You have the whole of the Algarve to be soaking up rays in… so why bother taking the other direction out of the airport into the city?

For a start…the rays are here as well! No, not just on the other side of the track…

It’s got a genuine Old Town… not just something that’s about 30 years old, which the sun worshippers already consider to be uncool and out of date…

There’s a restaurant with a well in the middle of it that’s over a 1000 years old…

Your safety isn’t just guaranteed from falling down unexpected holes in your eating joint… it’s also a matter of 24-hour vigilant surveillance. With a nest like this, do you really think the occupant has any other intentions…

The food elsewhere may claim to come from the sea, but here, the smell of the sea leaps off your plate (believe it or not, there’s a salmon filet residing beneath this roof of shells and veg!)…

The local residents are so chilled they can’t even raise the effort to flutter a few feathers…

And did I mention the much sort after rays can be found here as well. Why not take a boat out across the nature reserve to find beaches in the shadow of a 170 year old lighthouse…

Then, there’s the matter of the Smoke Tiki. After a couple of these, your trusty correspondent struggled to remember what an Algarve was supposed to be used for… an implement for sun worshipping… possibly? Who needs the sun when your drink comes with a blow torch accompaniment, anyway?

Until we speak again, you’re welcome to go to everywhere else on the Algarve in search of your rays. Me, I’m not venturing far from Faro! Just maybe, those Smoke Tiki misdemeanours are rendering movement a bit more restrictive!