Algarve

Photo by flickr user T.M.O.F.

As Europe's sunniest region, with a seemingly perpetual cloudless blue sky, the Algarve offers lovers of the outdoors not only numerous golf courses, but also superb surfing, a rich diversity of bird life and mile upon mile of golden sands, framed by the characteristic limestone rocks which stand guard out in the Atlantic. Whilst the area around Faro airport is well developed a beautiful wilderness still exists in the Western Algarve, Portugal's 'Land's End'. August heat encourages laziness and an addiction to cool waters, but at other times of the year visit the old Moorish castles and forts, walk up in the hills, fragrant with the smell of delicate almond blossom or sample the freshest of fish from the day's catch at one of the rustic beach restaurants right at the sea's edge.

Written by Mary Lussiana