Lagos: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
In the fifteenth century the caravels of Henry the Navigator sailed from Lagos down the coast of Africa, and the age of European discovery began here — with all it brought, including the first sale of enslaved Africans in Europe, on this square in 1444. The 1755 earthquake and tsunami destroyed most of the town, which was rebuilt inside its old walls. Ninety minutes, flat.
A short history of Lagos
The Romans called the town Lacobriga. In the 15th century it served as a base for Prince Henry the Navigator, and ships set out from its harbour to explore the coasts of Africa. In 1444 the first European slave market where Africans were sold was held here, and the market building is now a museum. From 1577 to 1755 Lagos was the capital of the Algarve. In 1755 the earthquake and the tsunami that followed destroyed much of the town.
The ten best sights in Lagos
1Praça do InfanteHenry the Navigator’s square, and on its corner the first slave market in Europe
2Igreja de Santa MariaHenry the Navigator was first buried here
3Igreja de Santo AntónioA small church whose inside is entirely gilded carved wood
4Forte da Ponta da BandeiraA small sea fort guarding the harbour mouth
-
5Porta de São Gonçalo
The sea gate in the old town walls
-
6Marina de Lagos
Boats to the grottoes and the dolphins leave from here
7Ponta da PiedadeGolden rock arches and grottoes; a stair goes down to the water
-
8Praia Dona Ana
A cove of sand under ochre cliffs and sea stacks
-
9Praia do Camilo
A tiny beach at the bottom of a long wooden stair
-
10Meia Praia
Four kilometres of open sand east of the town
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Lagos →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Lagos:
Free walking tours in Lagos
Where the voyages began
In the fifteenth century the caravels of Henry the Navigator sailed from Lagos down the coast of Africa, and the age of European discovery began here — with all it brought, including the first sale of enslaved Africans in Europe, on this square in 1444. The 1755 earthquake and tsunami destroyed most of the town, which was rebuilt inside its old walls. Ninety minutes, flat.
- Praça do Infante · On the eighth of August 1444 a caravel unloaded two hundred and thirty-five captives taken on the African coast here, and they were divided and sold in the open, with Prince Henry watching from horseback to collect his fifth. The royal chronicler Zurara wrote down the scene, mothers clutching their children as families were separated. The small building on the corner is now a museum of that trade.
- Igreja de Santa Maria · When Prince Henry died at Sagres in 1460 his body was brought here and buried, before it was moved to the royal monastery at Batalha. In 1578 the young king Sebastião is said to have addressed his men from this church before sailing for Morocco, where he and much of the Portuguese nobility were lost at Alcácer Quibir.
- Igreja de Santo António · From outside a plain white church; inside, every surface — walls, altar, ceiling — is covered in carved and gilded wood, paid for with the gold of Brazil. It survived the earthquake of 1755 badly damaged and was restored, and it was the chapel of the town’s regiment.
- Porta de São Gonçalo · Lagos was the capital of the Algarve until the earthquake of 1755, and its walls, rebuilt in the sixteenth century, still run along the old town. On the morning of the first of November the earthquake brought the town down and then the sea came over these walls three times.
- Forte da Ponta da Bandeira · A small square fort of the seventeenth century at the harbour mouth, with a drawbridge, built against the pirates of North Africa who raided this coast for centuries and carried off its people as slaves in turn.
- Mercado Municipal · The market on the river, with the morning’s fish on the ground floor — sardines, sea bream, octopus — and on the roof a terrace looking over the river mouth to the open sea the caravels set out on.
The golden cliffs
South of Lagos the coast breaks into cliffs of golden limestone carved by the sea into arches, stacks, grottoes and coves, each beach reached by a stair down the rock. A path runs along the clifftops for the whole way. Half a day on foot, or by kayak from the marina; the grottoes are best in the morning, on a calm sea.
- Praia Dona Ana · A sandy cove under ochre cliffs with sea stacks standing in the water, often called one of the most beautiful beaches in Europe. The stair down is steep, and in the morning the water in the shadow of the cliffs is green and clear.
- Praia do Camilo · A tiny beach at the bottom of a wooden stair of about two hundred steps, and from it a tunnel through the rock leads to a second, smaller cove. At high tide there is almost no sand.
- Ponta da Piedade · The headland where the cliffs reach their most fantastic: arches, pillars and tunnels of golden rock, with a lighthouse on top and a stair of about a hundred and eighty steps down to a little landing. Fishermen take small boats into the grottoes, rowing under the arches.
- Porto de Mós · A wide beach at the end of the clifftop path, and from here the path continues west over higher, wilder cliffs toward the village of Luz, with the whole coast to Sagres in view.
- Praia da Luz · A village beach watched over by a black volcanic cliff called the Rocha Negra, unusual on this coast of yellow limestone. Roman fish-salting tanks were found on the seafront here.
- Burgau · A fishing village of steep lanes running down to a cove where the boats are still pulled up on the sand, at the edge of the natural park that protects the wild south-west coast.
The end of the world
West of Lagos the land narrows to the south-west corner of Europe, the cape the Romans called sacred and thought was the edge of the world, where the sun hissed as it sank into the ocean. Beyond it the west coast is wild Atlantic, dunes and surf, and inland the Monchique mountains rise. A full day and a car.
- Ermida de Guadalupe · A small Gothic chapel of the thirteenth century among fields, said to have been built by the Templars and later used by Prince Henry, who lived nearby at Raposeira and is said to have prayed here before the voyages.
- Fortaleza de Sagres · A walled headland of bare rock over the ocean. The legend of a school of navigation that Henry founded here is mostly legend, but he did live and die here. On the ground inside lies a huge circle of stones about forty metres across, perhaps a wind rose, perhaps a sundial — nobody is sure.
- Cabo de São Vicente · The south-western tip of mainland Europe, cliffs seventy metres high, and a lighthouse among the most powerful in Europe guarding the busiest shipping lane between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The legend says the body of Saint Vincent reached here on a boat guarded by ravens, which gave the cape its name.
- Praia da Bordeira · On the west coast the land faces the open Atlantic, and Bordeira is a huge beach of dunes with a river winding behind it to the sea. A boardwalk runs over the headland above it, and the surf here is big all year.
- Aljezur · A white town on a river below a ruined Moorish castle, one of the last places in the Algarve taken by the Portuguese, in 1249. The castle hill looks out over the river valley to the ocean.
- Fóia · The summit of the Monchique mountains at about nine hundred metres, the highest point of the Algarve, with the whole coast from Sagres to Portimão laid out below. On the slopes grow cork oaks and the strawberry tree, whose fruit is distilled into medronho brandy in the villages.
Getting to Lagos and getting around
- Faro Airport · About an hour by car along the coast; buses and trains via Faro
- Lagos Station · The western end of the Algarve line, across the bridge from the old town
Cheap eats in Lagos
The Algarve grills fish over charcoal in the street — sardines above all, from June to September, eaten on a slice of bread that soaks up the oil. Cataplana is the shellfish stew cooked in a hinged copper pan, and the village of Guia made piri-piri chicken famous. The sweets are almond and fig and egg-yolk; the drink of the hills is medronho. A grilled-sardine lunch costs a few euro at the harbour.
- Portimão · Grilled sardines by the river, in season
- Guia · Piri-piri chicken in the village that made it famous
- Mercado Municipal · The morning catch, and a terrace bar on the roof
- Monchique · Medronho and honey brandy from the mountain stills
- Ferragudo · Cataplana by the river in a fishing village
- Praça do Infante · Pastéis de nata and coffee in the old town
Museums in Lagos
The museums of Lagos face the hardest part of Portugal’s history: the age of discovery that made the country rich, and the slave trade that began on its square. Beyond the town are a Moorish capital and the cape where the voyages were planned.
- Praça do Infante · The slave market museum on the square
- Igreja de Santo António · Gilded carving and the town museum next door
- Fortaleza de Sagres · Henry the Navigator’s headland and its stone circle
- Castelo de Silves · The red walls of the Moorish capital
- Forte da Ponta da Bandeira · A sea fort with a small exhibition
Nature and day trips near Lagos
The Algarve has two coasts. The south is golden limestone carved into grottoes, arches and coves — the classic postcard. The west, inside the Costa Vicentina natural park, is wild Atlantic: black cliffs, dunes, surf and almost no building. Inland are cork-oak mountains.
- Ponta da Piedade · Grottoes by kayak on a calm morning
- Benagil Cave · Seen from the water and from the clifftop
- Praia da Marinha · The clifftop path of the seven hanging valleys
- Praia da Bordeira · Dunes, a river and Atlantic surf
- Fóia · Cork-oak mountains and the whole coast below
- Alvor · A boardwalk over the lagoon, with birds
Things to do in Lagos with kids
The Algarve is a classic family coast: sandy coves, boat trips into grottoes, dolphins offshore and calm water on the south coast in summer. The west coast is for surf lessons, not for small children in the sea.
- Marina de Lagos · Dolphin-watching boats
- Meia Praia · A long sandy beach with gentle water
- Ponta da Piedade · Small boats into the grottoes
- Fortaleza de Sagres · A fortress on the edge of the ocean
- Praia da Luz · A calm village beach
- Castelo de Silves · Walk the walls of a red castle
Holy places in Lagos
The churches of Lagos are filled with the gold of the empire, and the chapels along the coast are tied to the navigators who prayed before sailing. At the end of the land stands the cape that was sacred before Christianity.
- Igreja de Santo António · Every surface carved and gilded
- Igreja de Santa Maria · Henry the Navigator’s first grave
- Ermida de Guadalupe · A Gothic chapel among the fields
- Cabo de São Vicente · The sacred cape of the Romans
- Caldas de Monchique · Healing waters used since Roman times
Nightlife in Lagos
Lagos is the young town of the western Algarve, with backpackers, surfers and late bars in the lanes of the old town. The big resort nights are along the coast at Portimão and Albufeira; the quiet evenings are at the cape at sunset.
- Praça do Infante · The bar lanes of the old town
- Cabo de São Vicente · Sunset at the end of Europe
- Marina de Lagos · Bars along the marina
- Praia da Rocha · The resort strip of Portimão
- Mercado Municipal · Sunset drinks on the market roof
Frequently asked questions about Lagos
What is there to see in Lagos?
The top sights in Lagos are Praça do Infante, Igreja de Santa Maria and Igreja de Santo António. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Lagos?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Lagos without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Lagos?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Lagos, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Where the voyages began.
How do you get to Lagos and get around?
The main ways are Faro Airport and Lagos Station. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Lagos, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Lagos that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Lagos for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.