The Benagil Cave is one of the most impressive sea caves in Europe. The Benagil Cave, which is located on the furthest of the Algarve coast in Portugal, is listed as one of the world’s “Top 10 coolest caves”, and you can only reach the cave by boat, SUP or kayak from Benagil beach called Praia de Benagil. The closest connecting city is called Lagoa.

Excursion to The Benagil Cave in Algarve, Portugal

The southern coast of Portugal is called the Algarve coast and is the most popular tourist destination in Portugal. It is famous for its amazing summer, impressive coastline and idyllic beaches. The Algarve coast has many impressive caves, cliffs, rock formations and white beaches. The Benagil cave is, on the other hand, a “must” if you go to the Algarve coast, according to me. There is something special about this cave.

The Boat Tour

We went to Praia de Cavoeiro beach and took a boat trip, which took 1.5 hours. We went from this beach all the way down to Praia de Marinha beach and back. During that time we saw a lot of different caves, rocks and beaches along the Algarve coast. This is really a boat trip I recommend doing! It costs 30 Euro/ person, a bit expensive according to me but on the other hand you can’t access these caves in any other way (unless you rent your own boat) but you can’t go by car or walk to all these places.

Not allowed to swim

The Benagil cave is very popular and special and therefore attracts many tourists, which I understand. Swimming to this cave is prohibited as the tide water can get high and it’s not safe to swim back to the beach, believe me, it’s a bit from the beach to the Benagil cave. On the other hand, you can go by kayak, SUP or by boat if you want to reach this cave.

From here you can go on a boat tour

As I said, we went from Cavoerio beach, but there are also boat trips daily from:
Lagos
Portimão
Ferragudo
Albufeira
Vilamoura

During our boat trip we we able to go into several caves and see them close up. Several times the captain turned off the engine on the boat so we could admire the caves quietly without sound while the sun lit the water and created amazing effects.

Do I need to book?

We booked the boat trip when we arrived at the beach and the next available trip was 10 minutes later as we got seats, despite the beginning of August and so many tourists. You don’t need to book in advance or from home, you can buy tickets right away here at the beach. Note that they only take cash and not credit cards, so be sure to have cash on you when you pay for the tickets!