Praia do Camilo

Worth a detour.

The hang

A postcard beach you access via a wooden staircase clinging to a cliff face like a barnacle. Small, golden, sandwiched between striated ochre rocks, with water so clear you'll feel watched. The restaurant at the top is genuinely good and genuinely expensive — the kind of place where the grilled fish costs what your hotel did, and you pay it because the view has colonized your brain.

The real intel

Best months: May–Jun, Sept. July–Aug: you'll queue for the stairs.
Getting there: Lagos. Drive or bus to Ponta da Piedade; the Camilo parking is tight. Arrive before 10am in summer or weep.
Where to stay: Lagos — 5 min away. More life than Carvoeiro, less trap than Albufeira.
Cost reality: Sunbeds €20/day. The cliffside restaurant (O Camilo) €40–60/pp for lunch with wine. Worth it once.
The catch nobody tells you: Tiny. At high tide in summer there's barely room to lay a towel. The stairs are 200+ and the climb back up is a character test.