Portimão & Praia da Rocha

Portimão, the Algarve's second-largest city, sits at the mouth of the Arade River and remains an active fishing and commercial port, its riverside lined with restaurants that grill the fresh sardines the city is known for regionwide. Immediately adjacent, Praia da Rocha is a wide, roughly 1.5km sandy beach backed by weathered rock stacks and, further back, a row of grand early-20th-century hotels that established the beach as one of the Algarve's earliest resort destinations. A boardwalk runs the length of the beach connecting to Fortaleza de Santa Catarina, a small clifftop fort at the western end that offers panoramic views back along the coastline and out over the Arade estuary. A visit combining the beach, boardwalk and fort takes about two to four hours, and mornings offer the calmest conditions on the sand before the beach fills through the afternoon in summer. Portimão's riverside district, a short walk or drive from the beach, is best visited in the evening for a sardine dinner at one of the grill restaurants that line the water, a tradition celebrated each August during the city's Sardine Festival, when temporary stalls and grills draw large crowds along the riverfront. The beach and boardwalk are functional year-round, but restaurant terraces and grill stalls are busiest from late spring through early autumn.