🔗 Share this article

“I never object to repeating the same walk over and over,” remarked our guide, kneeling near a patch of plants. “Each time, there are fresh discoveries – these hadn’t been here the day before.”

Standing on stalks at least 2cm tall and adorning the dirt with pale blossoms, the fact that these overnight wonders sprung up overnight was a beautiful testament of how quickly life can grow in this rolling, central section of the Algarve, the protected woodland of Barão de São João.

It was also reassuring to find out that in an area affected by wildfires in last fall, varieties such as strawberry trees – which are flame-retardant due to their minimal resin – were beginning to bounce back, alongside highly combustible eucalyptus, which impedes other fire-retardant trees such as oak. Local helpers were being enlisted to participate with ecological restoration.

Visitor Figures and Interior Attraction

Tourist arrivals to the Algarve are increasing, with 2024 showing an growth of 2.6 percent on the prior year – but the majority arrivals head straight for the seaside, although there being so much more to explore.

The shoreline is definitely rugged and dramatic, but the locale is also keen to showcase the attraction of its interior regions. With the establishment of all-season walking and cycling trails, plus the introduction of nature festivals, focus is being shifted to these just as compelling landscapes, including peaks and thick forests.

The Algarve Walking Season organizes a program of several guided walk programs with broad themes such as “water” and “archaeology” between late autumn and the end of winter. It’s expected they will inspire visitors throughout the year, strengthening the area’s finances and helping reduce the outflow of the youth moving away in pursuit of work.

Creativity and Nature Merge

The excursion to the national forest coincided with a cultural gathering with the theme of “art”, based around the traditional hamlet north-west of Barão de São João.

As well as guided hikes, setting off from the cultural centre, free events extended from mastering how to make plant-based dyes, to performance sessions, meditative movement and artistic rendering. There were two image galleries running together with a number of other kid-focused pastimes, such as nature hunts and making seed dispensers.

Prior to our drop-in afternoon screen-printing workshop at the cultural centre, our hike into the woodland with Joana had the vibe of an creative path. Marked at the start by monoliths painted with representations of rural workers, it was dotted along the way with more modest, installed stones showing types of wildlife, featuring small mammals and lynxes – the lynx’s numbers recovering, because of a rehabilitation centre located in the historic town of Silves.

Picturesque Routes and Natural Beauty

As the trail climbed to its peak, the menhir (ancient rock) on the Pedra do Galo trail, it became more densely vegetated with the piney aroma of pine. There was a fullness to the air and hard, honey-toned bubbles swelled from bark. Chalky rock sparkled underfoot and small frogs sat by water’s edge, necks vibrating. In the far away, wind turbines spun against the sky.

Francisco Simões, the local expert the subsequent day, was once more enthusiastic to emphasize that these inland areas can be discovered year-round. Waymarked hikes, created in the last decade, are offshoots of the Via Algarviana, a trail that stretches from the frontier for a significant distance, all the way to the Atlantic, and many are now connected to an digital tool that makes route planning simpler.

Nature Tourism and Cultural Experiences

Francisco founded sustainable travel company Algarvian Roots in the recent past and offers tours from avian observation to full-day guided hikes, all with the similar aims as the AWS: to highlight the region by way of involvement, enlightenment and traditional knowledge.

The creative link is evident, also – his mother, potter Margarida Palma Gomes, had taught us to decorate azulejos, the distinctive traditional colored decorative panels seen throughout the land, a couple of days before on a festival workshop. Excursions to her atelier, as well as to a regional artist, can further be scheduled through Algarvian Roots.

Francisco urged us to contribute for the industry by drinking ample amounts of fine wine capped with cork

Following an delicious midday meal of pork cheek and cabbage in A Charrette in Monchique, a pretty mountain town nestled between the Algarve’s tallest mountains, the 902-metre Fóia and 774-meter Picota, Francisco guided us down precipitously cobbled streets and into a alleyway, where an elderly pair sunned themselves at the front of their house.

A sharp track took us into the forest, the terrain covered in oak nuts. Here, Francisco was keen to show us oak trees, Portugal’s symbolic plant and legally protected since the 13th century. Not just are they inherently slow-burning, but their malleable bark is a origin of income for inhabitants, who collect it to sell to other {industries|sectors