Albufeira - Diving Holiday Destination

Albufeira (Portugal)

The Algarve is the southernmost region of mainland Portugal and it has a climate similar to the Mediterranean.

The Algarve is a favourite holiday destination, being famous for its beautiful beaches, amazing countryside, vibrant nightlife, splendid golf courses, excellent hostelries, culture and popular customs, and the friendly charm and welcome of its people. The wonderful climate, warm and sunny all year round, gives visitors the opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of sport, cultural and leisure activities.

Albufeira is famed for its beaches, where the sand is fine and the sea a turquoise blue sheltered by rocks and cliffs. Nightlife, sunshine, beaches and lots and lots of animation are just some of the guaranteed features.

Albufeira is strategically situated in the middle of the Algarve and is considered the capital of tourism and offers a unique easy access to all the best diving locations on the coast. You will have easy access to wreck diving, wall diving, caves, artificial reefs, etc, in addition to an abundance of shallow, scenic, and shore dive sites with full abundant natural resources and diversity of wild life that appeals to those seeking discovery, adventure and magnificent scenery.

Climate

Climate is maritime temperate; cool and rainy in north, warmer and drier in south. In Albufeira a pleasant sea breeze refreshes the average annual temperature of the region, which is 17ºC (15ºC in January and up to 28ºC or more in July and August). The Algarve can also count on around 3000 hours of Sun during the year which makes it a favourite destination for those who fancy such a delightful climate.

Dive Facts

The sea water temperature starts at around 14ºC in January and reaches a high 22ºC in August.

Dive Attractions

Despite having very different conditions to the neighbouring Mediterranean, in every respect, with colder waters and generally less visibility, the Atlantic Ocean is packed full of life. Diving down to just 10 metres in depth, it is possible to discover hidden beauties, species living concealed among rocks and crevices, or swoop across open plains of sand in the company of starfish, cuttlefish in search of hideaways, crabs, octopuses, congers, morays and lobsters.

There are artificial reefs, wrecks and reef wall dives available.

Dive sites include:

PEDRA DO ALTO (13-19 meters) 3 main big rocks that are up to 5meters high with small rocks and small walls to follow that have many holes to look into and on, that have giant nudibranch and a great variety of life in a small area –with spider crabs, octopus to see, and look out for baby congers.

ARRIEFES (12 meters) A pretty reef with a lot of colours, small but long wall dive with other rocks around to look under and around. A range of different nudibranch and octopus.

STA.EULÁLIA (10-12 meters) This dive you follow around in a circle, with groups of large rocks in the middle up to 5meters high and small rocks around about 3meters. Follow this and you will see a wide range of species, smaller fish, nudibranch and octopus. On this reef the fish breed so you will see baby bright blue Damsel fish and sea bream, wrasse…

PEDRA DA OURA (8-12 meters) This Reef has one main large rock that has interesting holes and areas to look through and see schools of fish, with 4/5 other large rocks that you can swim around, finding Octopus, many crabs and blennies on the rocks. Look above to see Trigger fish, sea bream and also look out for Mullet and sea bass. A Shallow dive but has a lot of life to see during the dive.

2 ANCHORS (18-24 meters) Wall dive that’s around 5-6meters high in areas with 2 big old anchors at one end and if you look under the rocks you may see some big Congers also on this dive look for Octopus, big spider crabs and nudibranch.

MARIA LUíSA (12 meters) Small rocks all together, a easy dive to navigate with sea bream, damsel fish and many more.

VALADOS (13-24 meters)A fault in the ocean some 2.5 miles out – in front of Armação de Pêra – spectacular overhangs and caves usually good viz with a profusion of life including crayfish.
We have many different dive locations along this reef, with many different styles of walls to follow with large rocks and overhangs to look under and around. The Wall has areas as shallow as 12/13meters good for beginners – following down to 18 + meters

Other

Language: The offical language is Portugese but many people speak English.

Currency: euro (EUR)

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