Faro, the Algarve’s capital, is a city of perhaps 55,000 located about 30 miles (50 km) west of the Spanish border. Besides the usual administrative buildings, stores, hotels and artisan shops, it is a fishing port, and the site of the University of the Algarve. There is a convenient railway station, and most visitors to the Algarve land at its international airport.

Faro has been occupied at least since Roman times (they called it Ossonoba), with the Moors developing ... (more)