Time of the visit: the 19th of feb.2025

Twice a year I stay for some weeks near Tavira,in the south of Portugal.

Apart from the tentative whs "Southwest Coast" and "Mertola" I have already visited every whs and tentative whs in a radius of 200 km.

Yesterday morning I travelled from Tavira to Sagres and Burgau to visit two of the components of the tentative whs southwest coast.My plan was to spend most of the day in and around Sagres and hike for 1-2 h along the cliffs near Burgau.

Around 11.00 I arrived in Sagres where I visited the Fortaleza de Sagres,some viewpoints and took some pictures from the cliffs there.Sagres didnt impress me much.I dont know why but the entire area around Sagres didnt appeal to me that much .I decided to shorten my stay there and spend more time in and around Burgau which turned out to be a good decision.

At around 13.45 I arrived in Burgau where I first visited the decent and clean beach.

O trilho dos pescadores (fisherman's trail) is a long-distance which extends for 227 km.I hiked from Burgau to Salema and back.The fisherman's path there follows the ocean coast and offers numerous stunning views of the Atlantic including white sand beaches,towering cliffs,flower fields and lush green inland as well as breathtaking panoramas to the sea.

Throughout the night before it had been raining cats and dogs and some other animals: heavy rain.

I was a bit worried that it might be quite slippery,but yesterday 's scorching sun and high temperatures caused dryness.

The path itself is quite easy,but I wouldn't recommend it for elderly people with health problems or for parents with young kids.

The official path is well marked with color markings...on the way to Salema I used all the parallel paths that were possible...these paths led right next to the cliffs and were much more dangerous than the relatively harmless main path. There was hardly any wind though.I had two beers in Salema so on the way back I only used the main path.

I reached Burgau at around 18.00.

Sagres did disappoint me up to a certain degree whereas Burgau exceeded my expectations.Fascinating and beautiful trail! I truly enjoyed my day along the cliffs.However,I dont see any OUV.As Nan rightfully pointed out it is not very clear why the southwest coast and cliffs of Portugal should surpass-for example- the beauty of the Ruegen cliffs and therefore be more worthy of a whs title.Quite the opposite: as wonderful as the Portuguese cliffs are ( I have only seen a small part of them) in terms of pure beauty I would rate the Ruegen cliffs higher .