Back to Lagos! This city in southern Portugal is almost always our base camp when we visit the Algarve. Not only is it an easy starting point to visit a lot of villages and beaches down there, but it’s also a great city that has a lot to do, amazing cliffside beaches, good restaurants, and an easygoing population.
We’ve actually been there twice this year, so this post is an amalgamation of our two visits. We did a lot of new things this year, as Lagos is chock-full of activities, both indoor and outdoor.
The main new thing we did was to finally go on a dolphin-watching tour, which was simply amazing. We also ate a lot of good food, and had the chance to show the area to my folks on one of our trips.
Check out some of our photos from yet another memorable couple of visits to Lagos.
We met some great people…
And had some righteous food, this first one being from the above lads at Alkibir.
Insanely good treats at a restaurant I forget the name of at the moment (sorry!).
We returned to Portofino’s in the Lagos marina, which always has some delicious Italian food.
We also had some great wine, naturally.
Another place we highly recommend is Onda Norte, which is hidden in a small strip mall in a residential area of Lagos. It’s not something you’d normally run into as a tourist, but we’re fortunate enough to have friends who took us to this little gem. The owners and staff here are fantastic as well.
And even more food! If you can get several minutes out of town, you’ll find a place called Cachoa, which is hidden behind a whole lot of trees near one of the main throughways outside of Lagos. This is a higher-class joint, and they know how to do it up!
Phew, are you hungry yet? Or did we make you full just by showing you all of this goodness? Let’s go take a stroll now that we’ve had all of those delicious calories.
It rained one of the days we were in Lagos, so we took the opportunity to visit the new-ish Mercado de Escravos (Slave Market) in town. This extremely well-done museum teaches you about the slave trade that more or less made Lagos, with a lot of honesty that many museums would ignore. It also does a good job of rightfully shaming the country’s own participation in this dark part of history.
We all found it extremely interesting, and it’s now a definite requirement to check out when you visit. It’s very heavy, but also very educational.
Back outside after the rain died down, we strolled around a bit more and checked out some of the historic plazas and colorful buildings in town.
What do you need after strolling and visiting museums for a while? Coffee and cake, obviously!
Portuguese coffee is something to lust after, and it’s one of our favorite things to indulge in when we go to Portugal. If you’re not feeling the cake part, though, how about a crepe?
Mmmmmmmmmmmm. :)
Another thing we really dig about Lagos is that it’s not terribly difficult to find some really nice street art here and there. You might just run into it in a big square, or you might find some on a very tiny side street. You never know what you’ll run into, and we’ve seen quite a few different pieces on our various visits. Some is old, some is new, but the good stuff is always a treat.
Now, who’s ready to check out some dolphins?! This is something we’d wanted to do for quite a while, and the weather was finally warm enough for us to do so on our last run through town.
We signed up with a great group of folks who were very knowledgeable about both where to find a lot of dolphins, and about the animals themselves, their habitat, and why it’s important to conserve the habitat of these lovely specimens.
Before we got to the dolphins, though, we got to see Lagos from an entirely different perspective. We’ve never been on a boat out here before, and we dug seeing the town from this vantage point.
Now, let’s see some dolphins. Yeeeee!
The dolphins were everywhere on this particular day. There were pods of 200, 500, even more. It was an amazing sight, with them following the boat, playing with us, and just swimming around.
Some of them would come right up to us on the side of the boat, which was a huge treat.
Our weak photography skills and lack of a good zoom contributed to not the best pictures, unfortunately. Most of our photos came out blurry or looked like they were very far away. So it goes, as the experience was more than enough!
It was really, all so freaking cool. We definitely urge you to go on one of these tours if and when you’re in Lagos. Just be sure the weather is good! (And bring better cameras than we did if you want some actually good photos!)
That said, it was time to wind down with an ice cold beer.
And that’s a wrap! As you can see – just from the few things we did here – there’s a lot going on in Lagos. It’ll always be one of our faves in the Algarve, and we recommend you roll through if you get the chance, too!
Be sure to check out our other Portugal posts right here, and our previous Lagos post here (including a lot of beach shots that are absent in this post).
A very special and very big thanks to all the fine folks in Lagos and the Algarve, and to my folks for coming to visit!
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Have you ever been to Lagos? If so, what’d you think? If not, what say ye? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!