No its not the Lagos in Nigeria, as Google maps keep wanting to take me to, but the Lagos on the southern Algarve coast of Portugal. Interestingly the two seem to have a connection, the Nigerian Lagos having been visited by the Portuguese in the late 15th century and who eventually settled and were granted a slaving monopoly. Well the less said about that the better . . . ! Lagos is a nice little town. Its popular with tourists but not quite as tatty as other package holiday hotspots like Albufeira (about 45 minutes drive from here), described by someone on Tripadvisor as a “skanky neon strip full of pissed Brits”. Lagos admittedly has elements of skankiness, but it does have character in the older part of the town with winding cobbled streets and locals out and about doing their shopping. Our Airbnb this time is in an apartment in a slightly characterless complex called Iberlagos. Its saving grace is its proximity (2 minutes walk) to a gorgeous little bay called Dona Anna and massive swanking swimming pool - part of the complex. For a nice 2 bedroom apartment with kitchen, living area, 2 bathrooms, large balcony and wifi we are paying about $NZ 190 a night. On our drive down here from Lisbon we experienced the awesomeness of the European toll road system. Yes its expensive – over 20 Euro to travel about 300 km – but man is it fast and hassle free! The speed limit signs placed every 10km or so instruct you to keep to a maximum of 120km hour. Well I can tell you that we were just about the only car on the road to keep anywhere near that limit – routinely we were passed by late model BMWs and SUVs that literally left a bow wave after them. One, I am sure, must have been doing well over 200 kmh. The second half of September is such a great time to travel in the south of Europe. The summer holiday crowds have largely gone (school holidays are over around the end of August here) and the temperature is not so sweltering. It looks like temperatures will be ranging between 18, in the evening, and 29 degrees during our stay – I can handle that. The best part about Lagos, in my opinion anyway, is its proximity to a number of small, stunning beaches. Dona Ana, right in front of our resort and pictured in the photo at the start of this post, is described as the most picturesque beach in the Algarve – well that is according to the authors of lagosportugalguide.com. It was great to do a bit of body-surfing on our first day – but since then I have been feeling a little under the weather. Hope things improve before our yoga retreat starting tomorrow . . .
3 Comments
Saskia
10/1/2017 02:01:02 pm
Hi Richard& Jo,
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4/27/2022 05:22:42 am
Thanks for sharing this useful information! Hope that you will continue with the kind of stuff you are doing.
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Richard and JolandaJo and I have decided to give up our work, our house and our lives in Wellington NZ to see the world. Our big adventure started on April 6th 2017 . . . Archives
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