Day 52 Trip to Vilamoura & Quarteira

Today the weather was beautiful, daytime high of 28C.

We visited Vilamoura and Quarteira today. Vilamoura is a resort town along the Algarve coast. It was constructed in the 1980s as a golfing destination and has five very good golf courses within about 12min drive. Vilamoura is about a 35min drive from Albufeira and 15min from Olhos d’Agua. It is often the base for people to stay who come golfing in the Algarve. There is not much authentic Portuguese about it. It has lots of pricey shops, restaurants, bars and hotels. It has a very nice marina and beach front area and very nice beaches to the east and west. You will find all of these places filled with British golfing tourists.

What I would call the sister town, immediately adjacent to Vilamoura, is the town of Quarteira. This is where, I suspect, all of the Portuguese people who work in Vilamoura live. Quarteira has many apartment buildings, whereas Vilamoura has “villas” and hotels. Quarteira has a nice beachfront promenade and beach. It has more local flavoured restaurants and shops. Just the same it doesn’t have much charm or Portuguese character.

We did not take any pictures of Vilamoura on this visit! So below you will see a few pics of the Quarteira promenade and then some 2022 pictures of Vilamoura, from our 2022 Portugal trip.

Quarteira: