Most tourists simply pass through Faro airport en route to their resort destinations in other parts of the Algarve. But if you're hankering for a cultural city break with wonderful food and year-round sun, then Faro is a delightful retreat.

Located on the southern tip of Portugal, Faro is the capital city of the Algarve region. Due to its superb location, Faro is an inviting place to visit all year long as temperatures on coastal Algarve remain mild even in the winter months while the summers are the hottest in Portugal.

The old city of Faro is an original Roman settlement with later occupation by the Moors. Inside the old citys walls or Vila Dentro meaning inside the old part is where you can discover narrow winding streets, irregularly shaped houses painted in bright colours, and Moorish architecture.

Visitors enter the narrow cobbled streets of the old town via the neoclassical Arco da Vila. Numerous architectural gems abound. Faro also has many fantastic restaurants, trendy shops, a bustling port, boat trips out to the Parque Natural da Ria Fomosa, and an array of museums including the Museu Capitular and the Museu Municipal in the old Jewish quarter.

Perhaps the most visited tourist site in Faro is The Chapel of Bones (Capela de Ossos) . Its a church decorated with the skeletal remains of more than 1,245 former monks whose remains were excavated in the early 1800s in order to build the present chapel. Atmospheric and eerie, look for the inscription over the doorway which translates to : "Stop here and think of the fate that will befall you."

The Archaeological Museum, housed in a former 16th-century convent in Praa Afonso III, contains a stunning Roman mosaic excavated in Faro in 1976. You may also want to wander through the museum's cloisters to see the gargoyles.

The Largo da Se (cathedral) contains some fine examples of 18th-century pictorial tiling.

Good food here (and on the Algarve in general) is fresh and very affordable. Residents eat out often in the Algarve as dining out is a sociable as well as gastronomical experience in the Algarve. Dinners are a slow affair and lunches also tend to be long and leisurely, so dont expect to rush through midday meals (or most meals for that matter) in the Algarve.