Walking in the Algarve, a long journey

The Algarve's hiking festivals are the result of a long journey, travelled over the last few decades, with different protagonists, to reveal a different Algarve and draw attention to its natural and cultural wealth. They have also opened up a path to building a more cohesive, sustainable, harmonious and economically competitive region.

Until just over 15 years ago, walking in the Algarve was something strange, even bizarre, for most people in the region (and visitors). Except, it must be said, for a few well-informed enthusiasts or those experienced in the art of exploring the territory using military charts and/or access to rare written guides, or for researchers and writers, such as Professor Manuel Viegas Guerreiro, who in 1959 wrote "Uma Excursão à Serra do Algarve", describing a two-day walking trip between Barrocal and Serra do Caldeirão, in such detail that today it could be seen as a real travel guide for the region.

However, the first publications on nature tourism in the Algarve were mainly the initiative of foreigners and date back to the 80s or 70s. At that time it was a very small niche of those who actually came to the Algarve to explore its rich nature.

However, there were those in the region who wanted to promote this very interesting aspect of tourism. The Almargem Association, together with the LPN – Liga para a Proteção da Natureza, was one of the pioneers of this movement and, since the 1980s, has organised and still organises numerous activities to show a different Algarve and to draw attention to its great cultural and natural resources and its potential in ecotourism, nature tourism or whatever you want to call it.

It was Almargem who, back in the late 1990s, in partnership with the Algarve Walkers, began the visionary project of creating a pedestrian route that would cross the entire Algarve, from Alcoutim to Cape St Vincent, today widely known as the Via Algarviana. This route was the result of the vast knowledge of paths, routes and trails that both associations had accumulated in their history of organising activities in the Algarve and was certainly the first major moment in promoting the region as a walking destination. Later came the Rota Vicentina, the Rota do Guadiana and many circular routes, some of which already existed at the time, others that have since been installed, now totalling well over 2,000km of signposted routes throughout the region.

The Algarve Tourism Board published the Algarve Walking Route Guide - which has already been reissued several times due to the high demand - and the Algarve Tourism Association included nature tourism as a strategic segment in its international promotion strategy. Numerous formal and informal hiking and related clubs have also sprung up, as have various tourist entertainment companies and international operators specializing in attracting visitors from across borders.

A lot has happened since the early 2000s and today we can say that the Algarve is no longer seen from the outside (or from the inside) as just a sun and sea destination. Fortunately, there is much more to discover in this southern rectangle than its beautiful beaches and golf courses.

The first hiking festival in the Algarve, Walking Festival Ameixial, was held in 2013 and others followed, totalling four today. A fifth is on the way in early 2025. These events have, to a certain extent, crowned the long process that has taken place and with them a whole territory has taken on an even greater role in differentiating the Algarve as a tourist destination and in combating the much-talked-about seasonality. But these festivals are made up of paths and routes, which are fundamental to this activity, and which must be maintained and preserved. And with them the history, culture, and nature of the region, which, interwoven in a sustainable human activity, allow us to aspire to a more cohesive, harmonious and economically competitive Algarve.

This is the path we want to take.

Author– João Ministro (Cooperativa QRER, Proactivetur)

Photography - Vico Ughetto