The Best 4-Day Itinerary for Lagos, Portugal

Lagos, Portugal is the perfect beach vacation to kick off the summer. The beaches are uniquely beautiful. Lagos Old Town is tiny, but full of restaurants and nightlife. This itinerary will show you how to visit Lagos, Portugal without a car. Just don’t forget to bring your swimsuit!

Where is Lagos located?

This blog post is about Lagos, Portugal. It is located in the Algarve region of southern Portugal, it’s coastline surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.

There is also a city of Lagos located in Nigeria. Make sure you know which Lagos you would like to visit! I saw a TikTok about a girl who accidentally booked a trip to one Lagos instead of the other.

When should you visit Lagos?

It is recommended to visit Lagos between June and September. It wasn’t too busy when we visited in early June, but it wasn’t a ghost town either. The weather in Lagos starts to get cooler in October.

How to get to Lagos:

There are two steps involved in getting to Lagos:

Fly into Faro International Airport (FAO).
From Faro, you can take a train or bus to Lagos.

The train from Faro to Lagos costs $10 and lasts about an hour and 45 minutes. The bus costs $24 and lasts about the same amount of time, if not longer.

You can also take the train or bus from almost anywhere in Portugal directly to Lagos. Check out Omio for the best deals.

How to get to Lagos from Lisbon:

You can take the train or bus from Lisbon to Lagos.

The bus takes about 4-5 hours and costs $5-8. The train takes about 3.5-4.5 hours, and costs around $30. You can purchase tickets for the bus or the train here.

Where to stay in Lagos:

My friends and I found the perfect accommodations on Airbnb, but there are many options for staying in Lagos. Hostelworld and Booking.com have great options. Orange3 Hostel, The Macarena Beach Hostel, and HI Lagos – Pousada de Juventude are all affordable, highly rated, and right near the center of Lagos.

Lagos is not a super big city. As long as you stay somewhere near the center of town you should be able to walk to any of the spots on this itinerary. We stayed at this airbnb on Rua Dom Vasco da Gama. You can find the same apartment on Booking.com.

Best beaches in Lagos:

Below are the best beaches in Lagos in order of how close they are to downtown Lagos.

Praia do Pinhao
Praia Dona Ana
Praia do Camilo
Praia do Barranco do Martinho (can only be accessed by boat)
Praia de Porto de Mos

Best view in Lagos:

Walk about 40 minutes from Lagos Old Town to Ponta da Piedade for the best view in Lagos. Here are the directions on Google Maps.

Where to eat in Lagos:

Coffee & Waves
The Studio: Coffee Roaster & Brunch Cafe
London Tiger Coffee
Mar Restaurante & Bar
O Camilo
Sunrays kitchen
Sunflower Cafe

Where to go out in Lagos:

Bar InsideOut
Sinners Bar (whytes bar)
The Tavern
Three Monkeys Bar
Bar Muchacha
Black Cat Jazz Supper Club

Where to stay in Faro:

There’s a possibility you will need to spend the night in Faro. We stayed at HI Faro – Pousada de Juventude for the night. It was around 20€ a bed and only a 20 minute walk from Faro Train Station.

There are also lots of options on Airbnb and Booking.com.

If you stay somewhere near the center of Faro, everything should be within walking distance.

What to do in Faro:

We spent our day in Faro at Ilha Deserta. It’s really easy to get there by ferry or speedboat from the main port in Faro. Read more about getting to Ilha Deserta in the itinerary below.

You can also take a stroll along the harbor and around Faro’s Old Town (Cidade Velha).

Check out this highly-rated walking food tour through old town. Faro: Old Town Guided Walking Food Tour

The Best 4-Day Lagos Itinerary

We flew into Faro Airport (FAO) at night. We took a 10 minute taxi to HI Faro – Pousada de Juventude because it was so late and went straight to bed. The next morning we walked 20 minutes to Faro Train Station.

Day 1

We started our morning at London Tiger Coffee for some coffees and pastries.

Next, we made our way to Ponta da Piedade for the best views in Lagos. It’s about a 40 minute walk from Old Town. Here are directions on Google Maps. We actually took the longer way because we wanted to walk along some of the beaches on the way there. Once you arrive at Ponta da Piedade, be careful standing near the edge.

Lagos is best known for these dramatic, arching rock formations. At Ponta da Piedade, you can see them from a bird’s eye view.

Next, we walked about 20 minutes to Praia do Camilo. It was already quite crowded when we arrived. We ended up walking along the beach to the left, which involved some wading in the water and climbing over rocks, until we found a more private cove to camp out for the day.

After the beach, we came home to cook dinner and shower. We cooked a lot of our meals on this trip. There are lots of markets in the area to buy groceries.

Later, we went out to this bar that isn’t really labeled on maps. The address is Rua Cândido dos Reis 94, 8600-617 Lagos, Portugal. We took our drinks upstairs to a cozy, intimate room to enjoy some live music. We ended our night dancing at the fun and colorful Bar InsideOut.

Day 2

Lagos is known for it’s unique rock formations that tower along the coast line. The best way to see these formations up close is to do a boat tour.

We wanted to find the best deal, so we walked around the Lagos Marina early on Day 2, collecting pamphlets from every company to see what they were offering.

The inner child in us couldn’t resist the boat with a floating trampoline attached to the back. “Happy Time Turismo” also gave us the best deal out of all of the other companies.

The tour guides took us along the coast to see the natural rock formations. We got back to the marina after 3 hours of exploring and jumping.

We went into town for dinner that night. I recommend making a reservation if you’re visiting in the summer. It took us a while to find somewhere that had room.

Exploring Lagos Old Town at sunset was magical.

We went back to Bar InsideOut that night because we had such a good time the night before. The place was always crowded, with fun music, party lights, and cheap drinks!

Day 3

On Day 3, we went back to our favorite little private cove. We spent the whole day there.

On our walk back around 6pm, we stopped at Mar Restaurante & Bar for dinner. The wild salmon was delicious.

Day 4

We woke up early on the last day to catch the train back to Faro. Our flight wasn’t until later that evening, so after doing some research, we decided to check out one of Faro’s islands, Ilha Deserta.

Ferry tickets for Ilha Deserta cost 10€ roundtrip. The ferries depart for the island at 10am, 12pm, 1:30pm, 3pm, and 4:45pm. They return to Faro at 10:45am, 12:45pm, 2:15pm, 4pm, and 5:30pm. The ride lasts about 45 minutes. You can purchase the tickets here.

The speedboat shuttle costs 20€ roundtrip. The shuttles depart for the island at 10:30am, 11:30am, 12:30pm, 2:15pm, 3:15pm, and 4:15pm. They return to Faro at 2pm, 3:30pm, 4:30pm, and 5:25pm. The speedboat takes about 15 minutes. You can purchase the tickets here.

You can also pay for the water transportation at the port. You don’t have to buy roundtrip tickets either, it’s possible to take the ferry one way and the shuttle the other.

There’s a long boardwalk that takes you from the ferry dock to the beach.

Ilha Deserta, also known as Ilha da Barretta, is a deserted island with no inhabitants. The beach spans 7 kilometers. The island’s remote nature means that it doesn’t get many visitors. The beach is clean and quiet, and the water is crystal clear.

After doing some more research, I learned that Ilha Deserta is home to Cabo de Santa Maria, the southernmost point of mainland Portugal.

It’s the perfect, peaceful place to spend the day before hopping on your flight. Just make sure to give yourself enough time to get to the airport.