Praia da Cova Redonda: the beach guide

Praia da Cova Redonda is a small cove of soft sand and calm water in the municipality of Lagoa, reached by a long flight of Portuguese cobbled steps, and it lies about 2.8 km and about 5 minutes by car west of our apartments in Armação de Pêra.¹² Turismo do Algarve's own description is short and exact: a long staircase in Portuguese cobble announces the way down to the small stretch of sand and calm waters, flanked by cliffs the colour of toasted ochre crowned with green vegetation.¹

How do you get there from each apartment?

Drive, unless you want the walk for its own sake.

Apartment	On foot	By car
Penthouse 1, Edifício Marany	About 2.1 km, about 29 minutes	About 2.8 km, about 5 minutes
Algarve Oceanfront Luxury Penthouse 2, Edifício Marany	About 2.2 km, about 29 minutes	About 2.8 km, about 5 minutes
Beachfront Apartment 4F, Avenida do Rio	About 2.7 km, about 36 minutes	About 3.6 km, about 6 minutes
Beach Apartment 7G, Av. General Humberto Delgado	About 2.1 km, about 28 minutes	About 2.6 km, about 4 minutes

Distances and times are road-route figures measured on OpenStreetMap data on 17 September 2026, to the nearest point of the beach polygon.³ All four of our apartments include parking.⁴

Note that the walking figures are to the top of the cove. The staircase down is extra, and it is the part of this beach that decides whether it suits you.

What are the steps like, honestly?

Long. That is the whole character of the place. Turismo do Algarve describes it as 'uma longa escadaria em calçada portuguesa', a long staircase in Portuguese cobble, and that is what you get.¹

We do not have a published step count and we are not going to guess at one. What we tell guests is this: if anyone in your party struggles with stairs, or you are carrying a baby plus the beach kit for four, choose Praia de Armação de Pêra or Praia do Vale do Olival instead. If you are two adults with a towel and a book, the steps are a small price for a cove that stays quiet when the main beach does not.

Portuguese cobble is also slippery when wet. Sea shoes or trainers, not flip-flops, on the way down.

What is the beach like?

Small, sheltered and prettier than its size suggests. The cliffs wrap round it, which means shade arrives earlier in the afternoon than on the open bay and the water stays calmer on a breezy day. That calm water is the reason families who can manage the steps keep coming back.

It sits in a run of coves between Armação de Pêra and Senhora da Rocha. Praia dos Beijinhos and Praia dos Tremoços are the next along, and Turismo do Algarve's own guidance for the small coves of this stretch is worth repeating: they are small tongues of sand where it is hard to keep the recommended safe distance from the cliffs, and visiting them calls for particular attention and care.¹

We pass that on because it matters. Do not put your towel against the cliff foot.

Does it have the Blue Flag?

No. The 2026 Blue Flag list for the municipality of Lagoa names six sites, Caneiros, Carvoeiro, Ferragudo, Senhora da Rocha, Vale Centeanes and Vale do Olival, and Cova Redonda is not among them.⁵ The nearest awarded beaches to it are Senhora da Rocha, about 270 metres west at the nearest edge, and Vale do Olival, about 760 metres east.¹¹

The Blue Flag is an award for water quality, environmental education, safety, services and information together. A beach without one is not a beach with a problem; very often it is a small cove that does not carry the facilities the award audits.

Last verified: 17 September 2026

When is the bathing season?

We have not found a published bathing season for Cova Redonda specifically, so we are not going to state one. For context, the two Blue Flag beaches either side of it, Senhora da Rocha and Vale do Olival, both run a bathing season from 1 June to 30 September 2026.⁶⁷

Where do you park?

OpenStreetMap records car parks off the access road above the cove, the nearest of them a few hundred metres from the steps.⁸ None of them is tagged with a fee, so we make no claim either way, and none of them is large. In July and August, arrive early or park further back and walk.

What is nearby?

This is the middle of the Lagoa cove run. Praia da Senhora da Rocha and its chapel headland are a few minutes west, Praia do Vale do Olival is a few minutes east, and Praia da Marinha and Benagil are a short drive beyond: Benagil Cave without crowds. Our beaches hub puts all five of the beaches we recommend in one place, and the older top 10 beaches post goes wider.

Algarve Oceanfront Luxury Penthouse 2, Edifício Marany, Rua das Caravelas 7, Armação de Pêra. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, sleeps 8, and seconds from the sand at Praia de Armação de Pêra, a walk of a few seconds, with Cova Redonda about 2.8 km and about 5 minutes away by car. Licensed AL 180211/AL. Underground garage bay 703 included plus free street parking outside the building, a lift to the sixth floor and one flight of stairs to the door, air conditioning, heating, washing machine, dishwasher and a balcony.⁴

See Algarve Oceanfront Luxury Penthouse 2 · All four apartments · Beaches hub