The Algarve Nature Week (ANW) starts tomorrow, the 5th of May, and there are many and varied reasons not to miss it. And don't think that this is an event thinking only of those who visit the region. The people of the Algarve also have an opportunity to get to know their region better and live experiences that, despite their proximity, often pass them by.
This time, the event organized by the Algarve Tourism Region is based in the renovated Quatro Águas, in Tavira, maintaining its itinerant character (before, it went through Faro and Quarteira). It will be in this area where the River Gilão meets the Ria Formosa, which is very popular in the summer because there is a pier for Ilha de Tavira, that the Nature Show will take place, the most visible face of ANW, and where 26 companies and others institutional exhibitors will provide, until Sunday, more than 80 activities.
Hiking, bird and cetacean watching, cycling, boat and horse riding, surfing, Stand up paddle and diving are some of the activities that visitors can try for free on the 5th or at special prices on the following two days, May 6th and 7th. The “sales” continue until the 14th of May, in the offers made available by different companies on the Algarve Nature Week website. The show program can be consulted here.
More than experiencing this or that activity during the Nature Show, ANW allows nature lovers, but also heritage and adventure lovers, to guarantee experiences, getaways or even vacations at fair prices.
In a region like the Algarve, where the climate and natural beauty invite you to leave the house, one of the highlights is, of course, hiking and walking, cycling, boating or even donkey rides.
Here, given the profusion of the offering, it is necessary to separate some waters. And literally, as there are activities on land and proposals at sea. just walks, there are close to 30 different suggestions, offered by 15 Algarve Nature Week partners, which cover practically the entire territory of the Algarve. These are joined by the proposals to hit the road riding a bicycle ou on horseback, which can sometimes be a donkey, as is the case of the outings that explore the trails of the Costa Vicentina.
Heading to the coast, we reach the sea, which, in some cases, is the beginning of another experience. To boat trips to whale watching e to discover some of the paradisiacal places existing in the region, only accessible on board a vessel, come together the diveo, which allows a more “deep” knowledge of what exists off the Algarve, and activities related to nautical sports, such as canoeing, sailing and others.
And, as it is the nature we are talking about, there could not be no other offers in the area of birdwatching, a tourist product that is highly sought after during the low season and for which the Algarve has a special aptitude, as it is a region that hosts or passes through species of birds of great interest. Also here there is a great offer, which, like the others, can be explored on the Algarve Nature Week website.
Those who prefer more radical experiences can choose to take an all-terrain vehicle and accelerate through hard to reach places, surfing the waves on the beaches in the region or see the Algarve from above, in activities of ballooning, paragliding and hang gliding.
In the midst of all this, there are other attractions, which are transversal to most of the proposals of the partner companies: gastronomy and heritage. Many of the experiences include direct contact with the region's internationally recognized delicacies, but also with its historical and cultural heritage, another richness that increasingly arouses the interest of residents and visitors.
The showcase for all this nature will be the Quatro Águas de Tavira space, which contains, by itself, many of the values that will be highlighted at the Algarve Nature Week. As you illustrated, in statements to the Sul Informação, the vice president of RTA João Fernandes, this entity has sought, year after year, to choose different places to hold the Exhibition of Nature, which have the common denominator of being spaces that were the target of recovery interventions «to facilitate people's contact with nature'.
In his view, Quatro Águas is a space that brings together everything needed to host the exhibition, from the outset the direct contact with natural values, but also «good accessibility, which also thinks of people with reduced mobility». “Anyone can easily move from the center of Tavira to there, using gentle mobility”, he explained.
Once there, visitors will have a lot to see and do. «The exhibition is not limited to the offer of tourist experiences. Local producers, but also from all over the region, of handicrafts and gastronomic products will be present. As usual, there is also an institutional component, in which public and private entities show the work they do in the area of nature tourism», according to João Fernandes.
The Mostra de Natureza also invites visitors to get involved, as there will be moments of figure skating, zumba, capoeira, cross training, high intensity interval training and acrobatic gymnastics, in a space run by the Câmara de Tavira, in conjunction with local sports associations. The Algarve Nature Week will also be associated with the Algarve Sailing Championship which will take place in Quatro Águas and with the «II Duathlon Cross Cidade de Tavira».
Since it has already been established that this is an event that does not turn its back on the region or its residents – hundreds of students from schools in the region are expected at the Nature Show, just to give an example -, it should be noted that this is, equally, a moment of turning abroad and promotion of the region across borders, regional and national.
RTA once again brings operators and journalists to the region to make this offer known. «We will have Family Trips, addressed to specialist operators in this area, which will result in meetings business to business [company with company] for buying and selling experiences. We are also going to bring national and foreign journalists, to reinforce the reputation of the destination in a different way from what it is normally known for [Sun and Sea]», explained the vice-president of RTA.
All the activities proposed at Algarve Nature Week are «to meet our main source markets, but with a different offer». To understand what the Algarve has to offer different, there's nothing like heading to Tavira between the 5th and 7th of May or exploring the Algarve Nature Week website, in search of the experience that best suits us.
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