Portimao, The Algarve

We did a quick search of what to do in Portimao and the resounding feedback was to visit the Sea Caves by boat.

We knew that the Algarve would be beautiful, but what we were greeted with was astounding!

The beaches are definitely aimed at tourists which ironically isn't what we were looking for. We are lucky enough to live in a coastal town and look for more unique and exciting things to do on our holidays.

We got a tender to shore and made our way to the harbour where the boat tours desks were lined up one after the other. The first trips were already fully booked so we needed to wait about 45 minutes for the boats to return for the next trip out to the sea caves.

We weren't sure whether to take a large boat or a rubber duck and one of the tour guides gave is some good information. The large boats are fancier, but they cannot enter the smaller sea caves, while the rubber boats can go deep into the caves. This definitely won us over.

We took a walk down the pier to waste time and explore with the free time that we had.

Soon we boarded our boat with our eager and very loud captain. The boat was full of tourists including my parents and our new friends Christine and her husband Brian. It was their wedding anniversary and their children had bought them the cruise as an anniversary gift.

We left the small harbour and made our way out of the river mouth and into the sea, hugging the coast.

Our first experience was cutting through a narrow waterway between the land and a rock island near the Torre de lapa ruin. The swell was pushing between the rocks on either side of our boat.

We emerged on the other side to a long stretch of cliff faces dotted with beaches in coves. Along the walls we could see dark holes, the sea caves that we planned to explore.

We entered our first sea cave, in awe of how rock was carved out by the constant bashing of waves.

We continued along the coast and noticed the rock cliffs dotted with people. There is a coastal walk which can lead you from Portimao all the way to Armacao de Pêra. I would love to do this in the future.

Behind the hole in the wall where you see a person sitting, there is a restaurant called Boneca's Cave. I can't imagine being on land and wishing to be on one of these boats on the water.

We entered the next sea cave and this one was very long and deep. Initially as we entered there was acrack of light streaming down from the ceiling which lit the way for our boat, but soon the cave mad a sharp turn to the right and plunged us into absolute darkness. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Slowly our fellow passengers turned on their phone lights to expose dark cave walls. It could be a scary experience, but we knew that our captain did this trip multiple times a day and that hew knew what he was doing.

We slowly backed out of the cave and emerged into the bright sunlight.

The next cave was a tunnel. we watched a boat pass through from the other side and soon it was our turn. As we looked up we say two large hole from the ground above into the sea cave below. These must be a major hazard for people exploring the peninsulas, but from below they are beautiful chambers of warm light.

The rock walls seemed to float on top of the blue water where they have been eroded for millennia.

The next cave was huge. Our boat disappeared in the shade of the cool rock that hung over us to expose a beach. Many tourists prefer the boats that offer stand up paddle boards or canoes, but it seems the locals aren't too happy about this development. The tourists end up on beaches that are usually frequented by locals and take over with their orange and yellow crafts. I was grateful for the single tourist in this cave because it showed the magnitude of this space and its incredible rock formations.

We patiently waited our turn to enter the final and largest sea cave of them all. This sea cave is famous for its beach where people make the paddle or boat ride to spend the day in the cool of the cave. These caves can only be accessed on days when the sea is calm and can be very dangerous on rough days. We were incredibly lucky to have such good conditions on our one and only day in Portimao.

When we got to this cave we understood why the locals didn't like the canoes and paddle boards. The cave was awash with orange spoiling the view and the natural aesthetics of the cave detracting from the grandness of nature.

We spent a short while taking photos and then reversed our boat out of the cave to allow the next boat in.

We continued down the coast and stopped at a long beach filled with beach goers. It looked beautiful.

This was the one point where the captain gave us a chance to dive off the boat into the water for a swim. We took that chance and very quickly got wet. The water was warm enough not to take your breath away and cool enough to be refreshing.

The captain got us back to Portimao harbour in a speedy fashion and we got the ferry into town. The ferry took us past Ferragudo and then on to Portimao.

Ferry Map

Ferragudo taxi stop

Ferragudo looked like a great village to explore but we didn't have the time and would need to get back to our tender boat quite soon.

We got off at Portimao and were quickly greeted by beautifully tiled buildings in the typical Portugueses style and football art. Taking photos of building facades and art is one of my favourite travel pass-times and Portimao gave me so much to admire.

The whole town was clean and we could see that renovations were being don't to improve anything that wasn't up to par. We decided to walk back to Portimao along the coast which turned out to be more of an adventure than we had anticipated. Some of the area was Naval land and closed to pedestrian's to we had to walk quite a way around a fence. But we eventually made it to our ferry.

The cues to board were already getting quite long but we managed to squeeze on with Christine and Brian. They had loved joining us on our boat trip along the coast and walking through the town. In fact they asked that if we ever went cruising again, if they could tag along. They enjoyed our adventurous day trips that we managed to fit in with very little planning.

We headed back to the ship for a meal and rest in the hot tub with our kindles and tons of photo editing ahead. Each day photos were gathered into folders and edited for posting at a later date.

But our next stop was the last stop of the cruise. And we had to start thinking about the next leg of our journey, five days in Ericeira, Portugal.

Next stop, LISBON!!!

To follow along for our entire cruise check out the links below on the full itinerary.

ITINERARY
If you would like to follow my 15 day cruise then read the previous posts here:
Venice (1)
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-venice-1
Koper (2)
https://peakd.com/travel/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-koper-slovenia-2
Sarande (3)
https://peakd.com/travel/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-sarande-albania-3
Split (4)
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-split-croatia-4
Catania (5)
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-catania-sicily-5
Amalfi (6)
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-italian-riviera-amalfi-positano-and-sorrento-6
Rome (7)
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-rome-7
Florence (8)
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-florence-8
Cannes (9)
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-cannes-france-9
Barcelona (10)
https://peakd.com/worldmappin/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-barcelona-spain
Ibiza (11)
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-ibiza-11
Motril (12)
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-motril-12
Cadiz (13)
https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@zo3d/mediterranean-cruise-cadiz-13

//:# (!worldmappin 37.11614 lat -8.52921 long Mediterranean Cruise: Portimao, Algarve Sea Caves (14) d3scr)