Coastal Algarve & Fishermen’s Trail

Bring walking poles and download trail maps.

You will be rewarded with magnificent views, inaccessible other than by foot. Unspoilt headlands and remote beaches are the reward for some challenging ascents and descents.

The Bella Vista in Luz was a great place to stay, comfortable, clean and with good facilities, close enough to the town to access local restaurants. We enjoyed food at Latitude and also a Chicken Piri piri place which was just down from the hotel. 

Casa Praia in Salema had great views, was well equipped and comfortable. We ate at the Atlantica 1 evening which was good , they also have very nice icecreams! and at Casa Pizza on Rua De Pescadores another night. Food here was good, a wide choice, friendly staff and an upstairs terrace with great views.

Hotel in Villa Bispo was clean and functional, breakfast didn't offer alot of choice. But they did offer a choice of picnic options.

Pousada Hotel in Sagres was fantastic, great location, and the dinner we had on our first night there was exceptional. Choice from the full menu. THe staff were friendly and attentive. on our 2nd night we are at Restaurant Gigis in Sagres.

We enjoyed our holiday, some of the walks were more challenging than others, I'd recomend boots rather than shoes particularly for the last days final part of the walk over the stoney path towards the lighthouse.

The last 5kms to Villa Bispo were on a long, featureless track. it was a relief to see the town come into view.

Another good Inntravel holiday with beautiful and varied coastal walks. (Although this makes the route popular.) For us, good walking boots and poles were helpful to cope with sometimes steep and often rocky terrain.

All of the hotels were excellent, although the Mira Sagres was a more basic than the others. All of the included evening meals were very good.

We also had excellent meals at

-  Latitude in Praia da Luz

-  O Lourenco in Salema

-  Aspa in Vila de Bispo

-  Vila Velha in Sagres.

Many thanks again to the Inntravel team.

Some of the most memorable coastal landscapes we have encounetred in fifty years of hiking.

The coastal path was a lot busier than we expected and some of the ascents and descents were much steeper than we expected of a grade 2 walk. The scenery was beautiful however we found the detour up to Vila do Bispo tedious and the hotel was decidedly mediocre and probably only got its 3 star rating by value of the fact it had a pool. The last day we seemed to be walking with so many other people, all of whom wanted to set off around 9.30. Lots of people around you for the entire walk. 

We too can highly recommend Latitude in Praia da Luz, a good twist on tapas.  In Salema both O Lourenco and Agua na Boca are well worth eating at. 

Vila Mar was worth the upgrade and Memmo Baleeira surpassed expectations although we did have to wait until 3.30 to get into the room. 

Really enjoyed this holiday. We were surprised how warm it was in October. The longest walk (17k) was too long on a hot day and we cut it short. Some of the ascents and decents into coves are steep and I would describe them as short 'scrambles' requiring use of hands and feet.The walking notes don't properly reflect this level of difficulty. I would recommend walking boots rather than trainers.

We had another excellent holiday. The walks were good with great views.  The final part of the walk to Vila do Bispo is very monotonous in comparison with the rest of the holiday.  The buses from the lighthouse at Cabo S. Vincente to Sagres are few and far between, the walk into Sagres, whilst a bit tedious (along a road all the way) is very easy.  We added on extra days at the first and last hotel which gave us more time to explore the area.  At Sagres we walked back to where we left the Fisherman's trail on day 4, and would recommend doing so, it's another varied walk with good views.  At Sagres we took a boat trip and again recommend doing so, it's also an option at Salema. Meals out ~ we used followed a lot of previous recommendations and ate at Latitude and Fortaleeza Da Luz in Pria da Luz both really good.  O Laurenco and A Boia in Salema, O Laurenco was particulalry good ~ get there early or book. Pisco in Val do Bispo is great for interesting pizza.  In Sagres we enjpyed the excellent atmosphere at Three Little Birds and would definitely recomment the Bossa Brewhouse ~ beer brewed on site and excellent food, it can found behind the Drommedaria bar which you will pass as you walk into Sagres

Coastal scenery was stunning .

final hotel at Sagres was a perfect ending 

The Good news:- The detailed routing description of the walks in the folder is 98% accurate, there was only one addition we would've made to keep us straight in a path off a dodgy campers car park! The GPX is worth downloading too.

The hotels are all fine.

The grading is accurate.

The routes (in terms of what you see) on days 2 and 3 are nice and don't miss the dinosaur footprints (it is a national park, which should be mentioned in the guidebook but isn't)

Do this route (with changes) in Spring to catch the flowers.

The Things to change!

Just get Inntravel to provide a taxi from the airport at Faro to your hotel, you will save a very long wait at Faro station, a Covid ridden train journey for 2 hours where you can't see out of the windows and an impossible dismount with baggage from the train (or you need to be good at weightlifting heavy bags up steep train steps).

Change the direction of walking so that you arrive in Lagos on day 2, rather than leave it (note to Inntravel); 

Day 4:- instead of being dropped off in Figuera and walking to Vila de Bospa (which included 2 hours of dusty flat, boring track walking at the end...why not stay overnight in Vila de Bospa, reverse the route, have the taxi drop off before the start of the long boring section and walk to Salema itself? Way less tedious and you get the coastal views.

Day 5:- honestly the worst, you walk all day on the most boring dusty road (ie a lot of traffic) and end up at the viewpoint lighthouse (the most southerly point) and then the buses are only twice a day, so you need a taxi to get to Sagres because the lighthouse area is packed with burger vans (no tea/coffee stand) and tourists and you really can't walk into Sagres from there.

The views from the Fisherman's Trail were beautiful and all but one of the hotels were very nice.  Some small portions of the trail are very steep, you will need to climb or descend on all fours.  At times it seems we had to hike across some pretty forlorn trails, including crossing a big highway on a busy bridge with no sidewalk.  It would have been better if Inntravel arranged for a possible transfer to avoid these extra meaningless miles.  

This is a very beautiful walk along a stunning coastline, but we though grade 1 to 2 was misleading as it is quite challenging in places. In extremely hot September sunshine there is no shade or shelter along the route, apart from some very welcome cafes, mentioned by other travellers. We highly recommend  Restaurante o Lourenco in Salema where we had a wonderful dinner of fresh fish. Booking essential in this very popular place.

This was our first experience of a walking holiday with inntravel. The fishermans trail was a good introduction and we enjoyed having the walk as a focus to the day. Generally we completed the walks sooner than the estimated time but we also wanted to make the most of some of our stop over locations. A rest day in the middle or breaking up the holiday to extend it is probably a good idea. Everything ran smoothly with transfers and the accommodation was good. We stayed in 2 alternative hotels due to lack of rooms but the upgrades worked out well even though it bumped up the cost. We will use the company again.

Highlights of the Fisherman's Trail were the beautiful views and amazing rock formations. It was great to reach the final hotel, which was of excellent quality, after the challenges of the walks. We were pleased that we had added the Faro city break at the end. A very intesting city and well worth a visit.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: This customer did our self-guided walking holiday 'Coastal Algarve & the Fishermen's Trail' followed by our city add-on in Faro. 

We really enjoyed the Fisherman's Trail. It is mostly very peaceful, the views are stunning and the walks are long enough to be tiring without being overly difficult. Very good hotel selection. Take the upgrade option and stay in Memmo Baleeira, it's wonderful! 

We have been clients of Inntravel for fifteen years and enjoyed many
great walks. For this one, I mentioned to Inntravel at the time of the
initial enquiry, that my wife had recently had a problem with a knee
joint. Flat walking/gentle undulations would be fine but steps/steep
inclines and declines would be a problem. I was assured that it was
"flat/mainly boardwalks" -we have experienced this in the Eastern
Algarve around the Ria Formosa. However, we found steep
inclines/declines and stepped descents in both the sections from Lagos
to Praia da Luz and Praia da Luz to Salema and decided to abandon the
walk. We are great fans of Portugal (been going there for over 40 years)
and put together our own holiday using the chosen hotels and Uber. The
other reviews are pretty accurate on the hotels (we would add O Palheiro
restaurant in Vila do Bispo as a recommendation) . So, probably ok as a
walk for many people but we believe we were misled re the terrain, so
not for us"

Swimming in the sea was 'refreshing' as cooled off after walking in the heat. Recommend taking a towel and swimwear if passing a suitable beach on or at end of walk. Hotel in Sagres (Memmo Baleeira) was brilliant ie friendly, comfortable, great views, great facilities and lovely food.

We had a fabulous holiday on the Fishermans trail. Good coastal scenery, fabulous food and good weather. In Praia da Luz, the Lattitude restaurant was especially good with excellent selection of Tapas and friendly staff.

This is a stunning route along a beautiful coastline, and as with our previous Inntravel holidays, everything ran like clockwork. An added bonus on this route was the good number of cafes along the route which provided welcome pit stops (they were mostly open for us at the end of May). 

First trip with Inntravel, despite a slow booking process, the holiday itself was throughly enjoyable with everything going to plan with transfers & accommodation. Loved the Bellavista & Memmo hotels for the extra luxury, fabulous breakfasts & spa facilities. Enjoyed both evening meals here. Vila Mar was worth the upgrade for the beach view and a Boia restaurant fabulous. We found the detour up to Vila Do Bispo the weakest part of the trip, although good to walk on the other side of the coast & enjoyed a great meal at Pisco, the hotel was a bit more tired & we would have preferred to walk into Sagres on that day and transfer to Vila de Bispo. We did finish that part of the trail walking from Sagres the next day as we had time and didnt find it challenging as was suggested in the trail notes. Felt that was a better option than the final Sagres loop walk which was a bit dull. You can also walk from the Lighthouse back to Sagres along the road & trail - we did as no 1345 bus on certain Fridays! And would recommend a CapeCruiser 1hr boat trip round the coast line up to the Lighthouse which really put into context how far we had walked! 

Everything was seamless. A beautiful series of walks and great choice of accommodation. The Memmo Beleeira was an especially nice hotel, and the included dinner was a full choice of starter, main and dessert from the a la carte menu. The food was excellent and the service top notch. As for the walks, we've done a lot around Europe and this is definitely one of our very favourites, with quite stunning views and plenty of places to stop of for refreshment en route. We felt the times suggested for the walks was perhaps over stated.

An excellent well marked trail.The wild flowers all along the route were astounding.

We really enjoyed the stunning coastal scenery and multiple unspoilt beaches and would strongly recommend this walking holiday - we were lucky to have great weather too.

The accommodation was all very good, as were all the included meals. We also enjoyed Latitude tapas in Praia da Luz, Restaurante Ribeira do Poço in Vila do Bispo and Vila Velha in Sagres, having booked Latitude and Vila Velha from home before we departed. (We had good memories of Vila Vehla from a previous holiday)

Villamar with its balcony overlooking the beach and apartment-style room definitely exceeded our expectations, and the fish in the Atlantico restaurant downstairs was excellent.

Having stayed at the Memmo seven years ago we were interested to try the Pousada Sagres. The Pousada would be our preferred option should we return anytime - it did seem to offer a more relaxing experience with generally more attentive service - just what was required for the last 24 hours.

An Uber taxi ordered soon after arrival at  Cabo de São Vicente to Sagres on Day 5 cost much less than the notes had us believe. (No Bolt service was available there at that time, and there were discrepancies in the bus info we had) 

The holiday as a whole was enjoyable.  Apart from the coastal scenery, we were impressed in early May by the ideal walking weather (slightly cooler than normal?) and the sheer profusion of the spring flowers.  Day 1 was busy but the walks became less so as we moved westwards during the week.  However, the walks into and from Vila do Bispo were relatively uninspiring.

The add-on extension to Casa Fajara, as nice as the hotel is, was disappointing since the promised evening meals at the hotel were not available and we had to use the hotel transport to/from average local restaurants as booked by the hotel. 

On a more positive note, our eating recommendations include Agua na Boca in Salema - we booked for the first night and rebooked for the following night - best food of the holiday and very reasonable considering the high standard. In addition, we had a good snack lunch at Antonio’s at the far end of Praia Porto de Mos on day 1.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: This customer did our self-guided walking holiday 'Coastal Algarve & the Fishermen's Trail' followed by our add-on in Carrapateira. 

This was a great walking holiday along a beautiful route. If it was any busier, that would make it too crowded for us. Hotel Mira Sagres was below average, slow service, crowded, disappointing breakfast but the vegetarian restaurant Pisco had by far the best food we had on the whole trip (and we are not vegetarians!) 

The whole walk was simply stunning well

paced . Great walking in the mornings and having the afternoons and evening free to explore. The hotels were great. Inn travelling enabled us to relaax and enjoy the holiday without the worry. 

Another wonderful and well arranged walking holiday with Inntravel - payment cards now seem to be more widely accepted (even the smaller restaurants) - beware the 1345 bus from S Vincente lighthouse to Sagres not running or leaving without passengers, but it is an easy walk instead - the Casa Fajara hotel at Carrapateira is a real gem - the Pisco vegetarian/vegan resturant in Vilo do Bispo is brilliant. 

Some of the route is challenging, esp perhaps for older walkers. We are expierienced hikers but still had some problems with route-finding esp on Day 3. 

It's a great area, the accommodation was fine and we will look back positively on the whole experience.

I loved this April Fisherman's Trail hike so much that I have booked it again for later this year.  I've recommended it to at least 10 people. Having completed 7 InnTravel walking trips, the visusal splendor of this portion of the Fisherman's Trail can't be beat. The trail consistently tracks alongside the dramatic cliffs of the coast line. We always seek water features for our hikes and this one was by far the most consistently stunning. The hotels are simple and nicely run. Restaurants along the route are varied and delightful. Make sure to stop a the beachside cafes for a rest and snack. The length of the walks per day is just right. The longest days have the least amount of elevation gain. Truly, you won't regret this trip. 

Seafood lunches at salema and sagres boia on the front at salema and tosca and Carlos in sagres. The amazing wild flowers and beautiful beaches . It was windy a lot o the time so a buff is helpful as are walking poles. The route is very clearly waymarked

Lovely walk. Great fish dinners. Easy trai. 

The walking was wonderful & relaxing with blue sea and sky. We went to recommended restaurants and found them all good. Accommodation was varied and generally good. Walk notes mostly helpful. As mentioned in notes cash is needed far more often than in the UK

We ate out 2nd night in Latitude in Praia da Luz - excellent tapas. We ate in Atlantico in Salema and it was OK, but 2nd night was in A Boia on the seafront, and we enjoyed that. In Vila do Bispo we ate out in Ribeira da Poco - fish counter to choose fish, real local vibe, gorgeous food. We made better time than expected to Cabo de Sao Vicente and so had enough time for a brief look round before the bus came at 1.30 - we didn't set out to catch the bus, but it worked out well as there was no other bus on a Sunday.  It meant we could settle in to the hotel early (room was already available) and have a look around and use the pool/facilities. In Sagres we did look at a few places but decided to stick with the Hotel Meemo Baleeira where the food was fine.

Booking procedure was a disaster. Wrong dates booked. Only when I requested the telephone tape transcript was listened to did Inntravel admit it had made an error and even then attempted to charge us for flight changes. No maps provided,  only a photocopy sent by express delivery when we complained. Possibly this was in breach of copyright? We were charged for these so presumably a refund will be issued. Walks would have been good if weather conditions had allowed, lack of correct mapping and suggestions as to what to do in the event of water levels making the routes impassable caused this not to be. Walk on day one from Lagos via boardwalks for half was very urban and busy. Later in the season it will be even more so. More notice given regarding the fact that buses needed to be taken or taxis as part of the routes provided. We ended up walking an additional distance to Sagres as the bus mentioned never arrived. We have had many holidays with Inntravel prior to it becoming part of a larger organisation. There have obviously been minor problems in the past but nothing compares to this trip.

Be prepared for river crossings and carry a towel to dry off your feet afterwards. A walking pole would be useful to navigate such crossings.

Great walking and scenery 

A very enjoyable holiday with spectacular scenery every day.  Inntravel delivered great walking routes with helpful guide notes, lovely hotels and all the support we needed. We had wind and rain off the Atlantic coast and some very wet paths so be prepared!

Leaving aside the weather for a moment, we very much enjoyed this walking holiday. We love the coast, the scenery is stunning, three of the four hotels were very good and we had some wonderful food. The itinerary perhaps feels sensible rather than ideal and we found the detour inland to Vila do Bispo uninteresting. On the hotels, we had upgraded where we could and we stayed at the Villamar in Selema rather than the Casa Praia Mar. We really enjoyed the Hotel Belavista da Luz, the Villamar and the Memmo Baleeira but we were disappointed with the Hotel Mira Sagres in Vila do Bispo. We had excellent meals at the Atlantico (beneath the Villamar) and at the Memmo Baleeira. In Praia da Luz we had an enjoyable meal at Paulo's Restaurant which appears to be the only place in the Algarve which will serve cataplana for one person! The one redeeming feature of the detour to Vila do Bispo was an excellent meal at the Ribeira do Poco. We also did the three day Carrapateira add-on and we very much enjoyed it. The three walks were ineresting and the Casa Fajara is a wonderful place to stay. On day 3 we treated ourselves to an excellent lunch at the Restaurante Sitio do Forno. Coming back to weather then, do not get lulled into thinking the weather in the Algarve is always marvellous! It was the first half of March and of nine day's of walking, we got drenched on three, wet on four more and enjoyed just two completely clear days! However, we had a good holiday!

INNTRAVEL NOTE: This customer did our self-guided walking holiday 'Coastal Algarve & the Fisherman's Trail' followed by our add-on in Carrapateira.

We really enjoyed the whole trip - the coastal scenery and almost empty beaches were stunning. It was really friendly everywhere and the food was excellent - hotel breakfasts and fish restaurants for dinners out in particular. In Sagres would recommend going Alice's ice cream place!

Great walking holiday - not too arduous with lovely coastal views. The first and last hotels were particularly good, as were the included meals. We also enjoyed Latitude tapas in Praia da Luz and Restaurante Ribeira do Poço in Vila do Bispo. At Memmo Baleeira, it is worth upgrading to a room with a sea view - we had a great view over the fishing port and towards the coast we had just walked along! If time, the museum in Vila do Bispo is really interesting. It's ok to walk from Cabo de São Vicente to Sagres as there is pavement along the entire length of the road, useful to know in advance as we had booked a taxi. 

InnTravel take the hard work out of walking holidays by providing excellent itineraries, hotels, baggage transport, walking notes and other local information and services such as taxis.  The Western Algarve with its coastal walks and sandy beaches is beautiful, quiet and unspoilt - perfect for a winter holiday.