Portimão

Portimão is the second biggest city in the Algarve, Portugal, and famous for its fresh fish restaurants, grilled sardines being the most famous dish. It's very close to one of the most well known beaches in the Algarve, Praia da Rocha ("Rocky Beach"), and there are numerous others nearby.

Understand


Portimão (poor-tee-MOW - rhymes with "clown", /puɾ.ti.ˈmɐ̃w/) is former fishing and shipbuilding centre has developed into a strong tourist centre oriented along its beaches and southern coast.

By plane


The airport in Faro, away, has domestic and several international routes from across Europe. Or you fly to Lisbon.

By train
Trains on the rather slow regional line between Lagos and Faro stops here, it's about a 1½ hour journey from Faro, for connections to Lisbon change trains in Tunes just over half an hour to the east. Most trains continue on to Vila Real de Santo António on the Spanish border after a short layover in Faro. The train is the cheapest way to get here from Lagos (Portugal) and only takes half an hour.

By bus
Flixbus goes from Lisbon, Porto, Faro and other towns to Portimão. Eva Bus offers numerous daily connections from Faro. There are also 5-6 daily connections from Lisbon (3 hours, €19) on the Expresso Qualidade service, and once daily from Seville (6 hours, €19) on the Lagos-Sevilha service. The bus station is on Largo do Dique a bit north of the centre, about 500 m south of the road bridge.

Regional buses arrive here from Lagos, Albufeira, Faro and others towns of the Algarve.

By boat
Portimão is a sea port.

Get around
The main beach area, Praia da Rocha, is 3.5 km away from the centre of town. You can walk between them but you'll see only motorways and apartment blocks for half an hour.

There is a pretty reliable public bus system for travelling around and outside the city for €1.65 (Jan 2024). Tickets can be bought inside the bus. Google Maps contains the timetables, handy for an easy navigation.

E-hailing taxis are available by Bolt and Uber.

Do

 * Wild dolphin watching trips sail from Marina de Portimão in Praia do Rocha.
 * Football: Portimonense SC play soccer in Primeira Liga, Portugal's top tier. Their home ground Estádio Municipal de Portimão (capacity 9,500), is just south of city centre.
 * Visit, one of the most popular maritime caves of Portugal, with or without an expert guide. You can rent a paddle board on site.
 * Take a catamaran cruise and have a barbecue on the beach after visiting caves.
 * Take a catamaran cruise and have a barbecue on the beach after visiting caves.

Buy
The main street shopping area has a wealth of nice shops supplying clothes, jewelry, and ornamental objects.

Groceries can be bought in the many minimarkets. In the city centre Spar has a somewhat bigger variety of products, for a large supermarket check one of the two Pingo Doce. At Praia da Rocha Intermarché Express and Spar have a decent variety of products. Nearby the Mirachoro Apartment Hotels, are Lidl, Aldi and the large supermarket Continente.

Budget
In the city centre you find fresh baked goods in Spar and in Praia da Rocha in Spar and Intermarché.

Stay safe
Along the main road of the beach promenade of Praia da Rocha are a lot of drug dealers who openly ask if you want to buy something. They are not dangerous, just pesky. Still it is remarkable that the city and the police seem to do nothing against it. The more tourists complain about that, the earlier the drug dealers may disappear. You can do so at the tourism information center (Posto de Tourismo) and at the Policia de Tourismo, which are 2min walking away from each other on the beach promenade. Another way is writing a complaint e-mail to both turismo.praiadarocha@turismodoalgarve.pt and divportimao.faro@psp.pt (police).

Go next

 * Lagoa - lovely beaches
 * Lagos
 * Monchique
 * Sagres
 * Silves - castle