You just can't miss them. Within minutes of leaving your point of arrival, there by the side of the road they are, bombarding the eyes with their vibrant shapes and colors -- pots, ewers, urns, dishes, vases, water containers of a thousand different sizes.

This is artisan pottery at its best. And if you had arrived blindfold and then, with sight restored, found no defining national characteristic in the great hall of the airport, now you've escaped from its clutches, you would know with utter certainty where you were.

Portugal. And, to be more precise, the Algarve.

You entered this lovely stretch of southern Portuguese coast at Faro in the extreme east of the territory and the Holy Grail that you are pursuing is golf and more golf. Believe me, brothers and sisters, you have come to the right spot.

Just don't forget to take a look at the ceramics, that's all. And, no matter where you have come from, if you go home without at least one item of the region's artistic pride and joy in your baggage, I shall be deeply disappointed in you, for it is as beautiful in its uniquely primitive way as it is utilitarian.

In the greater scheme of things, the Algarve has not been a golfing destination for very long. Its first course, designed and built by the late Sir Henry Cotton at Penina, was not constructed until 1966, but since then the Algarve has become a land of promise for wintering Europeans.

It has long deserved a wider audience than the pan-European constituency to which it has historically appealed, and by dint of its very excellence and native beauty, it is now acquiring.

When you visit the Algarve, you are not just buying into the leisure and pleasure to be derived from sporting pursuits.

In common with virtually the whole of the Mediterranean coastline that stretches from the westernmost tip of Portugal, through Spain, into France and onwards, ever onwards to northern Italy, the Algarve is a storybook of ancient civilization and culture. Turning its pages uplifts and restores even the most jaded traveller.

Faro, the region's capital, deserves a wider reputation than merely being the home of the airport. Its cathedral was built over an old mosque and the church of St Francis is gloriously decorated by a dazzling collection of ceramic tiles, while its medievel walls are wonders of the middle ages.

To the west lies the town of Lagos, and the nearby headland of Sagres. Not far west of Sagres, is a place of symbolic significance, for it was from here that Portuguese sailors weighed anchor under the orders of Prince Henry the Navigator, the inspiration behind the Age of Discoveries.

To the east is beautiful Tavira, where the houses find their mirror images in the calm waters of a silvery river.

Still not had enough? Then drive one day into the hinterland towards Silves, with its Moorish castle and its famous cistern. Go on to Monchique, the town that bears the name of the mountains in which it sits, and wallow in its exuberant vegetation.

The town was founded by the ubiquitous and all-conquering Romans, who worshipped, literally, its hot springs. But, tempting though it is to continue drawing this timeline of history, we must look at the golf because that is what we are doing here.

There are 17 golf courses on the Algarve, stretching from San Lorenzo in the east to Parque de Floresta in the west, more than 100 miles of coastal strip that might have been created by a higher power for the game to which we are all addicted.

There is something for everybody here. You want British-style golf? Go to Vila Sol, the creation of Donald Steele, the great architect who is the epitome of Englishness in every he does.

Steel's work does not aim to undermine the great American concepts of course design, in which elevated tees, greens and water, water everywhere are a pivotal part. But it is, nonetheless, his philosophy to preserve nature and native vegetation while reducing large-scale earth movements to the bare minimum by using the terrain he is given.

But you have decided that you want to be whipped off to the United States for a while. So try Quinta do Lago, the brainchild of William Mitchell, American through and through, who created in this sun-caressed spot a little bit of the United States on the ancient continent of Europe. It will stage the Portuguese Open on the European Tour in April. No course deserves it more.

And yet, still not completely sated, you ask for something archetypically Iberian? Right, head for San Lorenzo, a wonderful spot that lies blessedly close to the Ria Formose Park, the home of thousands of nesting birds and a port of of call for countless more of their aquatic cousins when they make their annual winter pilgrimage to north Africa.

The tired and travel-worn visitor in need of a restorative after they leave Faro airport could no better than to drop in on San Lorenzo. No matter how weary, how exhausted you are, San Lorenzo will lift your spirits.

I love the place with a passion, and so would anybody with even the merest seed of affection for the beauties of nature in their soul. Go to the par-3 fifth to get a glimpse of the Ria and move on the the sixth and seventh, that hug the margins of the wetlands that form the park's heart and soul.

This is the Algarve, a stretch of coastline that should carry a mandatory warning: Those who are in no mood to be besotted, turn back now because once you're in it, you're in love with it.