Elegant balconied buildings peer down on the Gilão River as passenger boats, dead-ringers for Italian vaporetti, putter and purr into the lagoon beyond.
The delicate arches of a fine medieval bridge, originally built in the same era as Venice’s iconic Rialto Bridge, snake across the waterway linking the two parts of this small, pretty city.
On each side, distinguished 18th-century houses taper along labyrinthine streets with no fewer than 37 churches dotted here and there. Smartly dressed couples stroll along waterside promenades heading for refined seafood restaurants, where al fresco tables on cobbles await.
Scenes like these have (rightly) earned Tavira in southern Portugal the nickname of the Venice of the Algarve. Yet there are a couple of unmistakable differences between this city and its Italian equivalent. While Venice is restricting tourists, Tavira is rolling out the red carpet for holidaymakers to come and sample its quaint, laidback charms – with prices half what you might pay in Italy.
Case in point is the Palácio de Tavira hotel, which opened last August after a three-year, £6.9million renovation.
Coddled within the whitewashed walls of an 18th-century noble family’s home, it is a love letter to all things Algarve.
Inside, the colour palette reflects the burnt umber of the region’s traditional rooftops. Locally sourced textile art hangs on the restaurant’s walls. Tavira-made wines, such as Castelo de Tavira, grace the wine list while mini bars are stocked with Algarve orange witbier, a locally brewed beer.
Yet while Tavira evokes Venice in many ways – the Gothic window arches, shaded loggias and quatrefoil windows – Portugal’s version has a character all of its own.
The Palácio de Tavira hotel, which opened last August, is a love letter to all things Algarve
It’s a luxury offering with whitewashed walls and tasteful art
Across the old town, terracotta-tiled rooftops poke up into the invariably clear blue sky.
Front doors are resplendent with knockers shaped like women’s hands (symbolising ‘protection’) and all around buildings are clad in delicately painted ceramic ‘azulejo’ tiles.
The tangled streets of the old town overflow with independent boutiques and artisan workshops, selling handmade jewellery, ceramics, and cork notebooks, bags and leather shoes.
‘Tavira is the unspoilt Algarve,’ says Patricia Correia, general manager of the Palácio de Tavira, as she shows me a photograph of fresh bread hanging from the door handles of local houses. ‘You know the milkman? Well here, we have a bread man. Although I haven’t seen this anywhere else in Portugal for about 20 years. Tavira is still how the Algarve used to be.’
The word ‘Tavira’ may originate from the Arabic for ‘hidden’ – and the city certainly feels off-radar. The only crowd I encounter during my visit is at the Delizia da Ponte gelato shop, queuing to purchase silky raspberry yoghurt ice cream.
It’s especially uncrowded during the siesta hours of 3pm to 5pm when restaurants and some shops shut. Taking advantage of this lull, I visit the city’s medieval hilltop castle, where the gardens are rosemary scented, hibiscus blooms and views from the ramparts stretch across to the Atlantic.
There’s more solitude to be found on the Ilse de Tavira, one of the sandbank islands across the Ria Formosa lagoon.
While the main harbour on this island features an entourage of restaurants and bars, beach clubs with day-beds and sunshades line the sands near the dock, it’s peaceful on the island’s western side. Here, there’s nothing but rolling dunes and breaking waves.
Tavira is reminiscent of Venice, but with its own charm and beauty
Tavira, located on the banks of the Gilao river in the Algarve, Portugal
I forgo the ferry to Tavira’s old town in favour of a private motorboat ride (just like a Venetian water taxi). As we putter past wetlands, I catch sight of lovely pink flamingos amid the reeds. My driver points to fishermen on the riverbanks. ‘The seabass here can reach eight kilos,’ he says.
Indeed, fish features heavily on taverna menus in Tavira. One evening at the great-value O’Tonel restaurant, I tuck into a plump piece of baked cod with lemon-thyme sauce and a baked potato (£17). Around me, diners demolish platters of oysters at £2 a pop while octopus starters are £10, grilled sea bass mains are from £14, and a decent bottle of house wine is £14.
Salt is another hallowed part of the Taviran diet, hand-harvested from salt pans across the region. I go to see how it’s made during a tour of Salmarim salt flats, 25 minutes from Tavira, where Atlantic water is left to dry in shallow pools before being harvested at the end of each day.
When I visit, the pools are turning a bashful shade of pink, and crystals are beginning to web the surface of the water. In the shade of a whitewashed barn building, producer Jorge Raiado provides samples, sprinkling crystals over fresh figs, orange segments, and razor clams that he cooks on a sizzling bed of yet more salt. Delicious.
Some may call Tavira the ‘Venice of the Algarve’, yet it’s more deserving of the Italian city’s historical nickname La Serenissima, meaning the ‘most serene one’.
