Renovation project - Avoiding tourists on the Algarve, Portugal

Renovation project - Avoiding tourists on the Algarve, Portugal

We are on the way to the Algarve, but we have chosen to stay in the less touristy side, we want to get a feel of real Portugal and so have booked a little house in a fishing town called Olhao.

 We have never been to this side of the Algarve before. The accommodation has been booked via Airbnb and has cost a total of 445 Euros for 10 days, (this includes the airbnb service charge). As we arrive we receive some texts and e-mails from the owners Claire and Chris, the information was fantastic with details of where to eat, how to get to the property and where to find everything we may need. They really couldn’t have been more helpful. The property was in a residential area surrounded by similar Moorish cottages. There was no pool or large outside spaces as we would’ve had with a hotel, (there was a small private patio) but we had really wanted to see what life was like in a real town, and we got that experience perfectly. Here is a link to the accommodation https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2888519

Olhao is a working fishing town, there is no beach but there is a harbour and you are able to get little taxi boats to local beaches. All along the harbour are restaurants, and every one we tried was fantastic, the food was plentiful and the fresh fish was amazing. We managed to try a number of restaurants with local dishes and were never disappointed.

below are a couple of the restaurants we visited and some of the  food  we ate

This was a holiday experience and we are so glad we stayed here, if you are looking for  lots of hotels, water parks and tourist beaches then this is probably not the place for you, but if you want to experience real Portuguese life then we cannot recommend this place highly enough.