It is a borderland village of Faro district and is home to the city of 4 parishes Alcoutim, Giões, Martim Longo, Pereiro and Cowboys. In 1832, it belonged to the province of Alentejo, and then implemented the administrative division. This municipality is bordered on the north by Mértola, east of Spain, in particular by Andalusians of El Granado, Sanlúcar de Guadiana and San Silvestre de Guzmán, southeast of Castro Marim, southwest of Tavira and west by Loulé and Almodôvar.

The human presence was felt in Alcoutim in the Middle Paleolithic, due to archaeological remains discovered this period, in the parish of Pereiro. However, from the Neolithic period between 5,000 BC to 3,000 BC, that these populations have built megalithic monuments scattered throughout the territory of Alcoutim from dolmens, menhirs, tholos or megalithic cists. In the Bronze Age and Iron were also promoted enough evidence to show the continuity of human communities, including necropolis of cists.

As collected testimonies of archaeological excavations, this region was also inhabited in Roman times, in households, especially in the coastal zone, where are the best agricultural land more gifts. It is in this area south of the Guadiana, it was quite appealing and was used as penetration via trade routes, once established connection with the Mediterranean. attended also it was a Visigoth population, who occupied the same Roman spaces, including the archaeological site near the waterfront of Montinho das Laranjeiras, just over eight kilometers south of the town of Alcoutim.

In the years of Islamic rule lived in Alcoutim they were left many certainties of his strong presence to the Christian reconquest lapsed in 1238, following the conquest of Mértola. When their integration into Portuguese territory, Alcoutim received from D. Dinis its charter in 1304, and was later renovated by King Manuel I in 1520. In the late fifteenth century, it becomes county in favor of the Marquises of Vila Real, where the Meneses family kept -o until the seventeenth century, when its assets are integrated in the House of Infantado in 1654.

Alcoutim also graduated from its strategic position in a military point of view, not only for its proximity to the Guadiana River, as a commercial route. After the liberal struggles during the nineteenth century, Alcoutim is occupied by Miguelistas in 1833, thus losing its privileged strategic military position and is integrated by the neighboring municipalities. Since the late nineteenth century, the Alcoutim county was reorganized along with their five parishes, belonging to the district of Vila Real de Santo António.

Appreciated for its tranquility and away from the bustle of the tourist centers, Alcoutim being among the hills of the Cauldron and the Guadiana river, presents its natural border with Spain. This region keeps alive its tradition and crafts, rural life, with pieces of traditional quilts there or rags, the basketry cane and wicker, pottery, borbados and lace, linen tablecloths, floral arrangements in corn straw dolls jute, among others. Along with traditional food with game meat, pork and lamb and fish from the river, have a rich and diverse cuisine, combining with a delicious desserts with plenty of honey, figs and almonds Algarve.