Ilha de Tavira

Tavira’s beach is not a beach you walk to: it is an island. A short ferry ride across the Ria Formosa brings you to the Ilha de Tavira, a sliver of sand eleven kilometres long, with the Atlantic on one side and the calm lagoon on the other — the classic Algarve summer in one crossing.

Between ocean and lagoon

The island is one of the barrier beaches that make the Ria Formosa one of Europe’s great coastal wetlands. On its southern shore the sand runs on and on, holding the Blue Flag; on its inner side, a small village of fishermen’s houses faces the lagoon. At the far western end, the Praia do Barril keeps a strange and moving monument: the anchor cemetery, where hundreds of anchors from the old tuna-fishing nets lie planted in the sand, remembering the almadrava fishery that lived here between 1841 and 1967. Access is part of the pleasure — by boat from the town of Tavira, or by the little train from Pedras d’El Rei. The whole system belongs to the Ria Formosa Natural Park.

What to see

• The long Atlantic beach, supervised in bathing season
• The anchor cemetery of Praia do Barril
• The fishermen’s houses on the lagoon side
• The birds of the Ria Formosa — spoonbills, herons and more
• The naturist stretch of the island’s eastern end

Practical information

Ferries leave from Tavira’s quayside and from the Quatro Águas landing, more often in summer; the Barril train runs from Pedras d’El Rei near Santa Luzia. There is camping on the island, and little else — take water, shade and time.

Image credit: Ilha de Tavira by Vítor Oliveira — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.