I put this map together from four screen grabs in Google Maps, stitching them together painfully (long, boring story) using Gimp as my image editor. I wanted the ideal zoom level that would show cities and major towns, highways and roads, while not showing any other labels, like businesses. It's very notable that, at this level of zoom, there is just one business that shows up in the whole of the Algarve - Vale Do Lobo Resort. I can only imagine that they are paying Google an incredible amount of money to make this happen.
I am going to remove the Vale Do Lobo label at some point and re-post this. It should be incredibly easy. If I had PhotoShop, it would be incredibly easy. As it stands, I am working with Gimp, a very well-reviewed piece of free, open-source software that I find amazingly counter-intuitive and frustrating. Of course, I could commit to many hours of tutorials to get me over this hump, but bla, bla, bla.
Clicking on the map should take you to a higher-res version. The originals are over 4,000 wide, so I will have to figure out how to post those full-res versions. Apparently, Wix puts a cap on image size.
Here is a satellite version at the same res:
-*** Later*** -
Just time to post this, a quick and dirty map of the Algarve, colour coded for minutes driving to the beach:
No tint: 0 to 15 mins to the coast
Yellow tint: 15 mins to 25 mins to the coast
Red tint: 25 mins or more to the coast
I have yet to double check beyond the 15 minute threshold using Google Maps' driving calculator. It's all very rough and ready, not accurate beyond rough guessing. Also, the northern border is defined poorly. But it's the sort of thing I want to use these maps and others like them for.