Hangares takes its name from the seaplane hangars of an early-1900s naval air station — one of the odder footnotes on the Ria Formosa, and the reason this stretch of Ilha da Culatra is marked on maps at all. Today it’s a small huddle of island houses between Farol and Culatra village, with dunes and a wide, quiet ocean beach on the seaward side.
Getting there is the point: ferry from Olhão to Culatra or Farol, then a walk along boardwalks and sand between the two settlements. Facilities are whatever you carry — this is one of the emptiest inhabited corners of the barrier islands, and it stays that way even in August.
Who it’s for: walkers doing the Farol–Culatra crossing, and anyone who wants Ria Formosa sand with history in the name and nobody on it.