liveaboard

If you can, get a place more than 2km from the coast [to avoid too much fog and salt] but less than 6km; so you get a cool sea breeze as the heat rises inland of you in summer.
We did that; paid more for the place, but the weather is very pleasant here almost all the time.
Just north of Aljezur.

AliceCaroline

I thought Aljezur was lovely (the town proper, not so much vale da Telha) but it bucks the trend of housing getting cheaper as you move further from the airport. Might re-visit anyway.

So between 2 & 6km is ideal. That's the kind of info I was after. I'm not at all fussed by a sea view so that's fine by us.

newintavira

No, it hasn't really. Often we've travelled from a very still Tavira to a very windy Lagos.

AliceCaroline

Thank you. Thought that might be the case.

pdr

Vila Real de Santo Antonio is a busy little town all year round, and being so flat there is nearly always a breeze coming up the Guardiana River from the sea on the Spanish side of the border.
About half an hour's walk away is Monte Gordo's enormous beach where a stiff breeze also comes in from the west. Monte Gordo is quiet apart from the main summer holiday period, when it very busy indeed!

AliceCaroline

Another place for us to visit when we have our recce out East of Faro
Busy all year is a plus.
Just looked at it on Google Earth, I've not seen a Algarve town thats built on such an accurate grid. Do you know if there is a story behind that, like Edinburghs new town?

newintavira

Yes. It was designed on that grid system by the Marquis de Pombal to resemble the "new" part of Lisbon when it was rebuilt after the earthquake in the 1700s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vila_Re...o_Municipality

AliceCaroline

Thank you for the link. Interesting stuff.
Hadn't thought to look up towns on Wikipedia, duh! That will be another afternoon lost.