The Western Algarve

Beginning at Faro. Presumably because golfers are too impatient to waste quality green time travelling from the airport, a host of golf-centred, upmarket resorts and beaches are strewn to the west of Faro: Quinta do Lago, Vale do Garrao, Vale do Lobo and Vilamoura are the coastal developments, vying with each other for exclusivity. Quinta do Lago, especially, is huge in scale and has four different courses to choose from, the San Lorenzo course being the most respected for the challenge it affords.

Then comes Albufeira, sometimes called the Algarve's Benidorm, usually by the sort of snobs who look down their noses at the latter without ever having stepped foot in the place. It is undeniably less exclusive than other places in the Algarve, but is pleasant, lively, cosmopolitan and my own favourite place in the Western Algarve.

A number of attractive villages and beaches lie to the west of Albufeira: Castelo, Gale, Vale de Parra and Guia: this is villaland, developed for tourism, but in a low key, low-rise way. Carvoeiro, almost invariably described as a picture-postcard fishing village, is undeniably picturesque, but overcrowded in summer. An excursion inland here is recommendable, to see Lagoa and the historic city of Silves.

Back on the coast, Ferragudo is an attractive, little-spoilt seaside town with a great beach, a ruined castle and a number of waterfront restaurants. Further on, Portimão is the second largest town in the Algarve, but a likeable fishing port, a little upriver from its main resort, Praia da Rocha. Portimão is also the turning-off point if you intend to take in Monchique and its surroundings up in the serra.

Beyond Portimão lie the extensive beach of Meia Praia and its tourist developments, on the way into Lagos, a town which combines tourism with being a real commercial and fishing centre. It is not really a place for sights, though the Antigo Mercado de Escravos, Slave Market (the oldest in Europe if I am not mistaken) is a must. In general, as Frommer's puts it, most people go to Lagos intending to "drink deeply of the pleasures of table and beach," a frankly admirable ambition as far as I am concerned. But don't miss the rock formations at Ponta da Piedade a little west of Lagos, if only because it is the most photographed spot in the Algarve, possibly the whole of Portugal (but do take care of the cliffs).

Further west of Lagos, Luz and its praia are a foretaste of the more authentic fishing villages of Burgau and Salema, now in the Costa Vicentina Nature Reserve. The road then leads you to the Atlantic-facing Vila do Bispo before winding back to the most westerly point of the Algarve, Cape St Vincent, on the other side of historic Sagres and its fortress, from where Henry the Navigator sent forth the caravels which were to bring back the riches of the Americas and lay the foundations of the Portuguese Empire. Or take the coast road north up to Aljezur, a surfers' paradise in the heart of the Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina Nature Reserve.