A luxury development that encroaches into the Ria Formosa. Apart from buildings and tree-lined avenues, there are two nature trails, patches of woodland, rush-fringed lakes and ponds, mature gardens and, of course, more golf courses. This is a good area to see Mistle Thrush, Iberian Azure-winged Magpie and Great Spotted Cuckoo. The freshwater attracts species such as Purple Swamp-hen, Purple Heron, Little Bittern, Great Crested Grebe, Gadwall, Common Pochard, Red-crested Pochard, Tufted Duck and rarities such as Night Heron, Ferruginous Duck and Glossy Ibis. The manmade São Lourenço Lake, created to irrigate the golf courses, is beneficial to wildlife - long may it continue to be properly managed.

Follow the signs from Almancil to Quinta do Lago. Drive to roundabout 6 (find roundabout 1 at the main entrance and continue straight) and then ahead to a pay car park on the edge of a tidal lagoon. A long pedestrian bridge to a very good but extremely expensive restaurant and the Atlantic-facing beach is obvious. To the right before the bridge, the Quinta do Lago Nature Trail follows the salt marsh westwards to abandoned salinas and a large brackish lake. At low tide, the lagoon has plenty of waders, gulls and terns and the brackish lake attracts Greater Flamingos, Eurasian Spoonbills and sometimes, unusual gulls. The São Lourenço Nature Trail goes eastwards along the coast to the freshwater São Lourenço Lake overlooked by a small-elevated hide (free and open to the public). The lake is always worth a visit and is rarely disappointing. At dawn in summer, Red-necked Nightjars hawk insects over the lake and fairways. The trail continues through parkland and terminates at an archaeological site. A continuation to Ludo can be made by following the track across the salinas.

The area is mostly sheltered from northerly winds and on sunny days, the variety of butterflies is splendid. The birds are used to people and surprisingly approachable. Purple Swamp-hens strut around the fairways before the first golfers arrive and all day ducks loaf on the ponds.

The brackish pools of the Faro marshes and the sapal bordering the tidal lagoon can be viewed by following the causeway that splits off right from the nature trail.