Beautiful Sao Rafael and surrounding area

We thought the hotel would be in Albufeira but it turned out to be on probably the most beautiful beach in the region, Sao Rafael, 2 km west of Albufeira.  The cost of the hotel was less than what we would have paid in SA and for the first few days we didn't move anywhere, just unwinded, enjoying the sun, reading, do some gym and enjoying more good food.  We could walk through the big garden of the hotel, planted with many olive trees, to get to the gate from where you walk via a wooden walkway down to the beach  Sao Rafael is not over developed like some other beaches on the south coast and you won't see high rise builings.  Because of the erosion that took place along the coast, and signs on some rocks warning you against potential rock falls, the development is not right on the beach front.  As a result you feel a bit more in nature as you need to walk up to the beaches in the area.

You can see some of the erosion below.  We took a walk between these, getting an even better view on Sao Rafael.

Above: some of the olive trees

Below:  the beach of Sao Rafael, the building is a bar/restaurant that only operates in summer

However, I do not want to be here in summertime.  It was tranquil, not too many people, when we were there.  But I saw a postcard of the beach in summer - chairs packed all along the beach, next to each other

We climb to the top of the one cliff for sunset.  The photo above and below is take of the small beach east of Sao Rafael

They have beautiful big waves, but in summertime the ocean is a flat dam, we were told

Below: a small beach to the west of Sao Rafael, Lourenço (reminding me of Maputo's old name) 

Below: Galé beach.  After a few days of staying only at the hotel we've started exploring some other beaches and to our surprise discovered Galé beach, that also turned out to be the commercial beach in the area, having 3 restaurants.  We had excellent grilled sardines at the one and tuna at the other, both fish known to be very good in this region.

Below: to give you an idea of what some of these beaches can look like. We were glad our hotel weren't situated in such a high rise environment!

Above and below: Salgados beach, just each of Galé beach.  You can either walk along a wooden walkway through the veld or along the beach. 

We really had a lovely time and I can recommend this area to any of you who wants to go on a tranquil beach holiday without ruining your savings! (just don't go in their summer...)