Olhão
The working town, not the pretty one. That is the whole argument.
The largest fishing port in the Algarve, with no beach of its own and nothing built to be looked at — which is exactly why it holds up across a month when its neighbours do not.
The town that functions without you
More than 45,000 residents, the largest fishing port in the Algarve, and — decisively — no beach of its own1. Nothing here was built for visitors, which is exactly why it holds up across a month.
The market is the argument
Two red-brick halls on the waterfront running six days a week and shutting around one in the afternoon, with a larger outdoor market spilling into the street on Saturdays — one of the biggest fresh-produce markets in the region12.
Through a whole winter it was the fixed point of the week: the thing that made a car unnecessary, and the reason I cooked at home most nights.
What you are trading
Base here if you want a town that functions without you — supermarkets, ferries to Armona and Culatra, a waterfront that is a working one rather than a view. The cost is that Olhão is honestly not pretty in the way its neighbours are.
Out in the countryside three kilometres short of the town, POMAR Base runs year-round on a family apricot farm. Those three kilometres are the whole trade of staying there rather than in Olhão itself: the market hall, the station and the restaurants are all in town, and none of them are a stroll.
Who it is wrong for
Anybody who needs their base to be photogenic, and anybody planning around the sea — in the cold half of the year the water here is something you reach by ferry, or look at from a path.