Last week was my first travel adventure outside of Ireland! My teammate and fellow American, Carlie, and I spent a few days in the city of Lagos in the Algarve region of Portugal. We don’t get too much warm weather in Galway so we decided to make the most of the end of summer and find some sunshine!

These few days felt like a proper vacation. It was very relaxing and stress free. We enjoyed the beach all day, ate lots of food, and drank many pitchers of delicious sangria.

The beaches were absolutely beautiful here. There were amazing cliffs along the coast with hidden caves to explore and discover secret beaches. I couldn’t stop smiling the whole trip because I was so happy to be in the sun and outside at the beach. I didn’t realize how much of a California girl I was until I moved to a country with very minimal summer.

We didn’t make a strict schedule for ourselves because we just wanted to relax and enjoy the beach. One activity we did book, however, was a kayak tour through the caves. It was a really fun way to explore the coast from a different perspective. Also, Carlie was a marine biology major so I learned a lot about the sea life as well! After the kayak tour, we hopped on a boat that took us further out into the ocean. We were able to enjoy the view and jump off the boat to swim in the open water.

We stayed at Top City Hostel in Lagos which was a perfect accommodation for an affordable beach vacation. This was my first experience staying in a hostel and I was pleasantly surprised. It was very modern, clean and everyone staying there were young travelers around my age. The staff was incredibly friendly, there was a rooftop pool, and the location was very central. I would definitely recommend staying here to any young people traveling on a budget.

Carlie and I went out for drinks one of the nights we were in Lagos. All I’m going to say about the night was that it ended early the next morning and I came back with a t-shirt from the bar that says, “the best night out that you won’t remember”. Needless to say we had a great time.

In Lagos, I also ate my first Portuguese tart (pastel de nata). This was one of the things on my list that I was really excited to do in Portugal. It definitely did not disappoint. This was the first of MANY pastel de natas.

After 3 days at the beach, I packed my bag, said goodbye to Carlie, and hopped on the bus to Lisbon! The second half of my trip to Portugal was spent solo exploring the capital city! I’ll recap my solo travels to Lisbon in my next post!

Thanks for reading!

-McKenna