Deserta island
Virgin sand and the island's lone restaurant.
Winniepix from UK โ CC BY 2.0 ยท Marco Jacobeu โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Alexkom000 โ CC BY 4.0 ยท Alexkom000 โ CC BY 4.0
Two choosing rules: a small boat (12-20), never a barge, and at least two island stops with a swimming hour โ eco tours with a guide reading richer for children (seahorse and clam tales). The public Farol ferry out and back is the excellent budget half-day.
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The Ria Formosa is the Algarve's water wonder: a sixty-kilometre coastal lagoon parted from the ocean by barrier sand islands โ a maze of channels and tide flats breathing twice daily, a natural park among Portugal's Seven Natural Wonders and a million migrant birds' corridor: pink flamingos in winter flocks, and Europe's largest seahorse colony in its meadows. It is lived by boat from Faro's marina: island tours (empty Deserta with its lone restaurant and virgin beach, Farol with village and lighthouse, fishermen's Culatra) or small nature cruises threading the flats at tide โ with island-sand swimming the Algarve's cleanest water. It is the other beach: not the west's golden cliffs but a horizon of sand, water and shellfish โ the clam-digger standing in the tide its truest picture. Choose small boats with long stops โ and mind the tide: the lagoon changes face every six hours.
Virgin sand and the island's lone restaurant.
Carless fishermen โ the last Portugal.
Standing in the tide โ the lagoon's mother image.
Ria Formosa Natural Park, Faro