SAGRES, Portugal -- The wind picked up after we left the last trees behind and the narrow road stretched out over the misty, scrub-covered plateau toward the region in Portugal that forms Europe's southwestern tip.

At Sagres, the road stops at the walls of Henry the Navigator's fortress. Beyond, the land runs out and the old continent drops 150 feet into the roaring Atlantic. After this there is nothing but ocean until the East Coast of the United States.

This is a place of stark beauty, prone to sudden fogs and blustery sea breezes.

Jutting into the sea, the twin headlands of Sagres and Cape St. Vincent were places of mystery and awe to ancient Romans and early Christians.

For Prince Henry the Navigator, this finger of land pointing into uncharted waters was the obvious place to establish the school for explorers that kicked off Europe's Age of Discoveries 500 years ago.

History buffs can visit the clifftop chapel where Henry once prayed, walk the walls of a fortress sacked by Sir Francis Drake or look out over waters where Lord Nelson battled the Spanish fleet. Birdwatchers flock here to watch waves of migrators rounding this monumental corner of land on their way between Europe and Africa.

But most visitors come here for neither buildings nor birds, but for beaches.

The 60-mile coastline running along the far west of Portugal's Algarve region offers some of the continent's best bathing spots with an amazing variety of beaches, from the translucent shallows of the Ria de Alvor lagoon to the thunderous surf of west coast strands like Bordeira and Arrifana.

European vacationers have been flocking to the Algarve since the 1970s, and mass tourism has turned much of the region's central strip into an unsightly jumble of towering hotels, pizzerias and Irish pubs.

Thankfully, the gentle, warm-water eastern coast near the Spanish border and the more rugged west have so far escaped the worst excesses of overdevelopment and are looking increasingly attractive to savvy Americans seeking to stretch their exchange-weak dollars.

The Ria de Alvor is a mild start to the Algarve's wild west. This blue lagoon is edged on the east by the town of Alvor, once a quaint fishing village, now a bustling tourist center that still has some great restaurants along the waterfront where freshly caught bream, bass and cuttlefish sizzle on vast quayside barbecues.

Visiting bathers share this protected estuary with yachtsmen, a multitude of seabirds and old men paddling in plaid shirts and rolled-up pants to hunt shellfish at low tide. The open sea is a short walk over the dunes to Meia Praia, a four-mile crescent of white sand curving toward the city of Lagos.

Deserted apart from a few nudists at its eastern end, Meia Praia becomes a boisterous family beach near the town where locals take a rowboat ferry across the narrow Bensafrim river to reach the sands.

Lagos, the port where the Portuguese explorers set out for their first voyages down the coast of Africa, still has something of a swashbuckling air with its river-mouth fortress and medieval walls holding a warren of narrow streets that fill in summer nights with a youthful, bar-hopping crowd who use the city as base camp for surfing trips.

There's also culture to be found in Lagos' art galleries or open-air concerts beneath the city walls. The church of Santo Antonio is lined with intricate wood carvings coated in gold leaf plundered from Brazil. On a grimmer note, a 15th-century building near the river is believed to be the site of Europe's first African slave market.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: Lagos, Portugal, is 55 miles from Faro airport along the Via do Infante highway. The Portuguese capital Lisbon is 190 miles from Lagos by highway. The train journey from Faro airport to Lagos is slow but picturesque, and Portuguese railways have recently upgraded the rail link from Lisbon to the Algarve, which takes about four hours. Lagos is the end of the line. There are buses going further along the coast, but getting to the more remote beaches without a car can be trying.

INFORMATION: Portugal tourism agency, www.visitportugal.com; Portuguese airports, www.ana.pt; Portuguese rail company, www.cp.pt.