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Write a review (Portimao)
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Portugal was a country that I never really had on my bucket list, but a friend invited us to come celebrate the end of summer.
Upon arrival in Portimão the first thing that I noticed was the kindness and hospitality of the people. There is a large black population in the city and everyone seems to get along.
We stayed in the Casa dos Arcos Apartments on Vista Mar, which was about a 3 minute walk to the ocean. If you have never been to Portugal, you should know that the Moors controlled Portugal for almost 600 years.
The primary spoken language is Portuguese and the prime love their fish. The major ride share companies are Uber and Bolt. The Euro is the currency and Visa is accepted almost everywhere. (American Express was not accepted at any place I shopped).
There are to restaurants in Portimão & each seems to have their own specialize menu. Many people will recommend the fresh sardine dishes.
The main large grocery shopping stores are Continente and Auchan. Mobile phone service was super easy, however everyone recommended MEO phone service for a SIM card.
In my opinion all the beaches in the Algarve region were beautiful. Parking can be difficult to find during the summer season.
We traveled to Portimao, Portugal for Afronation 2023 and I am already planning my next trip back! I was a bit nervous about traveling to Portugal as a black traveler after hearing mixed reviews and because it is not as large of a city as Lisbon but I was absolutely blown away by this city. You have to imagine that a city is probably pretty friendly towards black travelers if they welcome 40K people from around the world for an Afrobeats music festival and this was absolutely the case. Everyone was so friendly and my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed everything about the city. We stayed at the Hotel RR da Rocha which I would highly recommend. It was right across the street from the Praia da Rocha which is one of the biggest and most well known beaches in the area. This was also the site of the music festival so it was absolutely perfect to be able to walk right across the street to the festival. We also rented a car and had no trouble finding free street parking. The hotel also had an extensive breakfast which was included every morning. Portimao is an extremely walkable town with many restaurants and clubs nearby- there are both casual beach restaurants right on the boardwalk or nicer restaurants (Restaurante F for example). Though we didn’t do any clubbing after the music festival, if you are a big partier, people definitely stayed out late at many of the bars and clubs to keep the party going. And for those that aren’t into partying but prefer a more relaxed vibe, the area has plenty of wineries that are within a 20 min or less drive from the heart of town. We visited Arvad, Quinta dos Vale, Quinta dos Santo, and Morgado Quintao. This wine region is less well known than Porto or other areas of portugal but the wine was pretty good and some of the wineries are beautiful to have a farmers lunch in vines or just enjoy the scenery.