Praia da Bordeira

Continue northwards along the coast from Praia do Castelejo for around ten kilometres and you will arrive at the village of Carrapateira, which is little more than a collection of surf shops, a grocery store, a small market, a pavement café and a bakery.

Surfers flock to this part of the Algarve, drawn by the consistent swells that regularly hit the fantastic beaches of Amado and Bordeira. Bordeira, just north of Carrapateira and the closest beach to the village, is a spectacular, often deserted stretch of sand with dunes and a tiny river that serves as a stopover for migrating water birds.

A single restaurant, O Sitio del Rio, offers mainly organic food at reasonable prices. On the other, south, side of the village is Praia do Amado, home to a surf school, a beach café and, more often than not, a motley collection of surfers and their vans parked on a tiny patch of dirt overlooking some of the best waves in the Algarve.