Lisbon and the Algarve: Travel Details
This is a quick and handy source for details on the sights, hotels, tour guides and restaurants featured in "Lisbon and the Algarve" show. For much more (and updates), see this year's edition of Rick Steves' Portugal guidebook.
Fado music
In Lisbon, the museum called House of Fado and Portuguese Guitar tells the story of fado in English — push the buttons in each room for music. Don't miss Coimbra's male students' voices singing fado. Finish with a rest in a simulated fado bar, watching old Alfama videos and hearing the Billie Holidays of Portugal (30-min cycle includes crazy Portuguese bullfighting scenes). As you leave the fake fado bar, notice — on the wall by the door — the lyrics that were censored by the dictator Salazar (€2.50, daily 10:00–13:00 & 14:00–18:00, Largo do Chafariz de Dentro, tel. 218-823-470). Two blocks uphill from this square is the recommended fado restaurant A Baiuca.
A tiny, fun-loving restaurant, A Baiuca serves up spirited fado with traditional home-cooking. The menu and wine list is straightforward, but the pre-dinner munchies are costly — turn them away. The English-speaking manager, Henrique, welcomes fado enthusiasts who just want a drink (€12 meals, fado Thu-Mon 20:00-24:00; in the heart of the Alfama, just off Rua São Pedro up the hill from House of Fado, at Rua de São Miguel 20, tel. 218-867-284). This intimate place is a neighborhood affair as grandma dances with a bottle on her head and the cooks gaze out of their steamy hole in the wall to catch the musical action. It's surround sound as everyone seems to get into the music.
Port Wine Institute
If you're into port (the fortified wine that takes its name from Porto), you'll find the world's greatest selection directly across the street from the elevator at Solar do Vinho do Porto (run by the Port Wine Institute, Mon–Sat 11:00–24:00, closed Sun, WCs, Rua São Pedro de Alcântara 45, tel. 213-475-707).
The plush, air-conditioned, Old World living room holds leather chairs and cigar smokers (it's not a shorts-and-T-shirt kind of place). On entering, you can order from over 300 different ports from €1 to €22 per glass, poured by an English-speaking bartender. (You may want to try only 150 or so and save the rest for the next night.) Fans of port describe it as "a liquid symphony playing on the palate." Browse through the easy menu. Start white and dry, finish sweet and red; the colheita is particularly good. Appetizers (aperitivos) are listed in the menu. The service can be slow and disinterested. To be served without a long wait, go to the bar.
Gulbenkian Museum
This is the best of Lisbon's 40 museums. Calouste Gulbenkian (1869–1955), an Armenian oil tycoon, gave Portugal his art collection (or "harem," as he called it). His gift was an act of gratitude for the hospitable asylum granted him during World War II (he lived in Lisbon from 1942 until he died in 1955). The Portuguese consider Gulbenkian — whose billion-dollar estate is still a growing and vital arts foundation promoting culture in Portugal — an inspirational model for how to be thoughtfully wealthy. (He made a habit of "tithing for art," spending 10 percent of his income on things of beauty.)
The foundation often hosts classical music concerts in the museum's auditoriums. €3, free Sun, Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, closed Mon (pleasant gardens, good air-con cafeteria, Berna 45, tel. 217-823-000, http://museu.gulbenkian.pt). To get here from downtown, hop a cab (€4) or take the Metro from Rossio to São Sebastião, exit the station at Avenida de Agila and walk 200 yards downhill (north).
Coach Museum
This museum has dozens of carriages, from simple to opulent, displaying the evolution of coaches from 1600 on (€3, free Sun until 14:00, Tue–Sun 10:00–17:30, closed Mon, tel. 213-610-850, taxi stand across the street).
Monastery of Jerónimos
King Manuel's 16th-century, giant white-limestone church and monastery has remarkable cloisters and the explorer Vasco da Gama's tomb. The church is free to enter, but the accompanying cloisters cost €3 (hours for both: May–Sept Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, Oct–April 10:00–17:00, closed Mon and during Sun Mass, last entry 30 min before closing).
Salema
One bit of old Algarve magic still glitters quietly in the sun — Salema. It's at the end of a small road just off the main drag between the big city of Lagos and the rugged southwest tip of Europe, Cape Sagres. Quietly discovered by British and German tourists, this simple fishing village has three streets, five restaurants, a few hotels, time-share condos up the road, a couple of shipwreck bars, English and German menus, a classic beach (with a new, paved promenade) and endless sun.
Salema has a split personality: The whitewashed old town is for locals and the other half was built for tourists. Locals and tourists pursue a policy of peaceful coexistence. Tourists laze in the sun while locals grab the shade.
Town Square market action: Salema's flatbed truck market rolls in weekday mornings — one truck each for fish, fruit and vegetables and a five-and-dime truck for clothing and other odds and ends. The tooting horn of the fish truck wakes you at 8:00. The bakery trailer sells delightful fresh bread and "store-bought" sweet rolls each morning (about 8:00–11:00). And weekday afternoons around 14:00 the red mobile post office stops by.
Fishing scene: Salema is still a fishing village — but just barely. While the fishermen's hut no longer hosts a fish auction, you'll still see the old-timers enjoying its shade, oblivious to the tourists, mending their nets and reminiscing about the old days when life was "only fish and hunger." In the calm of summer, boats are left out on buoys. In the winter, the community-subsidized tractor earns its keep by hauling the boats ashore. (In pre-tractor days, such boat-hauling was a 10-man chore.)
Beach scene: Suntanners enjoy the beach May through September. (I got a sunburn early last May.) Knowing their tourist-based economy sits on a foundation of sand, locals hope and pray that sand returns after being washed away each winter. Some winters leave the beach just a pile of rocks.
Beach towns must provide public showers and toilets. The Atlantico Restaurante and Salema's Balneario Municipal (daily 14:00–19:00 in summer, showers-€1) each rent beach items (like hammocks-€3/day, bamboo sun shades-€2.50). The fountain in front of the Balneario Municipal is a reminder of the old days. When water to the village was cut off, this was always open. Locals claim the beach is safe for swimming, but the water is rarely really warm.
A pre-breakfast stroll eastward is a pristine way to greet the new day. On the west end of the beach, you can climb over the rocks past tiny tide pools to the secluded Figueira Beach. While the old days of black widows chasing topless Nordic women off the beach are gone, nudism is still risque today. If you go topless, do so with discretion. Over the rocks and beyond the view of prying eyes, Germans grin and bare it.
Community development: The whole peninsula (west of Lagos) has been declared a natural park and further development close to the beach is forbidden. Salema will live with past mistakes, such as the huge hotel in the town center that pulled some mysterious strings to go two stories over code. Up the street is a sprawling community of Club Med-type vacationers who rarely leave their air-conditioned bars and swimming pools. Across the highway a mile or two inland is an even bigger golfing resort with a spa, pool and tennis courts (worth exploring by car). The ramshackle old village of Salema is becoming less and less ramshackle — gradually being bought by northern Europeans for vacation or retirement homes.
Sleeping: Salema is crowded July through mid-September. August is horribly crowded. Prices jump up in July and August.
Pensión Mare, a blue-and-white building looking over the village above the main road into town, is the best normal hotel value in Salema . An easygoing Brit named John runs this place, offering seven comfortable rooms (Sb-€33–38, Db-€45–60, Tb-€65–75, includes a wonderful breakfast), three fully-equipped apartments (Db-€50–75, breakfast not available) and a tidy paradise (Praia de Salema, tel. 282-695-165, fax 282-695-846; the excellent website www.algarve.co.uk has a virtual tour of every room and some good Salema information). John will hold a room with a phone call and a credit card. He also rents a gem of a fisherman's two-bedroom cottage on the "quartos street" (Db-€75, Qb-€100).
Hotel Residencial Salema, the oversized hotel towering crudely above everything else in town, is a good value if you want a basic, comfortable room handy to the beach. Its 32 red-tiled rooms all have air-conditioning, balconies and partial views (Sb-€50–75; Db-€50 April-Oct, €67 June-Sept, €85 July-Aug; closed Nov–March, tel. 282-695-328, fax 282-695-329, www.hotelsalema.com, hotel.salema@clix.pt).
Estalagem Infante do Mar is a peaceful three-star resort hotel on a bluff high above the village. Its 30 rooms are plain but all have air-conditioning, balconies and spectacular views (Sb-€45–65, Db-€50–85, closed Nov–Feb, tel. 282-690-100, fax 282-690-109, www.infantedomar.com, mail@infantedomar.com).
Romantik Villa, a stylish house on top of the hill with three rooms, an apartment, a garden and swimming pool, is run by Brazilian Lisa. It's a mini-resort in a modern residential complex. Tastefully decorated, it's good for people who want quiet — not ideal for children (Db-€50–70, apartment-€70–90, includes breakfast, cash only, heading out of town past Lourenco's Restaurant, take a right at the phone booth just after the grocery store into Urbanização Beach Villas and look for #M5, Praia de Salema, tel. 282-695-670, mobile 967-059-806, www.romantikvilla.com, romantikvilla@clix.pt).
Eating: Salema has six or eight places all serving fine €8 meals. Happily, those that face the beach (the first 3 listed below) are the most fun and have the best service, food and atmosphere. For a memorable last course at any of these places, consider taking your dessert wine (moscatel), Brazilian sugarcane liquor (caipirinha), or coffee to the beach for some stardust.
The Boia Bar and Restaurant, at the base of the residential street, has a classy beachfront setting, noteworthy service by friendly gang and a knack for doing whitefish just right (daily 9:30–22:00, tel. 282-695-382). The Atlantico — noisier, big, busy and right on the beach — originated as a temporary beach restaurant and now enjoys a prime spot in a brand-new building. It has long dominated the Salema beach scene and is known for tasty fish, wonderful beach-side terrace and friendly service (daily 12:00–24:00, serving until 22:00, tel. 282-695-142). The intimate Mira Mar, further up the residential street, is a last vestige of old Salema with a €6.50 tapas plate that can make a meal and delightful Portuguese fish and vegetables stew (Mon-Sat 12:00–24:00, closed Sun, cash only). Restaurante Lourenço, a block up the hill, has no ambience or view but offers good-value meals and a local clientele (€8 menu, daily 8:00–24:00, cash only; from Hotel Residencial Salema cross bridge, restaurant is a half-block uphill on your left; tel. 282-698-622).
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Excerpted from Rick Steves' Portugal 2005