Praia da Armação de Pêra
Praia da Armação de Pêra is a very long sandy beach with hotels and apartments all along the road behind. The eastern end of the beach seems to go on for miles, but intriguing rocks and caves stop the western end at Nossa Senhora da Rocha. Praia da Armação de Pêra has lots of access points along its length and various cafés and restaurants on and above the beach.
There is a ramp down to the beach, suitable for wheelchairs, by the café just to the left (east) of the Holiday Inn Algarve (formerly “Hotel Garbe”) although there is very little in the way of boarded walkways once you are on the beach. There are sunbeds for hire at several points along the beach and also pedaloes to rent as well as various other water sports to try your hand at.
To the left hand end of the promenade is the whitewashed remains of a 17th century fort, containing a chapel dedicated to St. Anthony. The fort was built at the instigation of a local wealthy boat owner to protect the town from pirates. Further to the left are the fishermen’s huts and all the wonderfully bright coloured fishing boats and usually some of the fishermen going about their daily tasks – repairing their nets and looking after their boats, ready for the next trip.
At this end of the beach are a couple more beach restaurants, serving, of course, locally caught fish- it couldn’t be fresher.
Praia da Armação de Pêra is supervised during the ‘beach season’ and is classed as an ‘Accessible Beach’.