Tavira

Tavira straddles the Gilão River in the eastern Algarve and is widely regarded as the most graceful town in the region, its skyline of distinctive four-slope tile roofs, a style unique to this part of Portugal, punctuated by the towers of numerous churches, a legacy of Tavira's wealth during the Age of Discoveries. The Romanesque-Gothic Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo sits within the grounds of Tavira Castle, a ruined Moorish fortification whose gardens and walls offer free views over the town's rooftops and river, while a seven-arched Roman bridge, rebuilt over the centuries, still carries pedestrians across the Gilão between the two halves of the old town. Visitors typically spend a half day walking the old town's churches, riverside gardens and market building, with the ferry crossing to Ilha de Tavira, one of the finest barrier island beaches in the eastern Algarve, extending a visit into a full day. The town is at its best explored on foot in the morning, when the light on the whitewashed facades and tiled roofs is softest and the streets are quieter, before an evening return for dinner at one of the riverside seafood restaurants, for which Tavira is well regarded even by Algarve standards. Because Tavira sees fewer coach tour groups than the central Algarve resort towns, its old town retains a notably calmer, more lived-in atmosphere throughout the year, though the July and August ferry queues to Ilha de Tavira can be long at peak times.