What Is Faro Nearest Beach?
When I first arrived at Faro airport, I was a bit surprised by the bus line: there was the city center in one direction and the beach in the other. Why? Isn’t there a beach right in Faro? Well, it turns out that Faro does not have a beach. When I learned about that, I asked myself, what is Faro nearest beach?
The nearest beach from Faro is Praia de Faro, located 10 km away from the city center. You can access it with bus lines 14 and 16 or by car. The car park is free but can be filled really early every day.
How to get to Praia de Faro (Faro nearest beach)?
Faro beach transport options
There are multiple ways to get to Praia de Faro. If you decided to rent a car or a scooter, the best option is to use it to get to the beach. On the other hand, if you did not rent any means of transport, you can use one of the following solutions.
You can get to Praia de Faro by:
- Car
- Scooter
- Bus
- Ferry
Faro beach by car
The car is definitely the simplest way to access the beach. Indeed, the route is too long to walk. But it is relatively short by car. It takes around 15 minutes to get from Faro city center to Praia de Faro.
The route can be a bit longer than shown on the screenshot for two reasons: traffic jams, and parking.
Since the airport is right on the route from the city center to the beach, there can usually be traffic jams in the area. Then, right before arriving at the beach, you will cross a bridge, which is regulated with a traffic light.
Indeed, the bridge is too narrow for cars to cross, so a traffic light is necessary. The thing is that cars can accumulate pretty quickly at rush hours.
Avoiding those rush hours would be a wise idea. Also, waking up early to get to Faro beach is a clever idea because car parks fill very quickly.
In Portugal, most car parks are free. But the fact they are free also means that some of them fill relatively quickly. This is the case at Faro beach. Make sure to access the beach early in the morning, or late in the afternoon when people start leaving.
Faro beach by bus
Taking a bus is a good alternative to get from Faro to Faro beach. It is also the simplest way to get from Faro beach to airport. Indeed, the bus lines 14 and 16 directly go from Faro Beach to airport. If you want to enjoy the sea and the beach one last time before leaving, here is what you can do.
- Check the timetables of bus lines 14 and 16 (find them below)
- Go to Terminal Rodoviário Faro (check the Google Maps screenshot below)
- Buy a ticket (2.25 € for adults and 1.50 € for children)
- Get on the bus
- Enjoy your time at the beach
- Buy another ticket from Faro beach to the airport
- Take your plane
All you need to get to Faro beach by bus
The two bus lines to get to Praia de Faro by bus are lines 14 and 16. Here are the routes they take.
The Terminal Rodoviário is the bus station in Faro. The bus stations of the Algarve are usually named Terminal Rodoviário. Hence, if you go to Lagos or Albufeira, you will always find a place named this way.
In Faro, Terminal Rodoviário is located close to the city center. Look at the screenshot to really understand where it is.
Now that you know the route each bus line takes, you need to know about how often buses drive. Here are the timetables of bus lines 14 and 16.
If you want, you can save these routes and timetables with the links below. Those are PDF-files you can then access even without an Internet connection.
Since 4G is not everywhere in the area, I felt like it was a good idea to give you those files directly in this article.
Buses around Faro
Buses are overall a great means of transport in Algarve. They are on time, and they are cheap. Choosing to only travel by bus and not rent a car is definitely an option to visit Algarve.
When I was there in August 2020, we did rent a scooter to make the little rides easier, but we could have taken buses instead. Basically, we used the scooter to go to the beach, and it was a great option because the route is relatively short and you can park easily with a scooter.
However, if we did not rent a scooter, then the bus was our best shot to get from Faro to the beach.
Faro beach by ferry
When writing this article, I did some additional research to complete the experience I had when I spent a few days around Faro.
I was very surprised to find that there is a ferry to get to Faro beach. Indeed, it looks like there is a ferry in the summer months. But, when I was there, we did not see anything about it.
In fact, we were very happy to use our scooter to go to the beach because it was easy to park. So maybe, there is a ferry in the summer months, and this is what the website Tripsavvy says in the linked article, but it is not the best way to visit this beach in my opinion.
Faro beach is free, and the other means of transport mentioned earlier work very well. However, ferries are definitely the best way to visit other places in the area such as Ilha do Farol for example.
A day at Praia de Faro: what can you expect? (weather, temperature, lodging)
Faro beach temperature
In Portugal, the water is known to be cold. Faro beach does not make an exception. Water in Algarve is cold. When my toes first touched the water, I was extremely surprised by the temperature.
In fact, it is not because you are in the South of Europe that the water is warm. Indeed, when you swim in Algarve, you swim in the Atlantic Ocean. Hence, water is colder than in the Mediterranean Sea for instance.
Then, there is a phenomenon called upwelling, which makes the water colder. So, when someone asks you “Why is the water so cold in Algarve?”, you can answer him that “Upwelling is an oceanographic phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water towards the ocean surface, replacing the warmer, usually nutrient-depleted surface water.“
Basically, the wind creates a motion which prevents the water to warm up.
Because of this phenomenon, the temperatures of the water regularely fall below 20°C. Here is a monthly temperature graphe to show you what to expect when swimming at Faro Beach.
When I look at the water temperatures, I love looking for local surf websites. Indeed, surfers know that the weather conditions can vary from one beach to the other, so they are very precise on their data.
This is what I did for Praia de Faro. I found a specialized website about surf. As you can see, the water averages between 20 and 22 degrees in the summer months, which is definitely lower than in other Southern countries of Europe.
However, this is not particularely a bad thing. Indeed, the water will cool you down. Since the sun hits pretty hard during the summer months in Faro, having a fresh source of water nearby is pretty cool.
In fact, we enjoyed cooling down in the cold water. To understand why, look at the average temperatures in Faro (not the water ones, just the normal temperatures).
Faro weather
Faro averages 29°C for the months of July and August, meaning that the temperatures usually exceed 30°C. During the winter months, the temperatures rarely fall behind 0°C.
Now you probably understand why it is relaxing to have a cold source of water always nearby.
Faro beach hotels
There are no hotels with a direct access to Faro beach. This is due to the form of the beach and its location.
Praia de Faro location
Praia de Faro is located on a long and thin island, which you can only access thanks to a bridge I already mentioned earlier. Here is what it looks like from the air.
You can see the bridge in the picture. This makes Praia de Faro a very secluded place, only accessible with a bridge. Adding hotels would be a bad idea because it would create even bigger traffic jams at rush hours.
It would also destroy the coast line. Hence, Portugal wants to keep this place as it is and not add more buildings.
Praia de Faro form
You may have seen on the previous screenshot that Faro beach is a thin sand strip spanning on around 5 kilometers.
This form makes construction impossible. Hence, there are some restaurants and stores next to the beach, but there are no big hotels. Also, the area used to be a swamp, which makes construction even harder.
Hence, there are no hotels and lodging options directly at Faro beach. The closest options are Villa Floris, located West of the beach, and Casas da Ria, East of it.
Note that those places are not affiliated to me and that I do not get any commission if you book a room. I just want to share with you all the knowledge I got from my trip to Faro so you know everything to expect.
Is Praia de Faro the best beach for Faro?
Since there are no beaches directly in Faro, and that you need to either drive or take a bus to get to Praia de Faro, it is a wise idea to ask yourself whether you should stop here, or drive a bit more to get to another beach.
It is not because Faro nearest beach is Praia de Faro that you should spend your whole week here. Indeed, there are lots of other beaches to visit, such as Praia da Falesia, Praia de Camilo, or Praia do Benagil.
However, Praia de Faro is still a very good beach to relax. What I recommend doing is to visit Algarve during the day, because there are tons of cities and places to explore in the area such as Portimão or Albufeira, and then to get to Faro beach in the evening.
This way, you can enjoy the sunset at the beach and avoid the parking issues. Also, you can choose to enjoy the sunrise at Praia de Faro and then head to other places.
The two options are possible. I tried both and I must say that the sunset option is definitely a good one. Here are some shots my friend took.
I hope you enjoyed those last shots and this article overall. I tried to summarize everything I learned about Faro Beach to give you the best information possible.
When I lacked a piece of information, I did some additional research and added it in the different paragraphs.
However, if there is a query I did not cover, or if you are curious about something else, you can either contact me directly via e-mail or post your question in the comment section below.
I will be very happy to answer it.
If you want to include this hike in a 3-days guide around Faro, you can check the ultimate travel guide I wrote about Algarve by clicking the link attached.
See you somewhere in the world!
