The Eastern Algarve: Tavira December 30, 2024 - January 4, 2025

 

Sunset walk out on the salt pans

“If there is one portion of Europe which was made by the sea more than another, Portugal is that slice, that portion, that belt. Portugal was made by the Atlantic.” – Hilaire Belloc

For our thirteenth wedding anniversary (Seriously? It seems like yesterday.) , we decided to go back to Tavira, a town we used as a base for hiking in the Eastern Algarve two years ago. There's plenty to like!

Tavira's origins go back to the Bronze Age where, due to its location on the Atlantic and the barrier islands making it a reasonable port for small boats, it was occupied by the Phoenicians in approximately 800 BC. They created a colonial urban center here with massive walls, at least one sanctuary, two harbors and a regular urban structure which lasted until the end of 6th century BC, when the location was abandoned in favor of a near-by site, probably due to the progressive progradation of the delta where it was located at the mouth of the river Gilao.

In this map of Southern Portugal, you will see Tavira  in the far right of the bottom, close to the border with Spain. Tavira borders on the Atlantic before the origin of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea.

After laying abandoned for a century, it was revived and became an even larger settlement under the Roman Emporer Augustus. They preferred an area about 7km from Tavira named Balsa for their industry, but Tavira remained a secondary city in the passage between Balsa and Castro Marim to the west. Today (and also by the 8th century AD), Balsa is extinct and Castro Marim is now a quaint fishing village. Tavira is the survivor. There are a number of extant Roman elements today, including the foundations of their lovely footbridge across the Rio Gilao at the center of town. 

A view from the distance of the Tavira footbridge.

The Roman Bridge of Tavira. Now cobblestones but has been wood in the past. 

Even the locals will admit that very little could possibly be left of this bridge from the Roman occupation of Tavira. But why let the truth ruin a good story, right? We saw some vintage photos of this bridge in the local photography museum in which it was wooden and  filled with ducks, sheep and pigs. Now it's mostly locals, some of them on walkers (which can't be easy) and tourists. No cars allowed.

With the city of Balsa extinct and Tavira surviving but not too expansive, enter the Moors. They occupied the area until the 13th century and brought with them culture, architecture, and farming. There is a really nice museum next to the information center in Tavira called Museu Islamico that has many artifacts of the era as well as a film with English subtitles describing life in Tavira during Moorish rule. There are certainly more vestiges of the Moors than the Romans as you wander about. 

During the Moorish occupation, there was a castle built to defend the city. This is the archway to the former mosque and the building on the left was part of the fortifications. The modern museum is housed in part of this building. 

The modern day Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo on the hilltop is converted from a mosque built during the Moorish occupation of Tavira

The gardens at the Castelo

Echoes of the Moorish era seen throughout the city are these door knockers.

During the time the Moors were there, there was quite a flourish in agriculture with two very large farms that supplied the city in addition to neighborhoods (including one "devoted to Jewry" in the words of the museum curator) as well as the market, fishing industry, government and military buildings.  There is currently a very nice but small garden in the castle area with remaining walls you can ascend by stairs to get a good look over the city of Tavira. 

The city center along the banks of the Gilao River. 

Lit up at night.

Streets decorated for Christmas

A typical street corner. This restaurant, Ponto de Encontro, serves typical and delicious local food at very reasonable prices. 

In 1242, the Moors were supplanted by  Dom Pao Peres Correia who overtook Tavira in a bloody conflict of retaliation after seven of his principal Knights were killed while deer hunting near Tavira during a period of truce between the Christians and Moors. Dom Paio's troops decimated most of Tavira's population and the few survivors were kept in a tiny quarter known as "Mouraria".  The city has been subject to various vagaries of Portugal in general since that time, including a major earthquake in 1755, but seems not too much worse for the wear. 

Panoramic view of modern day Tavira from the remains of the Moorish Castelo

So, that's how this lovely and not overly touristed town got to where it is today. What do we like about it? Well mostly, it is a great area for walking, friendly locals, not too expensive and I'm there are plenty of nice restaurants. And it's quiet. Definitely NOT the place for the wild partying crowd. There are a few places open after 11pm and generally everyone is in bed by midnight.

Here are some of our favored walks in the area. Most are accessible on foot if you really enjoy walking (as in 5-10 miles on foot.) There is a train service that runs roughly hourly between Faro (gateway to the Algarve) to Vila Real do Santo Antonio  (the Spanish border), plenty of buses, and even UBER is pretty easy to use here.  So don't be discouraged if you are not really a walker. 

1. One really fun thing to do is just to walk (aimlessly if you so choose)  around the salt pans. The salt industry is still active here and there are literally miles and miles of walkable salt pans at the edge of the city full of not only of salt, but marsh and sea birdlife. We particularly enjoy spotting the flamingos, but they don't like us all that much and tend to fly off immediately. You can also see large, storks, seagulls, oystercatchers, stilts, herons, terns, plovers, avocets, cormorants, little grebes and the common shellduck with a complement of non-aquatic birds like magpies on your way. 

Seagulls abound

The flamingoes here are predominantly white, but we do see some pink ones and variegated.

Yes, there are actually big mounds of salt piled about, although the harvest appears to be seasonal. The salt is hand-produced literally by the ton for industrial and culinary purposes.

Buildings from whence salt work is  done by hand are scattered about, though often in a state of disrepair.

Flor de Sal Tavira is hand-harvested sea salt, obtained by the natural precipitation of water from the Atlantic Ocean, which circulate through a series of pools until it finally crystallizes in the salt pans. They are unrefined, unwashed and additive-free sea salts. ‘Sal de Tavira’ and ‘Flor de Sal de Tavira’ are hallmarks of the Algarve region, known to contain natural iodine in beneficial quantities and trace elements present in seawater. They are also free of mud and other insoluble substances. ‘Sal de Tavira’ is sea salt consisting of crystals which form at the bottom of salt pans and it is extracted by hand with a special tool called a ‘rodo’.  For its part, ‘Flor de Sal de Tavira’ has a different mineral salt content and is much more fragile when rubbed between the fingers than ‘Sal de Tavira’. It has its own characteristic proportions of chemical elements and appears different to the naked eye. ‘Flor de Sal de Tavira’ is hand-harvested by removing the top layer of salt which forms in the pans with a special tool called a ‘coador’ before the rest of the salt sinks to the bottom.

The salt pans where ‘Sal de Tavira’/‘Flor de Sal de Tavira’ are produced are located in the Ria Formosa National Park, which comprises the parishes of Santa Luzia, Santiago and Santa Maria in the municipality of Tavira. The specific characteristics of these products result, to a large extent, from the area’s climatic conditions and because of the fact that there are no environmentally damaging activities (such as heavy industry or intensive farming) in this part of the Ria Formosa. Additionally, the experience and knowledge of the local people are also extremely important to the quality of the product, as they understand how to prepare the salt pans, clean them and remove any mud therefore ensuring that a quality product, free of undesirable foreign matter, is obtained.

Santa Luzia, the neighbor town to Tavira, is famed for octopus fishing. 

2. Walk (about 3 miles), but bus, train or Uber to Santa Luzia. This is a nice walk through pans and ocean walkway to this small town famed for octopus harvesting. Nearly all 1500 residents appear to be involved in some way in either harvesting octopus, selling it raw or cooking it up for you to gobble. 

The waterfront of Santa Luzia and traps for the octopus.

Paul gets into the spirit of Santa Luzia

Yep. They are all about the octopus everywhere...

They even have a metal sculpture crawling down the side of a restaurant.

And if you are willing to saunter down another mile and half you will reach the next great walk that we really love at Pedras da El-Rei (again accessible by bus, car, Uber) to:

3. Ilha de Taviera. This is a great walk and,if you prefer, a ferry ride. You can either take the ferry from downtown Taviera down the Gilao River to the island or take it back to Taviera from the island, or take it both ways. Since we wanted a long walk, we walked from Taviera to Pedras da Rei and walked out a boardwalk (although you can take a small train at this point) to Praia do Barril. This is a beach that runs the length of the Ilha de Tavira, which a barrier island in front of the city of Tavira only accessible by boat (or excellent swimming). This is a long (several miles of) beach with no one much around in the winter. We gather that Praia do Barril is a favorite of locals and more distant Europeans in the summer. At the end of train cars on the beach and also at the  far end of the island near the ferry, there is a small settlement of houses and restaurants. There is also a "graveyard of anchors" from the former fishing industry now gone from the island. This is a lovely and unspoiled walk---lots of shells, few people and NO CONDOS. 

Graveyard of the Anchors on Barril Beach at the beginning of our 3-4 mile beach walk to the ferry

In winter, it was pretty much deserted except at both ends where the train/ferry bring in the beachgoers.

The ferry from Taviera

When you get to the end of ferry ride, you will go up the mouth of the Ria Gilao into Taviera and you will float past another structure that we hiked to:

4. Forte de Rato

Another walk through the flowers and salt pans...

This fort was built by the locals to defend against Moorish pirates coming up the Gilao River. Unfortunately during the 40 years it was being built during the mid 1500s, the mouth of the river moved about 1/4 of a mile, but it was still used to some extent and manned by 12 soldiers. Of course, they built another fort nearby.

A view from the Atlantic side.

Near the fort in an old tuna canning factory is an all inclusive hotel complete with indoor pool,spa and three hearty meals a day for a very reasonable price ( at least in winter.)

Walking to the fort from the historic quarter of Tavira and back was between 7-8 miles, but could definitely be shortened by an Uber ride out there. Walking past the mall of Tavira wasn't exactly scenic.

If walking isn't your thing, Tavira also has the previously mentioned photography museum(all local stuff by a single family,) Islamic history museum as well as a city museum and a small art museum that we didn't visit. Or it's a great place to relax, read a book and take in some fine dining.  There's even a Michelin one star restaurant, A Ver Tavira, and A Mesa is a Michelin bib gourmand. Both have excellent food and amazing Portuguese wines. A Ver Tavira will probably strain some pocketbooks, but A Mesa is very affordable. But in general, most restaurants have really good, local, fresh fare.  And don't forget the bakeries and gelato shops. (That's why we have to walk 5-10 miles every day!)

This tiny bakery called Mr. Portuguese had gluten free foods if you need them and also savory cinnamon rolls

Shrimp course at A Ver Tavira

This appetizer at A Ver was served in custom made pottery 

Relax you bourbon aficionados. You can get a Manhattan.

Paul says the coffee is primo, too!

We highly recommend Tavira-- at least in the winter where weather is temperate -- and would come back in a heartbeat. 

"Oh salted sea, how much of thy salt is tears of Portugal?

                      - Fernando Pessoa

Paul's Ponderings:  It was nice to return to Tavira, which is a great place to be this time of year.   It's a beautiful town and surrounded by lots of great walking (see above).    The weather every day was mid 60s to upper 60s and sunny, but chillier at night than when we were here two years ago, albeit not anywhere near as cold as home....more like upper 40s.    Dining options range from Michelin rated (great work by Luis Brito) to pizza that won't break your bank and everything in between.   Food is cheap at the grocery as well, which we used for breakfast in our rental home.   Apparently it can get pretty crowded here in the summer and/or warm weather, but we've been here twice in late December/early January and it has been just wonderful.    If you're looking for a sandy beach and a tan, this is not for you, but if you like walking and great food with minimal crowds in a picture perfect coastal town, this is great.

I have to recommend the train system as well; we took it from Lisbon (aka, Lisboa) down to Faro and then took a taxi from there over to Tavira.    It's not expensive and it is very comfortable.   We were about 20 minutes late getting into Faro, but no big deal.    Lots of countryside to look at on the journey and you can buy food on board in the dining car.    The train station itself is a bit confusing being organized by "lines".   They did post the platform (aka, "line") in advance, but when the train was late, there was no "expected at" time for any train, so you just had to hang around and wait for it to show, at which point it was posted as the original time (e.g., in the past).     There are also no markings on the platform to help you know where the numbered cars are.     That sounds like a lot of complaints, but we just asked at the ticket window what line/platform the train was on way in advance, watched the monitor, and then being seasoned travelers knew the train would show up.   Announcements about trains were in Portuguese until (oddly) the Faro train came in, when the added an English one...tourists perhaps?    We did leave from not a main station, like Lisbon Oriente, so it may be different there....we used Sete Rios station.    Bottom line, it all went fine, just wanted to spell out some info on this topic for anyone reading this -- the train itself was great and we did not have a problem since we paid attention and planned ahead.  

Next up, we move over to Olhao, which we visited for a day a couple of years ago.   Much bigger town and we want to give it a go as far as how it compares to Tavira.    Stay tuned for that part of our adventure.