Something like nine million passengers a year land at Faro and almost all of them get straight into a transfer to somewhere else on the Algarve. The city itself is the administrative capital of the region, and it is one of the few places on this coast that is a working Portuguese town rather than a resort built for visitors.
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It has a walled old town behind a Moorish gate, a cathedral you can climb for the view, a chapel lined with the bones of more than a thousand monks, storks nesting on every tower, and, most importantly, the Ria Formosa: a lagoon of sandbanks, channels and barrier islands running sixty kilometres along the coast and protected as a natural park. Faro's beach is on one of those islands, reached by boat or by a causeway, which is the fact that reorganises a packing list.
What Makes Faro Different to Pack For
The beach is not in the town
There is no sand in Faro itself. The city sits behind a lagoon, and the beaches are on the barrier islands: Ilha de Faro along a causeway, Ilha Deserta, Culatra and Farol by ferry. Everything about a beach day here involves a boat or a bus and a tide table.
Algarve heat with Atlantic water
Summers run 29°C to 33°C and can pass 40°C when the wind swings inland off Spain. The sea is Atlantic rather than Mediterranean, sitting around 20°C to 22°C at its warmest, and inside the lagoon it is considerably warmer and shallower than on the ocean side of the islands.
Winters are mild at 16°C to 18°C, which makes Faro one of the better winter destinations in Europe, though it is wetter than people expect from December to February. A merino wool base layer for women covers the winter evenings and the boat trips, which are windy in every season.
A compact old town on polished stone
The Cidade Velha inside the walls is small, largely pedestrian, and paved in the black and white calcada that is beautiful, hard on feet and lethal in rain.
The lagoon has a tide and it matters
The Ria Formosa drains and fills twice a day, exposing huge areas of mud and sandflat. Boat timetables, the birdwatching and whether you can walk anywhere all depend on it, and the tide is what determines the day.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Faro Packing List
Footwear
Flat shoes with grip for the calcada in the old town, and something you do not mind getting wet and sandy for the islands, because boarding is often off a low pontoon and the walk across the island to the ocean side is through soft sand and boardwalk.
For the Ria Formosa trails, the salt pan paths and the walk out to Praia de Faro along the spit, waterproof hiking shoes are useful, though in high summer many people simply do the flats barefoot. Watch for shells and for the wooden boardwalk splintering.
Clothing
Light summer clothes plus a cover up for the cathedral and the churches, which have the usual Portuguese expectation of covered shoulders and knees. A windproof layer for the boats: the lagoon is exposed and the crossing is breezy even at 32°C.
Faro is an ordinary Portuguese city rather than a resort, and it dresses accordingly. Swimwear belongs on the islands, not in the old town.
For sun
A wide brim sun hat with a strap for the boat, high factor sunscreen and sunglasses. The islands have very little shade, in some cases none at all, and the reflected light off the sandflats and water burns faster than the temperature suggests.
For rain
A packable rain jacket for November through February. Algarve winter rain arrives in short heavy bursts and the calcada becomes slick immediately.
For the lagoon
Water shoes for the muddier landings and for the shellfish beds, which are sharp. Binoculars if you care at all about birds: the Ria Formosa is one of the best wetland sites in Europe, with flamingos, spoonbills, avocets and the purple swamphen that is the park's emblem.
Practical
Cash for the island cafes, some of which take nothing else, and for the municipal market. A dry bag for the boat. A refillable bottle, since there is nowhere to buy water on the emptier islands. Check the ferry timetable and the last return, which is the single most common thing visitors get wrong.
What to Wear at Key Sites
The Cidade Velha
Entered through the Arco da Vila, an eighteenth century gate with a stork usually standing on top of it, leading to a quiet square with the cathedral, the bishop's palace and the archaeological museum in a convent cloister.
Practically: climb the cathedral tower. It is a short, awkward stair and the view over the lagoon and the islands explains the geography of the whole region in about a minute. Shoulders and knees covered inside.
The Capela dos Ossos
A chapel at the Igreja do Carmo whose walls and ceiling are built from the skulls and bones of over a thousand Carmelite monks, exhumed from the churchyard in the nineteenth century, with an inscription at the door translating as "stop here and consider that you will reach this state too".
Practically: small, cheap and genuinely sobering rather than a novelty. It is behind the main church and the entrance is at the side. Quiet voices.
The Ria Formosa and the islands
Ilha Deserta, properly Ilha da Barreta, is uninhabited apart from one restaurant, with a long empty ocean beach. Culatra and Farol have small fishing communities. Ilha de Faro is reached by road and is the busiest.
Practically: take everything you need, because Deserta in particular has no shop, no shade and no shelter. The ocean side has Atlantic swell and rip currents while the lagoon side is calm and shallow, and they are two hundred metres apart. Lifeguards are posted in season only and not on every island.
Olhao and Tavira
Olhao, fifteen minutes east, has the best market on the Algarve in two brick halls on the waterfront and a North African looking old town of flat roofed houses. Tavira, further east, is a quieter river town of churches and a Roman bridge.
Practically: both are easy by train from Faro and both are better than Faro for a market morning. Go early, since the fish is done by about one.
Estoi and the Roman villa
A rococo palace in a village north of the city, and beside it Milreu, the remains of a Roman villa with a temple and fish mosaics.
Practically: a short bus ride, exposed and hot, with no shade at the villa. Morning.
What Not to Bring
Leave the expectation that you can walk to a beach, because you cannot. Leave a hat without a strap if you are taking a boat.
Leave heels for the calcada. Leave the assumption that the Algarve means only resorts, which is precisely what Faro is not, and leave a plan built around the last ferry without checking what time it actually goes.
Essential Resources for Women in Faro
Emergency numbers in Portugal: 112 is the national emergency number covering police, ambulance and fire, with English speaking operators. The PSP police the city and the Policia Maritima the lagoon and the islands. For an incident at sea, the national maritime rescue service is reached through 112.
Tourist support: Faro has a tourist police presence in season, and the PSP station in the city will take a report at any time of year. A theft needs a police report before an insurance claim or a replacement passport, and Faro's airport makes it one of the easier places in Portugal to sort out a lost document.
US Embassy: the embassy is in Lisbon at Avenida das Forcas Armadas, telephone +351 21 727 3300, at pt.usembassy.gov, roughly two and a half hours away by road with frequent flights and buses. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the Hospital de Faro, part of the Algarve university hospital centre, has a 24 hour urgencia department and is the main hospital for the region. There are private clinics in the city used by visitors and residents. EU and UK visitors should carry the European Health Insurance Card or the UK Global Health Insurance Card; everyone else needs travel insurance.
Official health authority: the Portuguese Directorate General of Health at dgs.pt, with the Algarve regional health administration publishing bathing water quality for the lagoon and the island beaches.
US State Department travel advisory for Portugal: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Portugal: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, including the beach safety advice and the flag system, which matters on the ocean side of these islands.
Official tourism authority: Visit Portugal at visitportugal.com, with the Algarve regional tourism board and the Ria Formosa natural park service for ferry timetables, tide tables and which islands have lifeguards in a given season.
Solo women safety assessment: Faro is a safe and straightforward city for a woman travelling alone, and being a real provincial capital rather than a resort makes it easier in several respects. Crime is low, the old town is small and quiet, street harassment is uncommon and mild, and eating alone draws no attention. It also has none of the aggressive nightlife that causes problems further west along this coast, and the drinking culture in Faro is local rather than the stag and hen scene of Albufeira and Lagos, which is worth knowing when choosing a base. Petty theft is the main urban risk: pickpocketing around the marina and the main shopping streets in summer, and theft from cars, which is common across the Algarve, so leave nothing visible in a hire car anywhere including at trailheads. The area around the bus and train stations is unremarkable but quiet at night. The genuine hazards are on the water rather than in the streets. The ocean side of the barrier islands has Atlantic swell, strong rip currents and cold water, lifeguard cover exists only in season and only in patrolled zones, and people drown on this coast every year; swim between the flags and treat red as absolute. The lagoon is calm but the tide moves fast across wide flats and has cut people off on sandbanks who walked out at low water. Check the tide before walking anywhere on the flats. Missing the last ferry back from an island is the common practical failure and on Deserta there is nothing there to wait with. Finally, the summer heat is serious inland and on unshaded islands, and wildfires affect the hills north of the city most years.
Reading On
Faro deserves two days rather than the twenty minutes between the plane and the transfer bus, and it is a better base than the resort towns for anyone who wants the lagoon and the eastern Algarve. The Algarve travel guide for women is the parent for the region and the Algarve packing list for women covers a trip along the whole coast, with the Portugal travel guide for women above them. North, the Lisbon travel guide for women covers the capital and the Evora packing list for women the Alentejo in between. Further up the coast, the Cascais packing list for women and the Nazare packing list for women cover the Atlantic shore, and the Porto travel guide for women and the Douro Valley packing list for women cover the north. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why merino belongs in a bag packed for a hot coast where the wind does the work, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
