Our Coastal Road Trip in Southern Portugal – Sagres, Lagos, and The Longest Natural Park Name in History (Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina)

After our time in Lisbon we rented another manual car and headed south to make our way through the Alentejo coastal natural park. (I tried to rent an automatic smart car, aka basically a clown car, but had EuroCar cancel our reservation the night before 🤨, so back to shifting our way through the country-side we went.)

Photos don't do the amazing scenery justice but hopefully they, along with my witty and highly informative commentary, give an insight to this region's beauty and awesomeness.

Our first destination was Odeceixe-mar Beach and the close by campground of Camping Park São Miguel. We were both were a bit tired of the city life and ready to see some natural beauty. This area was the perfect choice. The beach was at the mouth of a river and where it met the Atlantic Ocean it formed a massive white sand beach. We spent an hour relaxing in the sunshine and watching the waves before the afternoon wind picked up.

The beach was surrounded by cliffs with amazing views and many smaller beach coves below. It was a beautiful space to walk along the sea and enjoy the epic views.

It does not get old looking at views like this. The only bummer was that the weather was still a little chilly in early May and with the strong winds it was not quite beach vacation weather as I hoped. Great for hiking and looking at the huge waves crash against the seashore though.

We stayed two nights in Camping Park São Miguel, renting a little camper. Alena was super excited with our tiny home as she had never stayed in a camper before. As it was still the off season in early May, the camper was discounted and the campground was sparsely populated. We ate dinner both nights at the camp restaurant which way exceeded expectations. For €14 total we would each get their soup of the day and share their charcoal grilled steak and French fry dish. It was plenty of food for the two of us and the steak had amazing flavor. Quite the deal for a full dinner. The campground was perfect for us to relax and enjoy some nature. While it was very peaceful in early May, the workers said it gets crazy busy in the summer tourist season (June to early September).

On our journey south to Sagres, we stopped at Praia da Carriagem. It is a bit of a journey to get there, a 20 minute drive off the main road along dirt roads, but was well worth the trip as the scenery was fantastic.

It seemed like a popular local fishing spot as we saw about a dozen of them out with their long shore poles casting into the waves off the rocks. Though we didn't see anyone catch anything.

Our first night in Sagres we made the short drive to Cabo de São Vicente to watch the sunset.

They call this place the edge of the world and when you look out at the cliffs' abrupt ending into the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean you truly get the feeling that you actually are at the edge of the world.

The cape is only a 5 min drive from Sagres so we went to watch sunset here every night we were in town.

Sagres as a city was underwhelming and super weird. It gave me the impression of a cheap and stout version of Dubai with random buildings with random vacant lots and open spaces. It is most famous for the cape as well as a surf destination. We went to a popular surf beach one morning to check out the action. It was crazy crowded with a mix of experienced surfers as well as a few surfing schools. It looked like mayhem out there!

While we didn't spend much time in the actual city Sagres, it did serve as a great home base to continue exploring the southern part of the super long named natural park as well as the southern coast of Portugal towards Lagos.

We continued our jacketed exploration of Portugal's southern Atlantic beaches. The wind was so brutal while we were there that we used our rain coats as wind breakers and sand shields. This was another river meets the ocean beach called Praia da Amoreira. There were a handful of surfers and a few wind surfers out enjoying the relatively small and consistent waves.

We were tempted to swim in the very inviting blue waters of the river, but given the cooler temps and insane winds, we settled for just dipping our toes in. Definitely would be an awesome place to enjoy on a hotter day!

Note that if you use google maps for the beach it will take you to the cliff side of the river where you cannot access the beach or the sandy shores of the river without crossing said river. If you instead google map the restaurant on the beach (Paraiso do Mar) it will guide you to the beach side of the river. Both were beautiful drives with very different scenery, but if it's a hot day take the restaurant route to enjoy the beach side of the river.

More beautiful coastline. This was taken from the top of a ridge that over looks two beautiful beaches: Praia do Castelejo and Cordoama Beach.

We decided that we missed proper Mexican food too much, so we decided to grill up some shrimp and chicken for a tacos night. While at the market, we saw they had fresh octopus, and as we had just watched the Anthony Bourdain episode on Lisbon where they grill up fresh octopus, we decided to buy an octopus and try our hand at it. I'd never cooked it before but we followed the general instructions per the tv show and it turned out surprisingly delicious and super tender. FYI we boiled it in water for about 20-30 min then pan grilled it in cilantro, garlic, olive oil and pepper. We finished it with a little lemon juice and it was as good as any octopus I've ever had in a restaurant. I have got to admit though, it looked a little weird, but as I've learned many times on this trip, that is the case for many delicious foods.

We drove from Sagres to Lagos one day. Lagos was just a touristy coast town filled with huge condominiums. We quickly bounced from the town and stumbled across an well reviewed lookout called Farol da Ponta da Piedade. A short hike from the parking lot lead us to the cliffs that overlooked the some of the most beautiful waters. The colors were fantastic and the shoreline was very different than on the western front, with many caves and pillars dotting the shoreline. We began to see why the southern shoreline was so popular. Seems like it would be an awesome place to paddle board or snorkel around.

Portugal is largely a rural and pastoral country. Between the beautiful beaches we would drive past orchards, farms and pastures; many with absolutely huge horned cows roaming round. These fellas were picture perfect grazing next to the road outside of Lagos. Each and every one had its own cowbell hanging from its neck and made some Blue Oyster Cult approved music as they roamed around.

Alena being one with the ocean...or at least the ocean trying to be one with Alena.

Another typical May beach day on the Atlantic coast. Sunny with a chance of gale force winds!

As we left the southern coast of Portugal to head north to the Alentejo and Évora we stopped for lunch in the small town of Aljezur at Pizzaria Vicentina. We did not go there for the pizza! We walked by to go to another place actually and Alena noticed a lunch special sign that seemed to have traditional Portuguese food at a great price. We peaked in and it was filled with old Portuguese people so we figured it was legit! It ended up being a fantastic local experience and a great lunch deal! I love those little serendipitous experiences you get while traveling.

I don't know how their pizza is, but if you are driving south down the coast of Portugal during lunch time definitely stop in for a cheap and authentic Portuguese meal at Pizzaria Vicentina!

More beautiful coastline.

One last ocean glamour shot to end it.

Sea you later!