Portugal #1 - Winter Escape

In my introductory post I told you I would start with our winter escape to Portugal. We have wintered in the south of Portugal 4 of the past 6 years, almost 3 months each time, so in total we’ve spent almost a year there, so I think I know a bit about the place and have something to share with you.

This is the view along Fishermen’s Beach looking towards the Old Town of Albufeira, in the Algarve, of which more in a subsequent post:

Again, from my introductory post you’ll remember I’m writing from a Canadian perspective, that is the perspective of a Snowbird escaping the winter. So if you’re not Canadian some of what I write may not apply, but there will still be a lot of general information in this and subsequent posts that will interest you.

Canadian winters can often be daunting, particularly when you are older and no longer that interested in outdoor activities in the cold. Where we live, along the shore of Lake Ontario in Central Canada, the winter weather can often be milder, but there are days when it is not much fun, as this view on to our backyard deck attests:

The worst winter weather generally is February and March, so this is when we escape to southern Portugal. This also has the advantage of coinciding with the low season there, when occupancy rates in tourist accommodation are down – most Europeans head off on a ski holiday or, if they are looking for beach weather, head to Florida or the Caribbean! And low season of course means good discounts on accommodation. As well, I’ll describe in a later post our preferred flight arrangements, which also fit these dates.

Given the dreary photo above, how much nicer is this sunset view from the first apartment we rented in Albufeira:

A couple of points need to be clarified concerning the weather however.

First, as I mentioned earlier the winters where we live can be mild. It has been maddening on occasion just as we get ready to depart in late January or early February to be able to see very large patches of very green grass on our front lawn – i.e. no snow! ‘So why’, I asked, ‘am I paying to go away to warmer climes?’ The answer fortunately for us comes quickly – a day or two after we leave our neighbours report getting hit with a heavy storm, and our lawn is once again under a white blanket of snow half a meter deep.

Secondly, the weather in Portugal is not Florida- or Arizona-hot. So the pool pictured above, and the sea, do not get used a lot, except by some very brave souls, from January to April. The pools are virtually all unheated by the way, although some hotels do have indoor pools! When we first arrive the temperatures are high teens Celsius, cooler obviously in the evenings, so jeans and sweaters are required. Either because we soon acclimate, or the position of the sun in the sky and the humidity help, it actually seems hotter, and we are quickly into shorts and tees. By the time we leave in mid-April mid-20s are the norm, and one year we even reached 30 C. Since Albufeira and much of the Algarve are by the sea it is often windy, so we always took a fleece or jacket with us, also making sure we had these with us when we went up into the mountains just north of the coastal strip. Typically there can be rain overnight, and clouds that come in from the sea in the morning, but once they drift off the sky is brilliant blue with just the occasional wisp of a cloud. Of our four winters, only one had substantial rain while we there, and that just in February. So on the whole the weather is very pleasant. And even if you do get the odd bad day, with lots of rain, rain does not have to be shoveled!

In my next post I’ll describe why we picked the Algarve and Albufeira as our winter destination, how we get there, and what we enjoy about Portugal’s history, culture, and life-style.