We’ve had a minor heatwave the past three weeks here in the Algarve. It was worrying. If this is how hot it is at the end of May and beginning of June, I was dreading how hot it would be in July and August. But I was relieved when our realtor told us that this isn’t normal weather for this time of year—thank goodness.

We have a fabulous long beach here in Cabanas de Tavira. The mainland is separated from the sand bar beach by a small expanse of water.

There are multiple water taxis to take you across, and they all cost €1.50 return.

Depending on the boat you take, you’ll get a different colour ticket, so that you know which boat you have to use for the return trip.

The first few times we went to the beach we used the larger boat service – it seats about 12-15. But there’s only one boat, so there’s usually a wait on the return trip. So now we’ve switched to using one of the smaller taxi boats, because they run in pairs, and they’re constantly zipping back and forth from the mainland to the beach.

At the sand bar jetty, the boats drop you off and pick you up as their own spot on the jetty. But don’t worry if you can’t remember which spot that was. The boat driver will check the colour of your ticket before you board your return boat, to make sure you’re getting on the right boat.

At the boat jetty, there’s a short-ish walk along a wooden promenade over the protected sand dunes, that takes you past the only restaurant, and onto the beach.

This time of year the lines and waits for the boat service are too bad, but peak summer months the lines are HUGE! Plan accordingly.