Towns and Villages

The houses of Monchique display many of the traditional features of the architecture in the Algarve - white walls, carved stonework, stripes of color around doors and windows - but with their "saia" chimneys (literally "skirt") quite different from those found on this part of the country.

The narrow streets that wind up the steep hillside, revealing fresh and green views at every turn, lend the town a certain exoticism to which camellias, hydrangeas and fruit trees add a fragant suggestion of gradens and orchards. An opportunity to discover an aspect of the Algarve unlike any other.

Monchique is best visited on foot. A walk trough the steep streets of the town centre is rewarded with the views of magnificent hills, glimpsed between houses, and moments of calm in unsuspected corners. At the end, the memory of a hill town with a history and character all its own and a strong desire to return will remain.