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| On our favorite beach in Lagos |
For the past 8+ days, we have been soaking up the sun in the Algarve, in Lagos, Portugal. Lagos is a small beach town with a small old town and beautiful cliff beaches and a large marina. Lagos is also well-known historically as the slave trade is believed to begin here and dates back to 1444. The majority of the tourists here in Lagos are from the U.K. (the girls actually met some friends at our condo complex from Ireland). I think we heard "American English" spoken twice. Lagos appears to be to Brits what Cabo or Cancun are for Americans, but much less touristy and built up.
We rented an Airbnb since we are in town for awhile and our condo is in a new building with an outdoor pool, a gym, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a beautiful wrap around patio. We are actually the second person to rent out this unit. The first night we arrived, I was a little worried about the location of the condo since it is in a more local neighborhood and further from the beach and old town, but close to the big supermarkets. Anyone who knows me, knows that I much prefer to shop at a supermarket than a clothing store! For the majority of this long trip (outside of Morocco), we have shopped at local grocery stores and made breakfasts, lunches and the occasional dinners in our apartment kitchens to help save some money and discover new flavors and foods. This apartment is within walking distance of three which meant daily grocery store trips for me!
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| Slave Market Square of Lagos |
There are many different beaches in Lagos, all of them are free to visit and free to park at (chairs and umbrellas cost money). The first beach we visited was Praia Estudantes and we had to climb down very steep stone steps to get to the bottom. This is a local, cliff beach which means, no lifeguards, no umbrellas and no chairs and not many swimsuit tops either. The walk from our apartment was about 30 minutes each way and although the temperatures here on most days were just about 85-90 degrees, the sun is very hot here, as we are so far south and we definitely felt the burn and reapplied sunscreen at least every hour.
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| Praia Estudantes |
The next day, we decided to venture to another beach, Praia de Batata, near the cliffs, but not as far. I had hoped for some umbrellas, but we struck out. This beach was a little easier to get to but was full of algae, and M refused to get in since she couldn't see if there were jellyfish in the water (despite our promises there were none). While Praia de Batata was fun, we were determined to find a beach with a lifeguard, chairs and umbrellas and one that was slightly closer.
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| Praia de Batata |
I think the girls had little faith that I was going to come through with a beach that met all our criteria, but I found one, Praia de São Roque: lifeguards, chairs, umbrellas, closer and an ice cream stand. For the rest of our time in Lagos, this beach was where we spent the majority of our time. Even M, who wouldn't even put her feet in at the other two beaches could not get enough of the waves.
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| Praia de São Roque |
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