Albufeira

Albufeira is lovely town with plenty of character. Albufeira is the most popular holiday resort in the Algarve and one of the reasons for this is because of its lovely rocky beaches. There are many beach coves along the coast of the albufeira district, and two in the main town of albufeira.

View of beach by Albuferia main town.

The local buses are operated by EVA, and buses run on circular roots, which should run every 20 minutes. You can catch buses to places such as Villamoura and Faro. Taxi's are realiable too, small journey's around Albufeira should cost around €3.75 (£2.50), though due to low cost, for every bag that you want to put in the boot of the car, you will be charged €1 (70p).

Shopping - Algarve Shopping Mall

As usual, there are the typical sovenir shops in the old town of Albufeira, which are plentiful and provide you all the Albuferia/Algarve products!

However, if you prefer more 'High Street' Shops, these can be found in the large shopping Mall in Guia! There is everything you need there, including clothes shops (Zara, Oysho, Bershka, Pull and Bair etc), electrical shops (inc.Fnac - which sells those all important Digital Camera memory cards!), jewellery shops, Body Shop, newsagesnts, Vodaphone shop, and loads more!! - including a large supermarket. There's also a food court there which includes restuarants and also fast food shops (inc. McDonalds). Theres also a cinema which showcases the latest films! So you can definetly spend the whole day there!!!! Shops open between 10am - 10pm so you could make it an activity for the morning, afternoon or evening.

The shopping Mall is situated in Guia, which is about 4 miles away from main town Albufeira. There is a shuttle service to and from hotels, however not to all hotels and does not run on Sunday. There are buses to Guia (EVA buses), however I believe the most efficient way to get there other than car, is by Taxi. Taxis should cost no more than €11 which is about £7 -but 4 people can travel for this! There is a taxi rank as well for when returning back to your hotel, or wherever.

I would definetly recommend here, there's loads of nice shops, large in size and modern.

To visit their website, click on the link in the 'Useful Websites' panel.

Front of Shopping Mall

Front of the Shopping Mall

Inside shopping mall

Shops on the top floor

Ground floor shops

Food Court which has outdoor and idoor seating

Sevilla

There is also a day trip to Sevilla (seville) from the Algarve. Sevilla is the capital city of the Adalusia region, and the forth largest city in Spain.

Lisboa

Lisboa (Lisbon)

There are day trips available to Lisboa - the capital city of Portugal. If you are on a packaged holiday in Albufeira, then it is possible that tour operators will operate a day trip to the capital city, such as MyTravel. The trip should cost aroud €33 (£20). There are also other travel excursion companies providing the trip.

The journey time to Lisboa from Albufeira is around 3 hours and there will also be a coach stop. On the way to Lisboa you will drive through the province of 'Baixo Alentejo' which is home to the Cork Oak trees! Portugal provides the majority of the world cork (50-60%), so after this journey you will never forget where cork comes from! And i'm sure that your tour guide for the day will tell you all about them!

Cork trees, passing through 'Baixo Alentejo' on the way to Lisboa

Arriving to Lisboa from the South will mean that the only way into Lisboa is by bridge! Which allow access of the Tagus river. There are 3 bridges, 2 of which are for road travel (the 'Ponte 25 de Abril' and the 'Vasco da Gama Bridge') and the other used by train. As there is only 2 bridges going into Lisboa, be preparred to wait a while! You should expect some very busy traffic, however once over the bridge traffic should be normal again. If travelling independently to Lisboa there is a charge for crossing the bridge, the 'Vasco da Gama' Bridge is less buisy than the 'Ponte 25 de Abril' brige, but the toll charge is more.

Torre de Belém

Once you arrive in Lisboa, coach tours start with a trip to one of the icons of Lisboa, the Torre de Belém (Belém Tower) in the Belém district in Lisboa.

Torre de Belém

The fortified Torre de Belem was built in the early 1500s in the Portuguses late Gothic Style. It was built to honour the expedition of Vasco de Gama. The tower is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is in memorial of the Portuguses 'Great Discoveries'.

Padrão dos Descobrimentos

Not too far from the 'Torre de Belém' is the 'Padrão dos Descobrimentos', the 'Monument to the Discoveries'.

'Padrão dos Descobrimentos'

'Close up of Padrão dos Descobrimentos'

The Padrão dos Descobrimentos is 52 meteres high, and celebrates the time of the Portuguses Great Discoveries in the 1400 -1500s (The time of discovering new land and materials). It is positioned facing the river Tagus. Henry the Navigator is the statue at the front of the monument, along with Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Catbral, Ferdinand Magellan, Diogo Cão, Bartolomeu Dias, Afonso de Albuquerque, Luís de Camões, King Manuel I, Pedro Nunes and Nuno Gonçalves. There is also a small museum inside the monument with a charge to get in. Most tour coaches take you directly to the monument as...

Hieronymites Monastery (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos

... right opposite the monument is the UNESCO World Heritage site of 'Mosteiro dos Jerónimos' (Hieronymites Monastery).

'Mosteiro dos Jerónimos'