Just 15 minutes east of Faro sits the enchanting, Cubist and whitewashed fishing town of Olhão. If you do not want to hire a car, it is easy to flag a taxi or an Uber from the airport for the short journey, which should set you back only €25. Alternatively, you can take the train or the bus from Faro station to Olhão.

Famed for its fishing industry and its lively market, the old town of Olhão is a maze of cobbled streets and passages with low rise, white, cube like houses, reminiscent of those across the water in Morroco. Some of the buildings are larger and grander with colourful tiled facades, making for a glittering display in the sunlight. Others are shall we say, a little faded and crumbling, but in a really good way.

The harbour opens onto the calm lagoons and waters of the Parque Natural da Ria Formosa, a small group of barrier islands that stretches east from Faro to the Spanish border.

These local islands, where a handful of residents and fisherman live and work, are home to beautiful, clean beaches with simple bars, authentic restaurants and an enviable – almost otherworldly – pace of life.

Olhão’s dock area, with its factories and warehouses, is still dedicated to the fishing industry which provides local employment and sets the area’s character as a working city. From Industry came wealth which provided many fine buildings in the city and a lovely, long paved promenade running along the waterfront, ideal for a shady walk taking visitors through the mature 1960s gardens and up to the market area.

Olhão escaped the ravages of mass tourism as it always has been a working town with no beach but, being on the Ria Formosa lagoon, some of the best beaches in Portugal are just a short ferry ride away on Armona and Culatra islands which have small settlements, cafes and bars.