Looking for the authentic Algarve? Go in the low season – and to Tavira

With wild beaches, gorgeous countryside and delicious seafood, Tavira and its surrounding villages have plenty to offer, even outside summer

Dusk in Tavira is a masterclass in seduction. On my first evening in the Algarve’s most easterly city – just 18 miles from the border with Spain – tangerine skies smudged by pillowy clouds unfurl above the old town, with its jumble of church towers and terracotta roofs.

For such a romantic spectacle, the best vantage point proves to be the seven-arch Roman bridge spanning the meandering Gilão river, where I join an appreciative crowd of locals and off-season travellers. Small talk ripples through the group, and a young Portuguese couple choose this moment to surreptitiously bolt a padlock bearing their initials to the metal lattice. Even the living statue gets off his box to soak it all in.