Restaurants, cafes, and pastry shops will be able to open daily until 02:00 am, bars and concert halls until 03:00 am (Sunday to Wednesday) or 04:00 am (Thursday to Saturday and on the eve of holidays), and nightclubs can stay open until 03:00 am (Sunday to Wednesday) or 05:00 am (Thursday to Saturday and on the eve of holidays), the municipality said in a statement.

The Algarve municipality highlighted that the two regulations, already published in the Diário da República, will come into force “in March” and justified the changes with the need to adapt timetables in light of “the evolution of the municipality’s social reality” and “a set of uncomfortable situations, already identified”, such as loud music or noise caused by crowds outside.

“Considering the evolution of the municipal social reality over the last few years, the municipality understood that it was important to approve a review of the regulations that would limit the opening hours of these spaces, in order to avoid worsening a series of uncomfortable situations, already identified, and help to make commercial use compatible with other urban uses existing in the Municipal Master Plan, namely housing use”, argued the Chamber.

The Faro municipality recalled that the previous regulations were in force since 2017, in the case of timetables, and since 2012, in the case of noise, and the changes adopted respond to situations of “inconvenience felt by the population”, such as “noise caused by the operation of establishments, due to music, with loud sound”, or the “crowding of consumers outside”, with “excessive noise” due to being on public roads.

“[…] For reasons of safety and protection of citizens' quality of life, the regulation now approved defines that food, beverage or mixed establishments (restaurants, cafes or pastry shops, among others) can operate every day between 06:00 am and 02:00 am the following day”, can be read in the statement from the Chamber of Faro.

As for properly licensed beverage and restaurant spaces (bars, concert halls, theaters, cinemas, concert venues, among others), opening hours are established “between 10:00 am and 03:00 am the following day, from Sunday to Wednesday, and between 10:00 and 04:00 am the following day, on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and the day before holidays”, he highlighted.

Activities such as “dance clubs, discos or similar entities may have hours between 10:00 am and 03:00 am the next day, from Sunday to Wednesday, and between 10:00 am and 05:00 am the day after Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and the day before holidays”, added the municipality.

The Chamber of Faro highlighted that “the outdoor terraces of duly licensed establishments such as restaurants, breweries, snack bars or similar, will now have to close, every day, at 02:00 am at the latest, and those in bathing areas may, and during the bathing season, open until 03:00 am”.

Pharmacies, medical centers and hospitals or veterinary clinics, tourist or local accommodation establishments, residential structures for the elderly or fuel stations will be able to operate “permanently”, every day of the week, explained the same source.

Activities located in residential buildings are limited to times between 08:00 am and 00:00, although they may, “exceptionally, adopt the times set for other establishments, if they obtain the prior consent of the building owner, or the declaration of non-opposition by the condominium, in the case of a building on horizontal property”, they noted.