Portimão sits on the western Algarve coast where the Arade River meets the sea, a proper working town that has managed to stay real even as the tourist industry has grown up around it. For centuries this was a sardine-fishing port — the canneries that once lined the waterfront have been converted into museums and restaurants, but the boats still go out and the fish market still smells like fish. The long sandy beach at Praia da Rocha, just a couple of kilometres south, is one of the finest on the Algarve, backed by ochre cliffs and dotted with rock stacks worn into strange shapes by the Atlantic.
The town itself is worth a morning's wandering: the old fishermen's quarter near the harbour, the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição with its azulejo-tiled interior, and the covered market where you can pick up smoked sausage and local almonds. The Museu de Portimão, in a former sardine cannery on the waterfront, is one of the best regional museums in the Algarve. Portimão also hosts the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, a Formula 1-grade circuit that has hosted MotoGP and various touring car championships — car racing fans will want to check the calendar before they arrive. The city hosts the Festival da Sardinha in August, when the whole waterfront smells of grilling fish and the streets fill with music.