Sagres vs Tavira
 

Hello Fodor’s friends, Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My husband and I will be in Portugal between Christmas and New Year’s. Just a week, as I’m a teacher and have to be back to school on January 2. We’ve been to Porto and Lisbon, so are going mainly to check out the Algarve. We know things may not be in full swing since it’s winter and are OK with that.

We’re trying to decide where to base ourselves. We only have about 4 days because the hubby loves Lisbon and wants a couple of days there. I was looking at the pousadas and the ones available are in Tavira (a convent that seems to be right in the town) or right outside Sagres (oceanfront). We both love the idea of being near the water AND being in the center of a town so are having a hard time choosing. We don’t know much about this part of Portugal so would love to hear some opinions. Thanks in advance!

Yes, you're correct that things won't be in full swing in those two sections of the Algarve between Christmas and New Year's. Do I understand that you've already been to Porto and Lisbon on previous visits?
I've been to both Pousadas, the older and very traditonal one in Sagres, facing the ocean, and the newer one in Tavira. It's a tradeoff, since the Pousada in Sagres isn't in the center of town (which I find a bit "scruffy" and "off the grid"). but you have the ocean views and it will be extremely quiet, while the one in Tavira, a former convent, is in the town center or slightly above it and very walkable, but no water views at all, and the water is found on the barrier islands accessible via boat. But Tavira you may find a bit livelier.
The surfing schools around Sagres and to the north on the Costa Vicentina will be closed then, so I imagine it will be very quiet. It was for us when visiting in November.

There are other nice lodgings both on the west coast (Lagos, the most "lively" to Sagres) and the east coast (Tavira and slightly west), but the dilemma is that many of the nice B&Bs or villas may be closed during that period.

Tavira, in the middle of winter can be a coldish empty place (especially if the winds blow) but even then so can Sagres
I believe most of the nicer restaurants are down by the river I guess 400, 500 metres away, but the area is still nice. I'd be happy to spend New Year in Tavira

Tavira does have a very pleasant town center down by the river with some nice restaurants, an indoor market, an excellent wine shop, cafés. I found Sagres to be a forlorn place, even in November.
In addition, it should be warmer and less windswept. And there´s always, with a car, a trip over to Spain to the much more lively town of Ayamonte, which will have its Christmas lights up and a Christmas handicrafts market.

If you are interested in dining at one of Algarve's best restaurants, with a highly regarded female chef (a chef that chefs love), there's Noelia e Jeronimo in Cabanas de Tavira, which provided us with our very best meal of our stay. But I don't know if they will open during the holidays.
https://portugalconfidential.com/noe...avira-algarve/

If a choice between the two, definitely Tavira which is less isolated. I would choose a more central location, either coastal, such as Olhão


or more inland, such as Loulé

Tavira will give you more options, of excursions, of dining in town or outside of town, of day trips to the tiny and picturesque blue and white town of Cacelha Vela, to the Atlantic beaches of Praia Verde, where you can have lunch at the Octant Praia Verde directly facing the ocean, for your "ocean fix" and one of the prettiest Atlantic beaches of the Algarve to boot with beautiful white sand, or north to some villages of the Alentejo. This, of course, requires a car.

I would book a superior double at the Pousada Convento de Tavira, measuring 28 square meters. This will be far more lively than the Pousada of Sagres.

Ohlão doesn't have a Pousada but the very lively and interesting Saturday morning market, both indoors and outdoors, which makes for an interesting and easy day trip east from Tavira.

Some ideas for Tavira
https://juliedawnfox.com/tavira/

If you like octopus, polvo in Portuguese, (and the Portuguese really do this dish best), we had a lovely dinner in Santa Luzia at Polo e Companhia. Easy trip from Tavira.
https://polvoecompanhia.pt

Praia Verde, with full frontal views of the Atlantic.
https://praiaverde.octanthotels.com/en/

You all are the best! Thank you so much for such helpful information, Maribel, Bilboburgler, and Michael.

We’re leaning towards Tavira, but then I was thinking that maybe I shouldn’t be so stuck on staying in a Pousada. So if you we’re basing yourself in any town in the Algarve in the winter, where would it be? I am going to check out Olhão and Loule, Michael. Obrigado!

The Pousadas of Sagres and Tavira actually aren't my favorite ones, the former being very, very traditional and not particularly impressive. The Tavira Pousada is a contemporary re do of a former convent.

Algarve can be a very sleepy place in deep winter but popular with Northern European snowbirds and Canadians seeking a warmer climate, more sun, lower prices, ocean views, slow pace for just relaxing and staying put. We saw many camper vans with Northern European license plates.

Where you base would be dependent, I believe, on if you have a rental car, which I assume you'll have.

Lagos on the west coast, with a population of almost 35,000 would be more lively than Sagres (again, to my eyes, a bit forlorn, scruffy and off the grid).
Tavira has a population of 25,000.

We chose both Lagos & Tavira (we had a longer stay), as travel reports called them "the gems of the Algarve". But we found more interesting spots to explore, more impressive (dramatic) scenery and generally better places to dine in the Lagos area than in Tavira, which is relatively flat and on the Ria Formosa with barrier islands, reachable by boat.
In short, we kept more busy exploring on the west coast than on the east coast with less of interest to us personally.

The villa where we stayed west of Lagos is now a whole house rental, but we did "inspect" the beachside, very upmarket area of Praia de Porto de Mos in Lagos and liked what we found.
Here we looked at the Belmar Spa and Beach Resort, the Cascade Wellness (a complete resort with lots of sports) and the boutique Vivenda Miranda, where a friend stayed and enjoyed, right at the water's edge. The latter we liked best because it's smaller and has a very dramatic perch above the cliffs.
https://vivendamiranda.com

More about Lagos here (but note that the Benagil Caves boat tours are currently somewhat restricted due to traffic but you can still visit by boat but kayaking has been restricted--but this may change)
https://juliedawnfox.com/best-things-to-do-lagos-portugal/
https://www.lagosportugalguide.com/index.html

And an article about the Olhão market
https://culinarybackstreets.com/citi...n-the-road-54/

We didn't visit the "Golden Triangle" with its very luxurious golf resorts around Vilamoura/Vale de Lobo, like Pine Cliffs, the Conrad, Quinta do Lago---they weren't in our price range!

Sagres has a middle of nowhere feel. cant imagine it myself although my parents spent a couple of festive periods there and enjoyed it. Tavira is much much nicer at any time of the year, and has some life in the winter. It is not on the sea but a river that opens onto an estuary.Great bird watching if you are interested. It also has the advantage of being on the railway network, which can take you to Faro and beyond. We travelled from here to Porto on the train.

Would agree with Maribel, have been to Lagos more than a dozen times, and it is definitely where I would stay, a lot more lively with more to do in the area

I, too, enjoyed Lagos. Will you be renting a car? If you'll be taking the train from Lisbon, be aware that from the train station, you'll have to cross the little footbridge that will take you to the Lagos city center (that is, if you choose to go to Lagos). We expected taxis to be waiting at the station, but we were wrong. We didn't stay in Tavira, but not too far away in Altura, as we were headed to Seville (by car) and wanted to overnight somewhere along the wat, but we did visit Tavira and, while much nicer than Altura, it did seem quiet and compared to Lagos. We also visted Sagres.

Great, very helpful. Thank you all very much. So it sounds like Sabre’s wouldn’t be the place us on this trip. We will have a car bc we want to be able to visit a town or two in the vicinity of where we stay. I’m definitely going to check out those recommendations now! Will check back if any of you have other suggested towns or accommodations. I so appreciate the Fodors community!

We stayed in a modern apartment in Lagos, overlooking the channel to the inner harbor.


From my trip report:

We rented an apartment in Lagos ($643 for 6 nights) that probably was the best in terms of amenities (AC, well-equipped kitchen), room, location. It overlooked the channel leading to the pleasure boat harbor and was 10 minutes from the central market for fresh seafood and vegetables, with a supermarket on the way. We did more cooking in this apartment than any other.

Here's the trip report:

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...019-a-1673872/

Nice! Will check out the apartment and trip report!

If you decide on a new-ish, character-filled boutique hotel rather than an apartment and want to be in the center of Lagos (but no sea views), you might want to look at Casa Mae, another Lagos option.
https://casa-mae.com

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/d...asa-mae-hotel/

Maybe to help you decide, I'll just copy what I wrote on another thread about what we did in 8 full days of sightseeing-

"We went to the Algarve at the beginning of November, very off season with surf schools closed and some countryside villa B&Bs about to close, and used our car for many different outings on the west and on the east coasts.
It depends on what you want to explore in the Algarve.

By car, on the west coast, based outside of Lagos at a B&B (w/private parking), we drove to the expansive, beautiful and uncrowded surfing beaches of Praia do Amado, Praia de Bordeira and all the way up to Praia Arrifana for lunch above the dramatic cliffs at O Paulo, at the southern end of the Costa Vicentina (lots of parking there for cars and camper vans), to the windswept and rain swept lighthouse at Cabo São Vicente outside of Sagres (cold and very wet!), to the Ponta de Sagres (both for the views), the Ponte de Piedade, to the castle at Silves, wine touring around Silves (an up-and-coming wine producing region), and to Porches, the ceramic center, where there was plenty of parking at the shops. We also attended the weekly market in Lagos.

On the east coast, based at another B&B (w/private parking) to the west of Tavira, on route from Lagos to Tavira, we used the car to stop at the lively Saturday outdoor/indoor market at Olhão, where we easily found public parking lots at the river's edge, to the "octopus capital" of Santa Luzia for lunch at Casa do Polvo da Tasquinha, to Cabanas for another lunch at Noelia e Jeronimo and a boat to the beaches, to the cute little blue/white town of Cacela Velha, to the (empty) castle and salt marches of Castro Marim (skippable), to the border town of Vila Real de Santo António where Spaniards come in droves to buy towels on its Main Street, and crossed the border to Ayamonte, Huelva province of Spain for an afternoon. We didn't spend time on any of the barrier islands close to Tavira."

The barrier islands in Tavira are great to visit in the summer, I'd not bother in winter and I doubt the little ferry is running anyway

The ferry from the port in the center of Tavira wasn't running but the ferry from the other port, Quatro Aguas, was functioning. Quatro Aguas is about a 25-minute walk from the center of Tavira. We didn't bother but could have gone from Quatro Aguas, albeit with a limited schedule.

https://www.facebook.com/silnido

I've been following this thread and appreciate all of the information! I too was looking a 3ish day at the Pousada in Sagres, but reading the responses I think my 22 yr daughter would not be so pleased. Then somehow I got pulled over to looking at Madeira...I guess I will be planning a second trip soon! I will look into Lagos.