Albufeira Algarve Portugal

A busy trading port in ancient times, Albufeira declined into a poor fishing town in the 18th Century, having been swamped by tidal waves and burnt out by civil war. But since the 1960s the tide has turned again and this central Algarve enclave is once more awash with prosperity, thanks to a tourist boom.
Albufeira, undeniably Portugal’s most popular resort, has been described as a stretch of ‘holiday-land suburbia’, spreading from the old town both east and west along the coast, its sandy coves and golden beaches drawing an assorted crowd from retired couples to wild teens, and plenty of families with young children. Satellite resort developments provide every imaginable type and grade of accommodation. Everyone finds something to enjoy in this sprawling, low-rise holiday mecca, which retains its old world charm in narrow alleyways, close beside the new hip and happening “Strip”.