Quarteira

In its former days this was a fishing village and still retains its traditional Portuguese character through architecture and building paint schemes, although it was one of the first resorts to be developed and therefor does have a lot of functional high rise apartment blocks. It also has a long beautiful sandy beach with a palm lined promenade that boasts many nice seafood restaurants to choose from and enjoy a tasty meal. Also very handily situated towards the east end is a great car hire company called Best Deal, that you can pick up and deposit your hire car at Faro airport. Then just east of the bus station there is a market that sells craft items, flowers and clothes etc, staying open well into the evenings. One of the towns main venues is the renowned vegetable and fish market, that is next to a large fee car park. It is open from Oct through to March 7am to 3pm but closed on Sundays, always worth a visit for fresh fish.