This weekend, we had an incredible experience traveling outside of Dublin. While I’ve come to love Ireland and all that it has to offer, I’ve been missing the sunshine and yearning for a tan. We knew when booking our trip that it was imperative to get some vitamin D and beach time. We were all so excited to disconnect from our jobs and schoolwork for a few days, something we haven’t gotten the opportunity to do while in Ireland. Thursday afternoon, we made our way to the Dublin airport anticipating the bright weekend ahead. We settled into our apartment just a few hours later in Tavira, Portugal. Tavira, located on the southern coast of Portugal, was a beautiful town with so much authenticity and charm. We were close to Albufeira, a popular tourist destination, which had a much younger crowd and a bustling night life. However, it was a great choice to stay outside this city to maximize our relaxation and time on the beach.
Friday morning, we promptly threw on our swimsuits and headed toward the beach. We took an uber to a boat dock in Tavira, where a ferry boat took us to the beautiful island. We spend a while exploring the small town on Tavira island that held small shops and restaurants. Then we walked to a charming beach club called Xiri, rented some beach chairs, and settled in for the day. The sun was blistering at a whopping 85 degrees and 10 UV; it seemed like every ten minutes we were running across the scorching sand and diving into the ocean for a quick dip before returning to sunbathe. Around 6 pm, we went for a quick shower and a change of clothes before heading into Tavira for dinner. We strolled around the picturesque town admiring its style and architecture before sitting down at a tapas restaurant to put an end to our great day.
On Saturday, we woke up early to head to Albufeira and explore the natural beauty that it’s so highly recommended for. Again, we immediately found a beach to settle ourselves on, and repeated the motions as the day before: swim, sunscreen, sunbathe. This beach was much more upbeat–we had people of many nationalities around us, fun music playing from the restaurant nearby, and a radical man named Elvis offering food and cocktails. Toward the end of the day after I took a long nap in the sun, we went exploring! We walked over to huge cliff formations on the water and found a beautiful spot to stop and admire the view. We could see everything around us on top of the cliff and we took some awesome pictures to remember it by. When our beach day had concluded, we went into the city in Albufeira for some shopping, dinner, and gelato before going back to Tavira for the night.
On Sunday, exhausted from our fun-filled weekend in the sun, we repeated the perfect day in Tavira that we had on Friday. When it was time to come home on Monday, we were filled with dread. We enjoyed our morning in town with breakfast and a stroll, stopping into all the stores with beautiful, authentic clothes, jewelry, and pottery. I bought a beautiful bracelet from a woman with a small store who made all of her jewelry herself and I got some embroidered dish towels for my Portuguese grandparents who I know will appreciate them. It was finally time to head back to Dublin to get back to work for our final week here! I can’t believe how quickly the summer has flown, but I can say with certainty that I’ve had some of the most incredible experiences here! I’m so thankful for my newfound friendships, work experience, and love for travel!
Restaurant overlooking the beach club in Tavira
Rogue kitty and her very cool motor bike
The most beautiful jewelry, all handmade by the sweetest woman native to Tavira!
Rayna in her natural state being one with the palm trees (actually flagging down our Uber)
Looking over the beach in Albufeira from the top of the caves
Loving my shoutout here. The jewelry was also one of my highlights of the trip. It was very lovely to hear about her art and to have a keepsake from our lovely trip. Had a wonderful time with you, as always.