Monte Gordo is het belangrijkste toeristische centrum van de Oost-Algarve met een ligging vlak tegen de Spaanse grens. Dit voormalige vissersplaatsje is uitgegroeid tot een belangrijke badplaats met een prachtig breed en goed onderhouden zandstrand. Het stadscentrum biedt een groot aantal winkels, tevens is er nog een groot aantal oude vissershuisjes bewaard gebleven.

In Monte Gordo is een casino aan de boulevard.

Er is een vogelreservaat tussen Monte Gordo en Castro Marim.

Ook staat Monte Gordo bekend als een favoriete bestemming van verschillende (top)atleten uit allerlei landen. Dit vanwege de mooie paden in de bossen tussen Monte Gordo en Vila Real de Santo António waar ook een mooi sportcomplex is.

In May 2008 we visited Monte Gordo. We spend here a lot of our holidays. And we still like it very much. Lying just 3 km to the west of frontier town Vila Real de Santo António, the once sleepy fishing village of Monte Gordo is the last in a long line of popular beach resorts in the Eastern Algarve.

Bright and cheerful, the town has developed considerably as a holiday destination in recent years, catering for Portuguese and foreign visitors alike.

Its fishing tradition lives on as wives in housecoats emerge from newly-built houses to receive the best of the fresh catch from local fishermen, who still ride bicycles through the streets to deliver their orders.

What to see. Opened in July 1996, the town’s glittering casino features a modern gaming room, more than 200 slot machines and a nightly floorshow. Monte Gordo Bay boasts the largest beach and warmest waters in the Algarve, thanks largely to its Mediterranean climate and favoured geographical location near the mouth of the River Guardiana.

Studded with pines and lying open to the sea, its wide golden beach – one of the finest along the southern coast of Portugal – stretches as far as the eye can see.

Nearby. Running into the Atlantic 3.2 km (2 miles) to the east of Monte Gordo, the River Guadiana has been a natural frontier for more than 2,000 years, originally forming the boundary between the Roman provinces of Lusitania (Portugal) and Baetica (southern Spain). Regular river cruises offer visitors a taste of the tranquillity to be found in this part of Portugal.

A short drive north of Monte Gordo lies Castro Marim, the first headquarters of the Military Order of Christ, heirs to the Templars in Portugal. Looking across the Guadiana to Spain, the sandstone walls of its medieval castle enclose the ruins of an even older castle.