When to Go to Albufeira
Albufeira has a Mediterranean climate, with the sun shining over 300 days a year. However, it’s still on the Atlantic, so the water is never too warm, and although there might be many sunny days in winter, temperatures are never high enough for sunbathing at the beach from November to March. This means that this is mostly a beach destination in the summer, and a place to relax with warmer weather at other times of the year. In August it tends to be crowded (and more expensive), so the best times to go are late June, early July and early September.
Temperatures in the dry summer days can reach between 35 and 40 degrees celsius (95 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit), but at night it’s always much cooler and pleasant.
How Many Days in Albufeira?
Albufeira is a destination for an extended sunny holiday. It’s not a place to visit on a short day trip for cultural sightseeing, it’s for the relaxing resort experience. On a tour of Portugal or while exploring the region of Algarve, it could take a couple of days of your itinerary, but the number of wonderful beaches will make you want to stay for several days. In the summer, most people do stay for a week or more. Good transportation links makes it a good base to explore much of Algarve.
What is Albufeira?
Albufeira was the Roman settlement of Baltum from 200BC to 716AD, when it was taken over by the Moors, who renamed it Al-Buhera. When the Portuguese king Afonso III conquered the southwestern tip of the Iberian Peninsula in 1249, the town became Albufeira. Like most of southern Portugal, it was devastated by a major earthquake in 1755. It remained a quiet fishing village until the late 20th century, when it grew as Portugal’s first major resort town. It was a favorite of British, German, and Dutch tourists, and today nearly a quarter of its resident population was born abroad, mainly in other European countries.
