Public Ferry or Boat Tour in the Ria Formosa?
Olhão's public ferries cost about €2 each way (2026) and run all year; the Faro–Deserta return is from $11. What a tour adds, and when the ferry is better.
You don’t need a tour to reach the islands. From Olhão, the public ferry to Armona, Culatra and Farol costs about €2 each way and runs all year. From Faro, a catamaran ferry crosses to Ilha Deserta every day of the year, 45 minutes each way. What a tour buys you is a guide, a fixed route and several islands in one trip.
The one ferry you can book on this site is that Faro–Deserta return, run by Animaris - Animação Turística Lda. It’s from $11 on the booking platform when we checked and rated 4.6 from 776 reviews. It’s a return ferry ticket, not a guided tour: you choose your boat back and spend as long as you like on the island.
The public ferries
The ferries run all year, with more boats in summer. The adult fares below are the ones three local sites agree on, one of them read off the board at the Olhão ticket office in May 2026. Children aged 4 to 10 pay about half.
| Route | When | Crossing | Adult fare, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olhão – Armona | All year; roughly hourly in July and August | 15–20 min | €2.10 one way, €4.20 return |
| Olhão – Culatra – Farol | All year; fewer boats in winter | About 30 min to Culatra, then on to Farol | Culatra €2.10 one way; Farol €2.40 one way, €4.80 return |
| Faro – Farol – Culatra | Mainly summer | About 30 min to Farol | Not found |
| Faro – Ilha Deserta (Animaris) | Every day, all year | 45 min | About €10 return, as reported in 2025; from $11 here |
In Olhão the ticket office is at the entrance to the ferry terminal, between the market and the old harbour. One local guide reports that it takes cash only, that tickets aren’t sold online, and that the island kiosks sell the return, so carry euros in cash. Don’t plan around a timetable copied from the internet. Times change through the year, so check the board at the kiosk. From Faro, the public boat to Farol and Culatra is mainly a summer service; Olhão’s ferries run all year.
Water taxis also leave from the Olhão pier, priced per boat: roughly €30 to €55 for up to five people.
What a tour adds
Several islands in one go. None of the public routes we found links Deserta with Culatra, so doing both by ferry means going back to the mainland in between. A tour does it in one loop. Islands 4 you’s Faro islands tour lands on Deserta and at Farol, and the catamaran run by Estrela da Ria Formosa adds a photo stop at Hangares and, on morning runs, two hours at Culatra.
Someone to explain what you’re looking at. The guided boats come with a local guide or a skipper who talks about the channels, the villages and the shellfish beds. The ferry is transport.
A boat that reads the tide. At low water, sandbanks and shellfish beds rise out of the channels and skippers pick their route by the tide. One guest on Odyssey Traditional Boat Tours’ three-hour trip praised a guide who “carefully negotiated the sandbanks”.
No timetable to juggle. The stops are fixed and the boat brings you back.
The halfway house is Animaris’s hop-on hop-off pass: boats between Faro, Deserta, Farol and Culatra at your own pace, valid for 24 hours until you return to Faro. It’s from $45 and rated 4.6 from 298 reviews. One passenger summed it up as “no tour of the lagoon, transfer between the islands (which is what we were looking for)”.
When the ferry is the better choice
If you want one beach for the whole day. Armona’s long beach, Culatra village or the sand at Farol cost a few euros to reach from Olhão, and you can stay as long as the ferries run. Tour stops run from under half an hour to two hours.
If you’re watching every euro with children in tow. Child fares on the Olhão ferries are about half.
If the beach is Praia de Faro. It’s on a peninsula, reached by road bridge or bus, so a boat is optional.
And if Deserta is the whole plan. For a day on Deserta alone, the ferry is the right boat, and it’s the one pinned above.
See dates for the Deserta ferry
One travel site notes that visitors sometimes book a tour when they only wanted the ferry, or book the wrong boat. Read your ticket before you queue.
Ferry, pass or tour
Animaris return ferry
A return seat from the Porta Nova pier. Stay as long as you like.
Check dates →Hop-on hop-off pass
Boats between Deserta, Farol and Culatra on your own schedule.
See the pass →Islands 4 you, Faro islands tour
Deserta and Farol, 45 minutes each, on a boat for 11 at most.
See the tour →Prices, ratings and review counts from our October 2026 data check; operators use seasonal pricing, so treat them as the shape of the market, not a quote.
The Ria Formosa islands guide says what each island is like, and Faro or Olhão shows where every boat and ferry leaves from. Everything bookable is compared on the homepage.
Fares from three local guides, one reading the Olhão kiosk board (May 2026); ferry seasons from Faro council and the Turismo do Algarve beach guide; boat details from the listings. Checked October 2026.
Book the Return Ferry to Ilha Deserta
A return seat on Animaris's scheduled catamaran from the Porta Nova pier in Faro: about 45 minutes each way through the lagoon channels, and as long as you like on the island. You name your boat back when you leave Faro. No guide or commentary is listed.
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