Benagil

Overview

Benagil is a fishing hamlet of about 60 people on the cliffs between Carvoeiro and Armação de Pêra whose sea cave, the Algar de Benagil, became the single most photographed place in the Algarve: a domed cavern eroded from the side and the top, so that a round hole in the roof lights a beach inside it. Of all the sea caves between Lagos and Albufeira it is the only one open to the sky, and it is 200 m along the cliff from the beach.

The cave can be seen only from a licensed boat since the rules of 2023 and 2024: no landing on the inside beach, no kayaks or paddleboards, a cap on the number of vessels inside at once and two minutes per boat. The hamlet’s own beach, Praia de Benagil, is a small sandy cove with a café, and the cliff path to Praia da Marinha runs above it.

Visiting

Boats leave from Benagil beach itself in small inflatables, and from Carvoeiro, Armação de Pêra, Portimão and Albufeira on longer cave-coast trips that pass a dozen arches and grottoes on the way; the Benagil stop is the two minutes inside under the skylight, with the boat idling while everyone photographs the roof. Morning light through the hole is the best; the afternoon sun comes in from the sea entrance instead.

From the beach the cliff path goes east over the top of the cave, where a fenced hole in the ground is the skylight seen from above, and on for 20 minutes to Praia da Marinha with its arches and stacks; westwards it runs to Carvoeiro.

History

Benagil lived from fishing into the late 20th century, as the whole Lagoa coast did; Carvoeiro along the cliffs was a fishing village that grew with the canning industry and then, from the 1960s, with tourism, and the caves along its cliffs, once a curiosity for the boatmen, became the reason people came. The cave was reached by swimming or kayak from the beach until the crowds of the 2010s made it dangerous, with drownings and collisions in the entrance; from 2023 the port authority restricted access to sanctioned tours, from August 2024 capped numbers and time, and there are proposals for an admission fee.

Tips

• Book the boat ahead in summer; the beach operators sell out by mid-morning and the sea can cancel them any day the swell is up.
• Do not swim to the cave; people have died doing it and the boats now have the entrance to themselves.
• The view from the top of the cliff, through the skylight, is free and needs no boat.
• Parking at Benagil is a few dozen spaces; walk from Marinha or come by boat from Carvoeiro instead.

Nearby

• Praia da Marinha: 20 minutes east on the cliff path.
• Carvoeiro: 6 km west.
• Algar Seco rock pools at Carvoeiro: on the way.
• Armação de Pêra: 8 km east.