Unexpected Paradise in Portugal

Sometimes we plan trips way in advance, for what seems like months, looking up the best places for our family to stay, making sure the costs are manageable, setting and resetting itineraries that will allow us to see what we want to see in a new city yet still keep our young girls happy. It's a lot of hard work, and many of times everything we've planned goes wrong.  For our Easter 2014 trip, we quickly booked a trip to the city of Lagos in the Algarves on the southwest tip of Portugal a few weeks prior departing, didn't do any research into the area or give any thought into what we were getting ourselves into. The flights and condo were cheap, so we went with it. We knew to pack bathing suits and pray for sunshine as it was still quite early in the spring season........ and we lucked out.  Our trip to Portugal was probably the best trip we had so far. We saw amazing coasts we never expected, ate fantastic food, lucked out with great weather for the time of year, and our girls had an amazing week building sand castles on the beach.

Lagos is a town with more than 2000 years of history. It has a significant history from the age of discovery and was once the center of the European slave trade....... all very neat facts, but let's be honest, we loved the fact it was on the coast, with a cute city center littered with shops and restaurants and had clear blue water, soft sand and numerous beach front bars to relax while watching the girls play on the coast

The view from Meia Preia, a mile long sandy beach that looks back into the city center

Shopping in the city center. We loved walking to and from the beaches through the mostly car-less streets, picking up trinkets along the way

One of our favorite things about Lagos was that the beach area was not lined with ocean front condos or homes. Some of the bigger beaches we went to had at least a half mile between the beach to any significant building structure. This left a beautiful, natural feeling and plenty of room for a few discreet beach bars. We spent most afternoons sipping cocktails at the bar, overlooking the ocean and the girls playing in the sand.

Since it was mid April when we visited, the water was still frigid cold. The girls didn't mind too much, and we loved the fact that the water was cold enough to keep them safely above water. Hours were passed dipping their toes in the water, then running away with chattering teeth.

We were so surprised upon arrival to find out about all of the beach coves that lined the coast of the Algarve's. This beach cove, Praia de Camilo was well worth the 300 steps through the cliff it took to get down to the seaside!

We hired a local Portuguese tour guide to take us through all the coastal grottos. We got on the boat not knowing what to expect, hanging on for dear life to our small children on some choppy cliff side waters. For 45 minutes we got to go see and go in and out of some jaw-dropping, coral filled, bright blue and green grottos. It was the best part of our trip.

Our days started with trips to Cafe Odean. A super friendly hole in the wall, seating for 12 people restaurant with unbelievably low prices and the best pancakes we've ever had in our lives. Ever since, our new taste benchmark for pancakes is from those at Cafe Odean. I doubt we will ever find any as good. (Thank you Trip Advisor for the recommendation)

Spending the day in relatively deserted beaches, relaxing in the sun, and seeing our girls enjoy everything around them made for the best holiday we could have asked or planned for. We are bummed we didn't head to Portugal earlier in our time overseas, as we would have made more trips down to the sunny coast of the Algarves.

Dreaming of beachfront bars and to-die-for pancakes,

~L, L, A&S