Welcome news for the eastern Algarve as a new international school is to be opened in one of its most picturesque and relaxed areas. For those with children, the area has presented one significant obstacle – a lack of local education facilities. As a result, families have settled instead in central or western Algarve, so that their children can attend the established international schools in those areas.

FICA – the Algarve International Film Festival is being held for the 34th time. Over 200 cinema sessions, screening 96 films. More venues, involving more audiences.
The general programme this year is presenting 50 films representing
24 countries in the “Short film competitive section”, and is complemented by the informative sections “School goes to the cinema”, “Cinema for senior citizens” and “Other places, other cultures”.

The location for the start of the 2007Dakar rally has not yet been decided, but Portimão is in the race with Lisbon. There will be some differences to the leg in the Algarve. The organisation of the king of off-road races is at the negotiation stage with the different partners involved in the event, including the Portimão Council, which last year hosted the Lisbon-Dakar caravan for one night.

A TOTAL of around 100 million euros is about to be pumped into Barranco do Rodrigo, a neglected area that lies between the city of Portimão and the town of Alvor.
Portimão Câmara has launched a public tender for the construction of a sports complex featuring an Olympic sized swimming pool, a multi-purpose pavilion, shopping centre,

The Região de Turismo do Algarve (RTA) will promote from the month of May a collection of activities to raise environmental and civic awareness as part of the campaign "Algarve with more pleasure", promoted in partnership with the Plano Regional de Turismo do Algarve (PRTA). The project, which will run until the end of 2006, comprises an itinerant exhibition, competitions, games and outdoors activities, having as its objective the improvement of the quality of life

From 2007, retailers in the Algarve and Andalusia will be able to join the first virtual shopping centre in Europe. People from the Algarve and Andalusia, a market of 8 million consumers, will thus be able to shop without leaving home, just the internet will be enough.