Tavira

Overview

Tavira is the Algarve as it was before the airport: a small white town on both banks of the Gilão, 28 km east of Faro, with a castle, an arched bridge the locals call Roman, 37 churches for a population of 13,000, and a lagoon between it and the sea whose island beach is reached by ferry. It was one of the three cities of the Moorish Algarve, was taken in 1242, prospered as a port until the tuna moved and the river silted, and has grown gently on tourism since the 1960s without becoming a resort.

It is Portugal’s representative community for the UNESCO listing of the Mediterranean diet, which tells you about the food, and it is 45 minutes from Faro by hourly train, which tells you it is the easy base for the eastern Algarve and the Ria Formosa.

Neighbourhoods

The old town, west bank

Between the castle hill and the river are the churches, the square, the tourist office, the hotels in old houses and the pousada in a former convent; it is the base, and everything is a few minutes on foot.

The east bank

Across the bridge are the riverside restaurants, the market quay for the island ferry, the newer town and the main station on the Largo de Santo Amaro.

Santa Luzia and Cabanas

The two fishing villages either side of the town, Santa Luzia 3 km west and Cabanas 6 km east, are where the fishermen and the restaurants that serve their catch are, each with a lagoon-side front and the islands beyond.

See & do

The castle hill

The Castelo de Tavira, Moorish in origin and rebuilt after the reconquest, is a few stretches of wall with a garden inside and the best view of the roofs and the lagoon from the top; the church of Santa Maria do Castelo beside it, built after 1242 and rebuilt after the earthquake, keeps the Gothic doorway and twin window of the original. The Igreja da Misericórdia below it is the best Renaissance church in the Algarve, three naves on columns with an 18th-century gilded altarpiece.

The river and the square

The bridge across the Gilão is Tavira’s emblem, called Roman but dating from the 16th or 17th century and rebuilt in 1992 after the flood of 1989 damaged it; the Praça da República with the town hall, the tourist office and the cafés is at its western end. The tuna-fishing museum at the Quatro Águas hotel, free, records the industry that made the town, and one of the oldest olive trees in Portugal, more than 2,000 years old, stands inside the Pedras d’El Rei holiday village.

The island and the beaches

The Ilha de Tavira is the town’s beach, a barrier island of the Ria Formosa reached by ferry from the quay by the Ribeira market or from Quatro Águas; Praia do Barril, next to Pedras d’El Rei and 3 km west, is reached by a miniature train across the lagoon and has the anchor cemetery, rows of rusting anchors left by the tuna fleet. Cabanas de Tavira, 6 km east, has its own island and beach by boat; boat tours into the lagoon go for the flamingos, storks and kingfishers.

Food & drink

Tavira’s food is the Mediterranean diet that UNESCO listed with the town as its Portuguese example: fish from the lagoon and the sea, olive oil, vegetables and bread. Restaurants line the river and the square, with a few serving only what their own gardens grow and small plates from €5 to €19; Santa Luzia’s restaurants are the ones for octopus and seafood straight off the boats. The sweet is the folhado de Tavira, a puff pastry rolled in sugar, which Wikivoyage says not to miss and which is right.

Nightlife

A café on the square, a drink on the river and an early night: Tavira’s evening is its own argument, and the pace, as the region page says, is closer to the Alentejo than to Albufeira. Summer brings a few bars on the east bank and the island’s beach bar to life.

When to go

May to September. Beach weather with the ferries running, the lagoon calm and the island beach at its best; July and August fill the town without overwhelming it.

October to April. Mild, with the rain concentrated in November and December, the odd frost once a year and the town at its quietest; the castle, the churches and the birds do not need the sun.

Getting there

By train. Roughly hourly from Faro, 45 minutes, on the line to Vila Real de Santo António; the trains stop at Tavira’s main station on the Largo de Santo Amaro, at the Porta Nova halt north-east of the centre and at Conceição for Cabanas. Change at Faro for Lisbon and Lagos.

By air and road. Faro airport is a 45-minute drive, Seville’s two hours, Lisbon’s three; Vamus Algarve and Rede Expressos coaches serve the town, and ALSA runs from Faro to Seville. The A22 and the N125 pass just north of the town.

Getting around

Tavira is small and perfectly walkable, and the tourist office on the square has the maps. A small tour train loops the landmarks, electric tuk-tuks do the lagoon side quietly, the Barril train crosses to the beach from Pedras d’El Rei, and the ferries leave from the market quay and Quatro Águas for the island.

Where to stay

The pousada in the former convent on the castle hill is the historic luxury, a four-star on the Rua 4 de Outubro the comfortable middle, and the old town has a stock of inland bed-and-breakfasts and guesthouses, including farmhouses in the villages behind the town; Cabanas and Santa Luzia have apartments by the water. Wikivoyage’s description of the town as full of bed-and-breakfasts is accurate, and August is the only month they fill.

Practical info

The tourist office is at Praça da República 5, open daily with a lunch break at weekends. The island ferries keep a summer timetable and thin out in winter, and the Barril train does the same; check before walking to the quay. 4G is from all carriers and 5G from three. The Gran Plaza mall on the edge of town has the cinema and the supermarket. For money, plugs and pharmacies see the Portugal guide.