Ria Formosa Natural Park

Ria Formosa Natural Park protects the largest wetland in southern Portugal: a lagoon system that runs for about 60 kilometres along the Algarve coast, from the Ancão peninsula to Manta Rota. It covers roughly 18,000 hectares in the municipalities of Loulé, Faro, Olhão, Tavira and Vila Real de Santo António. The area became a nature reserve in 1978 and was reclassified as a natural park in 1987.

The lagoon is separated from the Atlantic by a chain of dunes made up of two peninsulas, Ancão and Cacela, and five barrier islands: Barreta, Culatra, Armona, Tavira and Cabanas. Behind them lies a maze of channels, salt marshes, mudflats, salt pans and freshwater ponds that is uncovered at low tide. It is a Ramsar wetland of international importance and a Special Protection Area for birds, a stopover for species migrating between northern Africa and Europe, and home to the chameleon, a reptile that in Portugal lives only on the Algarve coast.

The best place to start is the Marim Environmental Education Centre, on a former farm beside the lagoon just east of Olhão, which also houses the park headquarters and an interpretation centre. A signposted circular trail of 2.5 kilometres passes 23 information stations, among them salt marsh, dunes, shellfish beds, pine wood, Roman fish-salting tanks, a waterwheel and a tide mill, with two bird hides and a picnic area along the way. Other marked routes include the São Lourenço and Ludo trails and a walk on Barreta island, also known as Deserta, which is reached by ferry from Faro.

The park is the responsibility of the national conservation institute ICNF and has been co-managed since 2021 by a commission chaired by the mayor of Faro, which works on promotion, communication and environmental awareness. To reach Quinta de Marim, follow the EN125 from Faro towards Vila Real de Santo António and turn right at the natural park sign about one kilometre after Olhão. Visitors are asked to stay on the existing paths, not to pick plants or disturb animals, and to keep noise down.