Praia do Cabeço

Portugal, Portugal

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Praia do Cabeço, also known as Praia da Retur, is a calm, spacious oceanic beach in Castro Marim on Portugal’s eastern Algarve, located within the Retur tourist resort right next to the often-crowded Monte Gordo beach.

It features about 800 meters to 1.5 kilometers of fine golden sand backed by protective dune grass and the dense Pinhal do Gancho pine forest, with cork oaks, olive trees, strawberry trees, and aromatic plants along the access path, and it is part of the protected Natura 2000 network where you can spot chameleons and hoopoe birds.

The beach is known for its shallow, calm, and warm water (22–24°C in summer) with virtually no waves, making it especially safe and popular with Portuguese families and Spanish visitors who are less than 20 minutes from the Spain border. It holds a Blue Flag certification for excellent water quality since the early 1990s, has lifeguard towers, first aid, wooden boardwalks that make it fully accessible for people with disabilities, and summer facilities including restaurants, bars, and rentals for parasols and sun loungers, plus four parking areas and three beach accesses.

Outside the summer months, the beach area is popular for windsurfing and kitesurfing due to good wind conditions, and you can reach it by a short drive from Vila Real de Santo António, walk along the sand from Monte Gordo, or cycle part of the EcoVia coastal cycle route to its eastern walkway.