Algarve Villa Holidays - Spotlight on Luz

Luz is a great all round Algarve villa holiday destination in western Algarve. Read on to find out all about Luz town and the accommodation, beaches, coastline, sports, shops, restaurants and nightlife in Luz Algarve.

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Luz Town

Luz is a resort town close to Lagos but a little further west along the A22. The motorway leading from Faro International Airport to the town of Sagres on the Algarve’s western tip, will connect you to Luz in a little over an hour, which is good news if you have youngsters because they won't have time to get fractious. They’ll be too busy looking out of the car windows and too excited about their holiday to worry about anything else.

Once you arrive in the town, you’ll notice how really quite different it is to the towns in central Algarve. Here it seems, there’s more going on. The sea is a little less quiet, not choppy or rough but just that bit more exciting. You can wind surf here and there are rocks to climb. The beach is clean and tidy and the waters are still very safe, but there’s more action here. There are banana boats and huge rubber rings, which get towed behind boats and there’s water-skiing and jet skiing.

It is a lively and popular tourist location, close enough to central Algarve not to be too rough and rugged and yet far enough west to be interesting. There is more to Luz than laying on a sun bed catching some rays while the kids play in the sand. You can do this of course, there’s nothing to stop you, but if you want to explore and clamber about the rocks and caves or go wind surfing then it is all here for you to do.

The Accommodation

Luz was once a quiet fishing village but over time it has become recognised as a favourite holiday resort and as a result, there has been some extensive development, particularly to the west of Luz Beach

At Villa in Algarve we have a wide selection of Algarve villas and apartments for rent in Luz, sleeping up to 10 people. Villas and apartments for hire in Luz are extremely popular as is the wonderful purpose built development called Estrela da Luz, which has a range of different sized apartments to suit couples, groups of friends and families alike.

Elsewhere in the town, you’ll find self-catering villas, townhouses and apartments to suit parties of up to ten people. Many of them are beautifully furnished and decorated to the highest standards, coming with their own, private pools. Some afford superb views of the countryside, whilst others provide wonderful coastal views. You’ll find unique Algarve holiday villas in Luz, which offer a luxurious base, from which you can explore the beach and the surrounding countryside or where you can simply lounge around poolside and get lost in that book you picked up at the airport.

The development of Luz, around the central beach or “praia”, is almost exclusively 'low rise', consisting of apartments and villas of all sizes with facilities principally aimed at family holidays. Many of our villas in Luz are beautifully located in the village itself so they are perfect if you are looking for a resort, which blends character and history, with the demands of a modern holiday destination. Luz has something for everyone and its safe, sandy beaches are a real boon for many visitors.

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The Beach

The beautiful beach at Luz boasts miles of soft white sand and crystal blue waters and there is a wide range of beach bars and beachside restaurants to choose from, serving up tasty lunches and evening meals.

The Coastline

The coastline in Luz is a mix of soft-sanded beach and rugged rock formations, making this location ideal for families and groups of friends of mixed ages. You can choose between laying on the beach, reading your book and sunbathing, or clambering around the rocks. Many young adults take this past time very seriously and you’ll often see them in Luz, as they prepare their kit for the rocks and rougher waters of Sagres and points further west.

The Sports

Water-sports are available including windsurfing and boating. Tuition is available for water skiing and diving if you fancy learning something new. The key to getting up out of the water, as the Luz water skiing instructors will tell you, is straightening your legs out in front of you. Sounds easy doesn’t it! The area is also good for surfing. The Luz Ocean Club offers tennis courts, a fitness gym and swimming pools, and the sports centre in Burgau offers squash, tennis, aerobics and other facilities as well as evening barbecues and live music.

The nearby riding centre in Bensafrim offers rides, instruction and day-long picnic rides. Bird watching can be arranged at various protected reserves in the area guided by experienced ornithologists. The Luz Water Sports Centre offers scuba diving, windsurfing, fishing, sailing and snorkelling. There are also 3 excellent golf courses nearby at Parque de Floresta, Bela Vista & Palmares.

The Shops

Luz supports quite a good range of shops that will provide for all of your shopping needs, whether that’s day-to-day food shopping or present buying for the folks back home. There’s a small café and cake shop on the left hand side (coming from the 'square') just past the Ocean Club, which is the best place to get bread and croissants first thing in the morning. There’s a bookstore, for those essential holiday novels and they will even do exchanges, so you can give them the one you bought for the plane, in exchange for something else. There are boutiques, fashion shops and beachwear shops for your flip-flops and beach towels. There is a butcher for all your barbecue meat and there are a number of craft shops selling genuine, and not quite so genuine, original artworks. There’s a car rental office in case you decide you want to trip around a bit and they also hire out quads, scooters and pushbikes too. There are furniture and soft furnishing shops as well as interior designers too. Luz also has two dentists as well as a pharmacy and opticians. There are supermarkets, a post office and a fresh fish, fruit and veg market, in fact, if you can imagine living here full time, which won't be difficult, you’ll have everything here that you’ll need for the home, and if its not here, its a quarter of an hour away in Lagos.

Restaurants and Nightlife

There are a number of very good restaurants in the village serving a variety of local and International dishes, There’s Italian and English as well as Portuguese. Check out Lote 1, Pastelaria Chicca, Cafe a Fabrica and Jake's Bistro, they all come highly recommended. As well as restaurants, there are some great beach bars too and in the centre, some lively pub type bars that turn into small discos or clubs later.

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