Praia da Marinha

Praia da Marinha is a small cove at the foot of the golden cliffs of Lagoa, in the central Algarve, and it has become a kind of emblem of the Portuguese south coast — it has even appeared on the cover of a well-known guidebook to Portugal. The beach itself is modest: a patch of golden sand reached down a path and steps from the clifftop. What makes it extraordinary is the rock around it. The cliffs are marine limestone and dolomite laid down some 24 million years ago, in the Miocene, soft enough for the sea to sculpt them into arches, caves, pillars and chimneys of every size.

From the top, the view east takes in a sequence of sea stacks standing just offshore and a double arch that frames the water below — the picture most people carry away. Down on the sand, the stacks turn into islands you can almost touch at low tide, and the sea around them is clear enough to see the bottom several metres down. The colours change through the day: the limestone glows orange in the late afternoon, while the water keeps a green-blue tone over the pale seabed.

Marinha is also the eastern end of the Seven Hanging Valleys Trail, a coastal walk of about 5.7 km to Vale Centeanes. It follows the edge of the cliffs past a series of small valleys that end abruptly in mid-air above the sea — the hanging valleys of the name — as well as sinkholes, arches and the beach of Benagil. Walking it early or late in the day, in spring or autumn, is the best way to see how this whole stretch of coast was carved. The Michelin guide has listed Marinha among the most beautiful beaches in Europe, and Portugal's environment ministry awarded it the title of "golden beach" in 1998.

Getting there

The beach lies about 7 km from the town of Lagoa and about 12 km from Portimão. The small Portimão aerodrome (PRM) is about 17 km away, but most visitors arrive through Faro Airport (FAO), roughly 60 km and around 45 minutes away by car. Access is by road from the EN125, turning south towards the coast; the beach is reached down a path from the clifftop. Buses run from Faro to Lagoa, with a taxi for the last few kilometres.