To finish our Portugal trip, we spent three nights staying in a rural air BnB near Vila Nova de Cacela. Since we had previously visited the extreme southwest corner or Portugal, we figured it might be interesting to do the southeast corner as well. Since it was located amongst a huge beach and national park, the drive south-east made for a worthwhile journey.

After a short drive from our accommodations, we parked in a Lidl supermarket lot near the main road in Vila Real de Santo António. From there we started walking south towards the park.

It didn’t take long before we were inside Mata National Reserve (Mata Nacional Das Dunas Litorais). It was an easy walk on the sidewalk before the trail opened up to a walking path. From there we made the 20 minute or so walk down to the beach.

The area is criss-crossed with wide trails where joggers, cyclists and walkers share the space. It was very quiet on the day we visited, probably due to the time of year.

After seeing enough of the beach on the western side, we turned around and began heading east towards the border.

Our plan was to go to the long jetty at the end of the estuary that separates Portugal and Spain. After doing the southwest corner in Sagres a few days earlier, this would cover another corner of the country.

Aside from a few locals and the occasional fisherman, we had the beach entirely to ourselves. The weather was a bit overcast and cool.

We guessed that local often fished from this spot, because there were cats around and nobody to feed them. However, there were simple box “houses” for the cats, indicating people were taking care of these strays.

Both of us really liked the area and the quiet trails to walk on. We had briefly considered driving across the border for the afternoon, but with Spain’s better sites further east near Seville we felt it wouldn’t be worth it.

The eastern end of the Algarve felt much quieter than the western end, but it had its own quiet charm. With one more location left in our Christmas Portugal trip, the final blog in this series will highlight another picturesque town in the region.