Vilamoura is a resort rather than a real town: a large residential and hotel complex in the municipality of Loulé, in the Algarve, Portugal's southernmost region. It covers about 2,000 hectares of seafront, pine woods, lakes and golf courses, and is one of the most elegant destinations on the coast, chosen by those looking for comfort, sport and a social scene. It lies about 25 kilometres from Faro and its airport and about 270 kilometres from Lisbon.
How the resort was born
The idea for Vilamoura dates from the 1960s, when the Porto banker Arthur Cupertino de Miranda bought the area's large farming estate to turn it into a planned resort. The marina opened in 1974 and the complex has kept growing ever since, with hotels, apartments and villas. Alongside the concrete, however, there remain large pine woods and wetlands, such as the Parque Ambiental de Vilamoura, rich in water birds.
The marina and the beaches
The heart of Vilamoura is the marina, one of the largest in Portugal, with about 800 berths: a stroll among luxury yachts, bars, restaurants and shops, in a cosmopolitan atmosphere that comes alive in the evening with music and nightspots. Boat trips along the coast, dolphin-watching outings and deep-sea fishing leave from the harbour. The casino is also near the marina.
The main beach, Praia da Marina, is next to the harbour, well equipped and good for families. To the west begins Praia da Falésia, which runs for kilometres beneath red cliffs as far as Albufeira, while to the east is the beach of Quarteira, with its promenade and fish market.
Golf
Vilamoura is one of Europe's golf capitals: its courses include the Old Course, the oldest, opened in 1969 among the pines, Pinhal, Laguna, Millennium and Victoria, designed by Arnold Palmer, which for years hosted the European Tour's Portugal Masters. Nearby are other famous courses, such as those at Vale do Lobo and Quinta do Lago.
Cerro da Vila
Next to the marina are the Roman ruins of Cerro da Vila, a villa inhabited from the first century and later in Visigothic and Arab times, with remains of baths, mosaics, fish-salting tanks and a small museum of finds from the excavations. It bears witness to the long history of this coast, long before tourism arrived.
The interior
Go just a few kilometres from the sea and the landscape changes completely, climbing towards the hills of the Serra do Caldeirão. Loulé, the municipal seat, has an old town with the remains of its castle, a fine neo-Moorish municipal market and a lively Saturday market; it is also famous for its carnival, one of the oldest in Portugal. The village of Alte, with its white houses and springs, is considered one of the most typical in the Algarve, while Salir keeps the remains of a Moorish castle. The churches and craft traditions of the hill villages are also worth discovering.
Food
Vilamoura's food combines the international menus of the marina restaurants with traditional Algarve flavours: grilled sardines, octopus rice, cataplana, a stew of fish, seafood, peppers and clams named after the copper pan it is cooked in, arroz de marisco and spicy piri-piri chicken. Pair them with Algarve wines, which have improved greatly in recent years, and finish with almond and fig sweets.