Portimão Travel Forum

I am visiting the area and will be staying in the Lugar do Coca Maravilhas area. Does anyone know where I would get a bus a) to Praia do Carvalho and b) to Aljezur (for Praia da Arrifana).

Also, are taxis readily available close to either of these beaches?

Any help greatly appreciated!

Many thanks

There is a reasonable bus service between Portimao centre and Praia do Carvalho, I have the timetable on my personal website at

www.algarvebus.info/031.htm

Sometimes you need to change buses in Lagoa.

It is around 12 miles from Lugar do Coca Maravilhas to Praia do Carvalho. I dare say you could get a taxi to take you there but whether you could get one to take you back is something I don't know. It's a very nice place but access is, shall we say, not easy as it is about 200 steps down from the road and through a little tunnel hacked out of the rock. The bus stop is about 1/2 mile away.

Praia do Arrifana is a very remote place some 6 miles from the small town of Aljezur way out in the west. According to my map there is not even a road there. Aljezur has three buses a day on weekdays from Lagos, one bus on Saturdays and none on Sundays. Aljezur is about 35 miles from Portimao.

That timetable is here on my site

www.algarvebus.info/036.htm

I have only been to Aljezur twice and I don't recall seeing a taxi there.

There are frequent buses and trains between Portimao and Lagos - www.algarvebus.info/002w.htm for the fast ones and www.algarvebus.info/008htm for the slower local ones. Trains at .../006.htm

Again, if you were willing to pay a large sum of money I dare say you could get a taxi to take you from Lagos to Praia do Arrifana but getting back would be a challenge.

The area you are staying (Lugar do Coca Maravilhas) is about a mile to the north of the Portimao city centre, so you will need either the local buses or a taxi to get to and from the buses and trains in the centre. There are two routes serving the area, you will need to find the nearset stop and check the times etc there.

One thing - until mid-July the buses between Portimao and Praia do Carvalho are diverted from their normal route and will stop at Cardosas and the Rotunda Hospital (the roundabout by the Hospital) which are rather closer to the Lugar do Coca Maravilhas area than the city. After 15th July they will revert to their normal route which goes no where near.

I hope that helps.

Thanks so much - great info.