Day 44 - Trip to Olhao and Armona Island

Statue of Floripes in Olhao, a legendary moorish woman who seduces fishermen

We went on a day trip to the town of Olhao this day.

It was sunny, with a daytime high of about 21C (locals wearing sweaters in the morning!).
Olhao is about a 45-50min drive from Olhos D’Agua or Albufeira. We had not visited this town before. It is not known for tourism or touristy activities. It is however a nice town, worthy of a visit if you are in the eastern Algarve for a longer stay. We parked in a public parking lot right next to the waterfront market buildings. We visited on a Saturday, which is the big market day. Olhao has two large market buildings, one for seafood only and the other for produce. On the market day there are also stalls setup outside the market buildings with locals selling different wares. The markets were very busy with mostly locals buying their weekly supplies.

After twacking around the markets we took a walkabout around the pedestrian streets in the centro area. The streets are cobblestone and they are adorned with uniquely painted planters, shaped like the bow of a ship. While walking around we came upon a couple of streets with amazing maritime themed murals painted on the buildings. After a nice walkabout it was time to eat so we scouted various restaurants and had a prata da dia lunch at a local restaurant. Prices here are better than some other towns on the Algarve. There are lots of restaurants in the centre area to choose from. After lunch we headed back to the harbour front to check into taking a ferry to Armona Island. This was an easy process, buying a return ferry ticket near the dock. We took the 3pm ferry over and came back on the 5:30pm run. The return ticket cost about 3.70 Euros each. It is a unique place and worth the trip if you have time. There is a not a lot to see on the island and you must be prepared to walk about 1.5km to get to the better beach on the far side of the island.

Here is a description of Olhoa from a tourism website:
“Olhão is a traditional and characterful fishing town in the central region of the Algarve.
The town has a pretty waterfront, a busy fishing harbour and a maze of cobbled back streets within the fishermen’s quarter. Olhão opens out onto the calm waterways and lagoons of the Parque Natural da Ria Formosa, while to the south are the sandbar islands of Ilha da Armona and Ilha da Culatra, with their beautiful beaches.
Olhão is one of the only towns within the Algarve where the primary focus is not tourism; this is a busy fishing town, with a hardworking people. Olhão is also a comparatively new town; the first stone building was only constructed in the late 17th century, and the Nossa Senhora church dates from 1715.
This lack of historic sights and working town appearance may deter certain tourists, but this is a shame, as Olhão is the most authentically Portuguese town in the Algarve. The restaurants and cafes are filled with Portuguese, the traditional fishermen’s houses are owned by locals, and the predominant language heard is Portuguese.”
Here is a description of Armona from a tourism website:
“Ilha da Armona is an island in the Ria Formosa Natural Park, off the coast of the city of Olhão. Actually, that’s the name of the western side of the island, as the eastern is known as Ilha da Fuseta. It’s 9km (almost 6 miles) long and 1km (over half a mile) wide, and has just 800 homes. This was originally a fishing community, but many residents now work in the tourism industry.

Here are some pictures from our day in Olhao and Armona….