurant there was this Portuguese guy who was very excited because we were Finns. He actually wanted to practise his Finnish with us. Lovely surprise and the food was great!

It’s a shame Portugal doesn’t make more effort to preserve and plan for the future in this area (something Spain does a lot better). I remember coming here when I was little and it was still crowded, but had considerably fewer ugly tourist traps.

Worth a visit if you avoid the tourist traps. Faro is an underrated city; most package tours land here and the go off – so we found it a nice place to stay for a while :)

Simply amazing, the hotel made the trip for us heh.

the algarve was so laid back…anything you wanted was there..great vacation spot..

picture above is the view from our hotel room

I was here in my teens in the early nineties. Relatively cheap, sangria, dance in discos, sun & beach, but also took at trip with some locals to nearby city to see the contrast between the beach and the city slum.

too many english tourists, ugh. being drunk and loud, and well, being english i guess. even the local cafes have changed their menus to english pub foods like steak and kidney pie and roast dinner. try and find a quiet private villa somewhere to avoid them, they stay in resorts mostly.

no offense to the english, some of my best friends are english, it’s just that english tourists show the worst of behaviours whenever they’re abroad… :(

personally, i prefer the northern portuguese beaches, between oporto and nazarre.