The busy industrial town and port of Faro (altitude: sea level), chief town of its district in the south of Portugal, lies at the north end of a lagoon dotted with saltpans and islands. Fruit, cork and fish are shipped out through its small, sheltered harbor. Its airport (7km/4.5mi southwest) has made it the focal point of the whole of the
Algarve's tourist trade, especially since a new, three million passenger capacity terminal was opened. Despite the nearby beaches Faro is no holiday resort as such, and its immediate vicinity is lacking in comfortable hotels with adequate grounds. A devastating earthquake in 1755 robbed this originally Moorish city of many of its major buildings but the center is quite inviting, with many 18th and 19th C. houses.
The main attraction of any stay in Faro is its good shopping. Some of the smaller streets in the center around the Rua de Santo António, east of the Praça de Dom Francisco Gomes, have been made pedestrian precincts and offer plenty of restaurants and cafes to relax in.