Algarve info:

The Algarve stretches across the whole of southern Portugal. Its name derives from the Arabic El-Gharb meaning "west". The western coastal strip with its beautiful beaches and stark landscapes has become a nature reserve. This is a wild coastline of great scenic beauty where dark limestone, slate cliffs and rocks are dominating. Also an area full of wild life and one which the Portuguese Government is determined to preserve despite intense pressure from developers. Inland, the Western Algarve has much to offer with lovely countryside interspersed with tiny villages, unspoiled and so typically ‘Algarve’. Journeys from here into the Monchique mountains and beyond into the Alentejo are rewarding. This area's coastline is one of Portugal's few volcanic regions and features the Serra de Monchique, high enough to shelter much of the Algarve from the northerly winds and a natural boundary with the Alentejo.