Recommend!
We wanted to do the 5-hour tour, but it was fully booked unfortunately. We still really wanted to see Ria Formosa, so we went for the 3-hour tour instead. The 5-hour tour might have suited us a bit better, but we’re still really glad we did this one. We had a great time! We loved the boat ride, laying on the beach, and meeting the locals. Definitely recommend it!! Also, a big thank you to Carlos for helping us sort out some ticket stuff. He fixed everything right away, which we really appreciated.
Beautiful beaches and a great time!
This was one of our favorite things we did on our trip to Faro! The guide was very knowledgeable and the stops were absolutely fabulous- such unique and gorgeous beaches and little towns. If you’re in Faro, I would say this is a pretty hard to miss experience… the Rio Formosa is beautiful and such an important part of the local scenery, culture, and economy. Would recommend!!
A truly memorable experience!
We had a great day, from start to finish our experience was amazing! Communication was key- we changed the time of our excursion based on recommendations and are glad we did. The islands are beautiful and the knowledge and expertise of our guides was next level. We felt safe, cared for and relaxed throughout. I cannot recommend this experience enough and we’d happily do the same trip again, we enjoyed it so much! Booking via Tripadvisor saved us a lot based on the prices displayed at the kiosk - excellent value!! We opted for the 5 hour, 3 stop trip and we definitely got value for money here as we were actually out for closer to 6 hours and the timings were well explained and adhered to. We packed a lunch and drinks, but ended up not using anything but the water, as we followed the recommendations offered and had a delicious lunch at a restaurant on Culatra. I cannot tell you how impressed we were with the linguistic skills of our skipper, who was able to give explanations in several languages fluently. We really enjoyed his enthusiasm and in-depth explanations of the geography, tides, currents, cultures and nature- he’s clearly passionate about what he does and this absolutely shines through, giving extra weight to the information he provides- I left feeling relaxed yet invigorated, educated and motivated to visit more places! The individual attention given to everyone on the trip (a full boat of 18) made everyone feel good and was another plus point to note. As an additional note; Safety was clearly a focus, life jackets were provided and advice given to those who wanted to snorkel/swim. I just wish we had brought our swim gear - I missed that there would be opportunities to swim in the itinerary and definitely regret that. It’s worth noting that Weaver Fish are native to the area and so it’s wise to wear swim/beach shoes when frolicking in the shallows. I would love to mention our crew by name but don’t want to spell their names incorrectly. We were on the 10am trip on 16/07/27.
Recommend the 4 hour Culatra trip
Excellent boat trip to Culatra and one of the numerous sandbanks for sunbathing and swimming. Our guide and captain was very good and spoke great English, so we were able to appreciate all of the wonders of Ria Formosa. There were only eight of us on the boat so it had a personal touch about it too. Would certainly recommend to other couples in Olhao.
¡Tour por las islas, muy recomendado!
La experiencia fue chulísima. Tienes la oportunidad de estar en cada una de las islas las explorarlas, bañarte o lo que quieras. El tour muy bien en general muy bien, el Ivan nos explicó un montón de puntos interesantes durante el trayecto y además era muy divertido y agradable. ¡Lo recomiendo sin ninguna duda!
Taste Of The Islands
Booked this trip direct at a kiosk on Olhao’s seafront. Meeting point was well organised. The tour had 3 stops. I actually think it was 2 islands but with 3 stops. Boat captain was great. We had just enough time at each location. Would definitely do again & 💯 recommend.
Great way to experience Ria Formosa and it’s beauty
We had a great time on our Ria Formosa boat tour. Our skipper Henrique was super friendly and open for our suggestions on what we want to see and how much time we want to spend on different islands. We were lucky that only 5 of us were at the boat so we could arrange the trip in a more flexibility way. During our trip our skipper told us a lot of interesting facts about the park and the islands we visited. He was so nice that he even suggested a restaurant for us to visit for lunch and called it to reserve a table for us and make sure there will be oysters for us to try. Kudows to him for that :) Overall very enjoyable experience :)