Faro

Overview

Most people who land in Faro leave it within the hour, which is their loss: behind the airport city is a walled old town on a lagoon, a cathedral with a view from its tower, a bone chapel, a university, and the ferries to the barrier islands of the Ria Formosa, where the beaches are wilder and emptier than anything on the resort coast. It has been the capital of the Algarve since 1756, when the earthquake and tsunami wrecked the rest of the coast and the lagoon’s sandbanks spared Faro, and it is the southernmost city on the mainland, with 46,000 people in the city and 70,000 in the municipality.

In summer it is a sun destination in its own right, friendlier by reputation than the resorts to the west; out of season the beach crowds go and it becomes a quiet small city that is the natural stop between Lisbon and Seville and the base for the eastern Algarve.

Neighbourhoods

The old town and the marina

The walled Cidade Velha and the marina in front of it, with the two four-star hotels facing the water and the boats to the islands leaving from the quay, are the centre of a visit; the tourist office and the tour booths are on the Avenida da República along the harbour.

Downtown

The pedestrian streets north of the old town, around the Rua de Santo António, are the shops, cafés and cheap restaurants, with the Rua do Prior as the bar street; the train and bus stations are within 250 m of each other on the north-west edge, a few hundred metres from it all. Supermarkets are in the centre and the malls out on the N125.

Montenegro and the university

West of the centre towards the airport are the university campuses, founded in 1979 with 10,000 students, the stadium and the airport hotels; the Praia de Faro peninsula beyond is the beach suburb.

See & do

The old town

The Cidade Velha sits inside its walls behind the marina, a few cobbled streets of 18th-century houses with Moorish traces, so quiet that a walk through it can feel private. The cathedral in the middle of it was consecrated in the late 13th century, became the seat of the diocese in 1540 when it moved from Silves, and was burned by the Earl of Essex’s raid in 1596; the €5 ticket is for the tower, whose view over the roofs and the lagoon is the best thing in the city.

The bone chapel and the churches

The Igreja do Carmo, an 18th-century Carmelite church in the newer town, has the Capela dos Ossos behind it, built from the bones of the monks’ cemetery, €2; it is one of several in the south. The Jewish cemetery of 1851 by the hospital, the last trace of the post-Inquisition community that the city called Little Jerusalem, is open free on weekday mornings and afternoons.

The lagoon

The Ria Formosa is a system of barrier islands and six inlets, 170 km² of protected lagoon, a Ramsar site and a stopover for migrating birds, and Faro’s quay is the door to it. Ferries run to the Praia de Faro on its peninsula by the airport, to the Ilha Deserta, the island of Barreta, 7 km of sand with the southernmost point of the mainland at its tip and nothing built on it, by ferry in 45 minutes or fast boat in 15 at €5 or €10, and in summer to Farol and Culatra, the two villages on Culatra island, at €3 to €3.50 one way; the timetables are on the municipality’s website and the tour booths are on the Avenida da República. Birdwatching trips, kayaking and eco-tours leave from Faro and Olhão.

Estoi

Ten kilometres north, the village of Estoi has the Roman villa of Milreu, the best-preserved Roman site in the Algarve, with fish-patterned floors, baths and a temple that became a church, and the Estoi Palace, a rococo-and-everything confection finished in 1909 by the Viscount of Estoi and now partly a hotel. Farense, the city’s club, went down to the second tier in 2025 and play at the 7,000-seat São Luís a kilometre from the centre.

Food & drink

The cataplana of fish or octopus, the clams of the lagoon and fried calamari are the Faro plates, and the cheap places do them well: a menu of the day at €11 in a tapas house, home cooking at €5 to €10 in a hidden family restaurant, a snack bar by the bus station, and the supermarket restaurant at Tridente for the cheapest hot lunch in town. Mid-range means €15 to €25 in the taverns of the old town and the streets around the cathedral, one of which refuses cards; the splurge end is a rooftop and a few tasting rooms at €50 and up. The municipal market on the Largo Dr. Francisco Sá Carneiro, Monday to Saturday mornings, has the fish and the fruit.

Nightlife

The Rua do Prior is the bar street, with places open until 04:00 that draw the students and the twenty-somethings, and the marina cafés and the hotel rooftop bar are the quieter version. For clubs the coast goes west; Faro’s night is a university one, busier in term than in August.

When to go

June to September. Summer highs average 27 to 35 °C, the islands’ ferries run their full timetable, the beach is warm and the city is a sun destination; book the hotels.

April to May, October. Mild, quieter, the lagoon full of birds on migration and the Deserta boat still running; the best of it.

November to March. Around 8 to 16 °C with six hours of sun a day, many beach places closed, flights thinner and hotel prices at their lowest; the city itself is at its most pleasant.

Getting there

By air. Faro airport (FAO) is 4 km west of the centre, with budget flights from across Europe, TAP from Lisbon and Porto, and more than 10 million passengers in 2025; city buses 14 and 16 run every 30 minutes from the terminal to the centre and on to the beach, and every hire company has a desk in the terminal.

By train. Five trains a day from Lisbon’s Oriente take about three hours; six a day from Lagos take 1 h 45; hourly regional trains come from Vila Real de Santo António on the border in 70 minutes via Tavira. The station, 500 m north-west of the centre, has a ticket office, a café and luggage storage at the agency on platform 1.

By coach and car. The bus station at the edge of the centre has daily services from Lisbon, about four hours for €18 to €19, from Porto, and from Seville and Madrid; FlixBus stops in the south of the city. By road the A22 passes north of the city and is toll-free since 2025.

Getting around

The centre is small and flat and everything is on foot. Próximo runs the city buses, €2.70 from the driver, with the 14 and 16 to the airport and the beach; Vamus Algarve runs the regional network to the rest of the coast, and the train is the way to Olhão in 10 minutes and Tavira in 40. Bolt and Uber cover the town; parking in the centre is paid and hard, with free car parks beside the bus station and behind the old town on the Olhão side. The ferries and water taxis to the islands are the rest.

Where to stay

Faro has package hotels, short-let apartments and, in high season, residents renting every spare room; book months ahead for July and August, and expect closures in the low season. The two four-stars on the harbour, one with a rooftop pool and bar open to non-guests, run from about €95 to €170 a double by season; hostels in the old town have dorms and twins with balconies; an Ibis and a hotel near the airport, university and stadium at €45 to €70 cover the budget end.

Practical info

Faro is safe and easy; the practical points are the ferry timetables, which change by season and are worth checking on the municipality’s site before planning an island day, and the airport buses, which do not take large luggage. The city has 4G from all carriers and 5G from most. Car hire booked from home is cheaper than the airport desks in season. For money, plugs and pharmacies see the Portugal guide.

Places to visit

Cathedral

• Cathedral of Faro — The old town cathedral and its tower over the Ria Formosa