Two short climbs out of the coves, tarmac the whole way

Worth knowing · The cave has no entrance on land. Every photograph you have seen was taken from a kayak, a paddleboard or a boat — there is no path down into it.

Flat river road, cobbles in the old centre

Worth knowing · The castle at the river mouth, São João de Arade, is privately owned. You photograph it from the beach and that is as close as anybody gets.

Rolling cliff road, one steep drop to the beach

Worth knowing · The chapel on the headland is one of the oldest in the Algarve — the building is dated before the 16th century and parts of it are thought to be considerably older.

Quiet back roads, a short climb into town

Worth knowing · Algar Seco is ten minutes east of the beach along the clifftop boardwalk: eroded sandstone with two holes worn through it that everyone calls A Boneca, the doll.

Flat, with a promenade at the far end

Worth knowing · The Museu de Portimão is the old sardine cannery, kept as a cannery and turned into a museum around the machines. It carries a European museum prize and it explains the town better than the beach does.

Flat coastal road, promenade at the end — the family one

Worth knowing · The name comes from fishing gear, not from a person. An armação was the tuna trap set off this coast — the tuna went, the name stayed.

Gentle river road inland, shaded most of the way

Worth knowing · Silves was Xelb, the capital of the Moorish Algarve, when the coast towns were villages. The red sandstone castle above it is the largest Moorish fortification left in Portugal.

Flat, boardwalk over the estuary at the end

Worth knowing · The boardwalk over the Ria de Alvor runs for kilometres across salt marsh and dune. Cycling on it is generally not allowed — lock up at the entrance and walk out, it is worth the walk.

One long steady climb. Bring the charger and take the bus back if you want

Worth knowing · Fóia, above the town, is the highest point in the Algarve at 902 m. On a clear day you see both coasts from it — and on a bad day you see cloud, which is most of what there is to see.

Rolling, past Alvor and Meia Praia

Worth knowing · Ponta da Piedade is the sea-stack headland south of town — the formation on every Algarve poster. There is a staircase from the clifftop down to the water.

Cliff road with a climb out of every cove

Worth knowing · The tunnel through the cliff to Praia do Peneco was cut so the town could reach its own beach. It is still the way in.

Exposed and windy. Start early and the wind is behind you

Worth knowing · Cabo de São Vicente, six kilometres past the town, is the south-western corner of mainland Europe. Sailors called it the end of the world and meant it literally.