Spending a week in a Traditional town called Alte for some Soul Searching in Portugal

Alte is a small village, located in the rural province of Loule, Portugal. It dates back to Roman times and is considered a typical Algarven village. It boasts natural springs and a waterfall with a laid back atmosphere and charming white washed houses. It has a slow pace of life where art is enjoyed and encouraged. There are lot of small shops selling handmade pottery and cute restaurants that serve traditional Portuguese food. While it's not Italy, it certainly had it's charm...

I chose a traditional little place called Alte, which was away from the Algarve and popular tourist destinations. I think I chose the place because it said it was an artistic town and I like that sort of thing. While we love Italy, we still like to explore new places and really at that time, I was soul searching. I just wanted to take my mind off things, so I booked it and off we went to Portugal for the first time.

Traditionally, I know Portugal is popular with retired folk and often you don't get younger couples mentioning trips here, but I still wanted to explore the place. After all, we are searching for our dream place in the sun and Portugal definatly has the weather. 

Alte is a small village in the hills, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in character. The white washed houses and the pretty paintings everywhere made this place a delight to wonder around. If you're looking for something a little different, Alte had an authentic mix of traditional culture and pretty cobbled streets. It's the kind of place where the locals clearly take care of the place and we talked to many lovely locals who all said it was a beautiful place to live. 

The food in Alte was very traditional. They served a lot of fish, steaks, stews and just about everything was served with chips. Meat eaters would be happy here and although the presentation wasn't great and a little dated (along with the decor) we thoroughly enjoyed all of our meals here. We tried all the restaurants in the area and we enjoyed every meal. 

Some favourites were the wild boar stew, (which tastes a bit like game) the roasted salmon steak, the squid in lime and garlic sauce and even traditional Portuguese meals such as a bean stew. 

The waterfall here was very beautiful and we spent the day enjoying the sights. It is surrounded by a park which seemed very popular with the locals and there were lots of women grabbing selfies. We visited Alte in March 2023 and it was very hot. Apparently there was a freak heatwave while we were there so it was slightly hotter than usual. It's also not near the coast so there is less of a breeze here. 

We did get very sunburned on our trip, so do take sun cream if you stay here. According to the locals it hadn't rained here for a year. Due to which the river was drying up and water was becoming a concern. We also spoke to a local woman who farmed oranges, who spoke about her concern about the new Avocado tree plantation. She said that avocados had been planted as the warm temperature meant they would grow well and were to be shipped to supermarkets across the EU and UK. However, they take an excessive amount of water to grow and so as the water is already in short supply, she was worried about the effect on local orange trees.

Aloe Vera grows in abundance in Alte as it's a bit like a desert, and the locals were kind enough to give us some to treat our sunburn. The heat in Alte was very dry, so if you struggle with this it might not be the best place to visit. It's also very hilly so it would not suit someone with mobility issues for example. 

John had great fun making friends with all the local animals. There was a local donkey who was a bit of a famous stud. He spends his time outside of the bars, however we were told not to stroke him as "he bites" apparently. After people started feeding him chicken he likes to nibble at people now apparently so don't get to close. He didn't bite John but he did grab his bag! 

There are also lots of stray cats so if you like cats, you'll enjoy this place. Just don't feed them at restaurants. Although we did see a couple jump up on the table when no one was looking and nibble at the left overs. 

We had great fun in Alte chatting to the locals and enjoying the art work. We stayed at the Alte Hotel which was pleasant, but a little dated. We were also the youngest people in the hotel, so that's something to bear in mind. That being said, it was very cheap to stay here and breakfast was included in the price. The views were incredible and the restaurant served tasty food. It was located 1km from the village at the top of a steep hill, but it was very pretty, so worth the hike up the hill! 

While we were in Alte we used Uber taxis to get to and from Faro airport as they were cheaper than traditional taxis and Alte is a little difficult to get to by bus or train. There were a few little hotels in the area which were probably a bit nicer, but we kind of liked the rustic dated vibes. The pool was also pretty- I did try and swim in it, but it was far too cold for me!

Portugal was a nice little break for us. I would compare the prices to Abruzzo in Italy. It was very affordable, especially out of season and we were able to eat out for every meal on a small budget, apart from breakfast which was included in our stay. The wine wasn't great, I'll admit, it didn't compare to Italy, however they have a wine called green wine which is on tap. It's like a sparkling wine and it's slightly better than what you'd drink in the bottle.