Beach Getaway in Portugal

We were extremely fortunate to be living in Europe this year during the pandemic. By the end of the year we were still able to travel to a few nearby countries, Portugal being one of them! Of course, we followed all the rules and regulations the entire year and luckily we were still able to make something of 2020 😉

In May 2020, we had originally planned to go to Portugal for my birthday celebration, but this trip was canceled due to the pandemic. We were in a total lockdown situation in Germany and there was no traveling whatsoever. We thought we might not get to go at all this year. But things really started to look up towards the end of summer, and our friends were planning a surf trip in Portugal which they convinced us to join them on. This turned out to be such an amazing trip despite everything else that had gone on throughout the year. We scored some incredible flight deals to Lisbon, and from Lisbon we took a train to Lagos to meet up with our friends there. We rented a car and drove for the rest of our week long trip.

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Our first leg of the trip was 3 days in Lagos, Portugal. We stayed on the beach about a 20 min walk from the town, in a two bedroom apartment walking distance to the ocean. It was not a surfing beach, but we did take the car on a day trip to some other surf towns up the coast. One thing we all loved so much about Portugal is the amount of delicious seafood they had at every restaurant. We were super excited about this because seafood is not really a thing in Munich, and we had been in lockdown all year so we were craving it! We enjoyed drinks on our rooftop and walks along the beach (because the water was absurdly cold we didn’t swim much).

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On one of the days, we were exploring the (very empty) town, and decided to take a boat tour around the famous Algarve Caves. This was definitely a highlight of our trip for me. While we were promised an “English speaking guide” our guy didn’t speak a word of English and only shouted out random words every now and then describing what some of the rock formations looked like. I must say, he was hilarious though somehow and we laughed a lot. I took too many photos on that hour long boat trip but every time we came around a corner there was something beautiful to look at, and the colors of the water were just insanely pretty.

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The next leg of our trip was 3 days in Aljezur, where we stayed on Arrifana Beach. This was such a cute little surfing town that we enjoyed very much. All we did was drink, eat, play games, tan, and surf – and we were SO OK with that. We basically designed this trip to be a relaxing beach holiday away from Munich city life, which is exactly what we got. I tried surfing for the first time since Australia in 2015 and loved it! We went to the nicest beaches and had such a good time hanging out.

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Before going back to Munich, we spent one night in Lisbon before flying out the next day. We jam-packed our day and got to see a lot of Lisbon in a short amount time. We did a free walking tour (our favorite thing to do in a new city) and had the best guide! He told us the history of Portugal we knew nothing about and showed us some amazing views of the city. Overall our time in Lisbon was short, but we really liked it and would love to go back.

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I hope you enjoyed my short and sweet Portugal trip overview, and maybe it will inspire you to visit one day! We can’t wait to go back and see more of what Portugal has to offer, including Porto which we have heard great things about.

Thanks for reading, and stay healthy!

xo,
Rylee