PRAIA DA ROCHA is really Portimão's seafront. It was the first place to be developed as a resort in the Algarve, and many would say that it has now gone over the top. It is dominated by massive holiday apartment blocks rising 15 storeys above scores of cafés, bars and restaurants overlooking a vast beach.

At one end of the beach, guarding the entrance to the river, stands the Fortress of Santa Catarina built between 1521 and 1557. At the other end is a tunnel called the Buraco da Avó, Grandmother's Hole, which connects the main beach with several smaller, rockier ones.