We also
have offices in Albufeira so we are close to you all the way.
As a holiday destination, Albufeira, like Quarteira, is the sort of place
you like or hate. An amazing number of people from all age groups like it.
Retired couples feel just as at home here as raving teenagers and families
with young children.
Albufeira is spread out rather than high-rise. The town itself consists of
"old" and "new" sections which merge seamlessly into an extensive
holiday-land suburbia, spreading off back east along the coast to Balaia,
Olhos d'Agua and Falesia, and west to São Rafael, Galé and the links golf
course at Salgados. The whole area, greater Albufeira you could call it,
is the most tourist-intensive place in Portugal. It has very little to do
with the real Portugal, or with the real planet earth for that matter, but
people come here in droves and have the time of their lives.
Albufeira started out at least 2,000 years ago as a small, fortified town
which the Romans called Baltrum. Eight centuries later the Moors renamed
it Al-Buhera. The Moors turned it into a prosperous port trading with
North Africa. The Knights of Santiago led the Christian re-conquest of the
town in 1250, but without its trade links Albufeira fell upon hard times
and they lasted for hundreds of years.
It
suffered a succession of devastating earthquakes - in 1719, 1722 and worst
of all in 1755 when the town was not only devastated by a series of earth
tremors, but swamped by tidal waves. In 1833 it was first besieged then
burnt to the ground during a Portuguese civil war. Prosperity only
returned to Albufeira with the tourist boom that started in the late
1970's and gathered momentum in the 1980's. Tourism, pure and simple, is
what it's now all about.
Some of the old charm is still there, and it is to be found in the
labyrinth of narrow streets, lined with whitewashed houses, apartments,
cafes and shops, which lead down the hillside to a central square, Largo
Eng. Duarte Pacheco. The square is a good place to sit and watch the world
go by. Nearby, next to the tourist information office, a tunnel at the end
of a pedestrian-only mall leads on to the town's main beach.
Another section of this long beach is equally easily accessible from the
streets leading off the other end of the square. There the beach is known
as Fisherman's Beach and it's shared without a shred of self-consciousness
by topless sun-bathers and sun-hardened men of the sea far too busy
mending their nets to notice the bare boobs bobbing about their boats on
the sand.
"New" Albufeira, centred on Areias de São João, is on the east side. Its
most famous thoroughfare is affectionately known as The Strip. It
stretches from the looming edifice of the Montechoro Hotel, past
scores of cafes, restaurants and bars, all the way down to a big busy
beach called Praia da Oura. The Strip and nearby streets are a hive of
activity from mid-morning, when cheap English breakfasts are served to
help with the hangovers caused by imbibing well into the wee hours the
night before.
There
is an abundance of all sorts of accommodation in Albufeira and the broad
area around it, and that includes both good hotels and a good campsite, but
without advance booking you may find it difficult to get your head down
anywhere in summer. Incidentally, the campsite has a huge open-air
restaurant and bar where hundreds of people enjoy live music every night
during the summer.
See the
official Albufeira council site for more information
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