Algarve (Portugal)

I went on holiday with my partner and my three step childen (ages 4, 8 and 10) so this is basically a run down of our family holiday in the Algarve.
So where should I begin?
With the price I suppose.
About six months ago we rang up a travel agent and asked them for the cheapest holiday they had any time in September (the prices in August are that ridiculous we couldn’t afford to go). We didn’t really want a ‘package’ holiday as we were quite happy to hire a car so we could be mobile. A few days later they came back to us with a price of 800 pounds (my pound sign on my keyboard doesn’t work by the way!), considering there is five of us two adults and three children, I thought this very reasonable. For 800 pounds we got flights from Manchester to Faro and a weeks stay in ‘Quitas das palmerias’ apartments self catering. We had never been to Portugal so we decided this was too good an opportunity to miss. We decided to hire a car as well, not only do you get to see more on your holiday but it’s a lot nicer than buses and trains when you have got three kids in tow.

We flew with ‘excel airways’, I have never heard of them before but they were actually very good. Apparently they fly to Portugal, Spain and the Canary Islands etc
We departed from Manchester airport at around 10 o clock (pm) which isn’t too bad with kids because although they are tired they are not grumpy because they are so excited.
On the plane the leg room was reasonable (it was a Boeing 737) you could book extra leg room, at the cost of 15 pounds. There was in flight entertainment of a movie and a various music channels, you had to buy the headphones off the plane staff at two pounds a go though. There was a meal provided which was quite nice as plane food goes, can you believe I got sausage and mash (my all time favourite meal) on the way there!! There were also various soft/warm and alcoholic drinks that you could purchase from the airhostesses. An alcoholic drink would set you back around 2 and ½ pounds and a soft drink around 70 p.
The air hostesses/hosts were all very nice providing blankets and pillows for the children to sleep with (which is always a God send when they do go to sleep on the plane). The flight time was around 2 hours 25 minutes but it varies greatly apparently (according to the pilot who seemed to be doing more talking than flying!) it all depends on which way you fly and how high you fly.

We arrived at Faro airport an hour later than expected due to a delay in Manchester (weather apparently) but luckily the lady who was waiting for us with our car had heard about the delay too. We hired our car with ‘Algarve Car Hire’, most of the companies were intent on ripping you off with some unbelievably expensive prices, as it was peak season, but these seemed the most reasonable.
We hired a Clio for 160 Euros, about 110 pounds at the rate which we bought our euros at (1.4). For that we were both insured on the car for all damage even if it was our fault. We got to the car and we couldn’t fit the cases in the boot (we did have two massive cases) so one case had to go in the front and Sam (the youngest child who is 4) had to sit in the front with it. Needless to say we won’t be booking a Clio again.
They provided a map with the car that actually proved to be an excellent aide to our holiday. It initially didn’t help us, as we got lost on the way to the apartments, however getting lost only increased our journey time by about 45 minutes which isn’t too bad. It could have been a lot worse.
Finally we arrived at the apartments (after asking in a couple of bars) can you believe that the people we booked our apartments with (Apartments Abroad) didn’t have a map to our apartment? That was a joke and they will be getting a letter from me after the next escapade….

So we arrive at ‘Quitas das Palmerias’ later than expected, not only because we got lost but also because the plane was delayed. So we were about two hours late and there is nobody there. There isn’t a night porter and the reception is closed. By now it’s two o clock in the morning the kids are extremely tired and so are the adults for that matter! There was a sign on the door saying ‘I come soon’, my partner opted for the option of waiting until whoever wrote it came back. I decided that this wasn’t an option and made him phone one of the phone numbers on the door. A guy answered and managed to convey the message in broken English that he owned the apartments but was 60 kilometres away he did give us the number for someone who lived nearer but the number didn’t work.
Eventually after the plane delay, the losing our way and the waiting outside the apartment a guy pulls up in a car. Apparently the door bell we had been ringing is connected to his house and he eventually decided to see what the noise was. He pretended his English wasn’t very good (it may not have been though) and couldn’t give us a reason why there had been no one there to provide a key for us. The reason I’m angry with Apartments Abroad is because they should arrange for someone to be there or tell us where we can pick a key up from and it is still very unbelievable that they don’t have a map of how to get to the apartments they are letting out.

So the holiday started on a bad foot, but it got much better from here on in. The apartment for a start was beautiful. They looked about a year old it was a two bedroom apartment with a sofa that turned into a bed. Each bedroom had its own bathroom which was so much easier when getting ready because the kids had one bathroom and we had the other. They were lovely bathrooms as well decorated with black and white tiles, one bathroom had a bath and a shower the other just had a shower, they both had toilets.
The bedrooms had the usual two single beds one room had wardrobes both had cupboards and bedside tables.
The kitchen had the usual hob, plates, cutlery, pans (not non-stick which is extremely annoying on the washing up front) however a novelty for me was a fridge and freezer. This meant that ice creams could be bought and stored instead of shelling out ridiculous prices by the pool. There was a T.V and satellite (not that we were bothered about this) Sam was quite happy to watch cartoons in Portuguese!!

Our balcony was also massive it stretched the entire length of our apartment. It looked out onto the beach and the sea which was five minutes walk from the apartment. The pool was also a bonus. It wasn’t only massive but cleaned regularly and had entertainment by the side of it at the weekend. Every day there was a little pool side shop that sold various drinks, ice creams and snacks. There was also a pool table and a table football that you could buy tokens for from this shop. There was a smaller ‘baby pool’ which was as deep as my knees which was a reasonable size for the smaller children who couldn’t swim.

Our apartments were situated in Armacao de Pera, which is a tourist resort but we were out in a village type bit. We had a supermarket and a bar owned by English people (always good for the football considering I am a big Manchester United fan) within five minutes walking distance. The bar was called the Blues Bar and it was owned by two sisters who were really nice, they helped us find our way around and told us of some nice places to go to.

We ate in Armacao de Pera just the once, we drove into the town part (this was the only place you could get an English newspaper and was about 10 minutes drive from where we were staying) and ate at quite a posh restaurant. It cost about 100 euros and the food wasn’t that spectacular, but I wanted to try one expensive restaurant (we didn’t do it again in a hurry!!)
Generally though, we travelled around the Algarve eating at different locations and trying out the different night life on offer. It’s different when you have got kids, you aren’t looking for the bar with the cheapest alcohol (considering one of us was always driving) or the best night club, you want the place where there is lots for kids to do and nice food and something for your selves to do too.
The best place for this (we found) was Albufeira, this is about half an hour drive from Armacao de Pera (where we stayed) there were lots of bars and some very English pubs with lots of different nationalities. We found that there were lots of English, Dutch and German people not just here but generally where ever we went these three nationalities seemed to prevail. (Apart from at our apartments as there were lots of Portuguese people on their holidays).
In Albufeira (Sophie my 8 year old step daughter thought we said Albert Square!!) there was a square where there was lots of things going on, there was a puppet show, people having their faces painted, people having funny pictures of themselves drawn and all the other sort of things you’d expect to see on holiday. There is also a good market for souvenirs and presents too.
This was where the children were happiest as there was so much to do, we ate twice there and both times the food was good (nothing spectacular) and cheap which is the main thing!! Both times it cost us around 50 euros for the five of us with drinks.

The best beach we visited was on the last day, we went to a beach in Pria da Rocha. This is a little bit further than Albuferia (in the opposite direction) and takes about 45 minutes to get to. The beach is lovely, beautiful white sands, the sea was cold but not freezing and you can walk quite far before it gets very deep. This was especially good for the children as the sea at the beach near our apartment was extremely rough and got very deep very quickly. Pria da Rocha was also good when we went there one evening for a meal, the food wasn’t the greatest or the cheapest but it is one of the most well known and very ‘touristy’. I wasn’t very impressed by Pria da Rocha apart from the beach, so I wouldn’t advise anyone to go there apart from to visit the beach!

We also went to Lagos, which is the only place I have ever heard of in the Algarve, the shops here were brilliant, as were the bars and restaurants and there was so much to do. There were boat rides you could take, lots of things going on in the main square and also a nice market to visit. I would imagine this is where the best night life is but we didn’t go out here in the evening as it was about an hours drive from where we were staying.

The two best days we had were spent in two of Portugal’s many water parks. The first one that we went to was Aqua land, (it seems to have renamed itself The big one over night but when we went there last week the sign outside said Aqualand) http://portugal-info.net/thebigone/, this wasn’t the better of the two and has probably seen better days, but the rides were fantastic and the kids had a brilliant time (as did we) it was very hot and we were careful not to get sun burnt but we had a fantastic time. There was something for all ages. The food was usually theme park standard and wasn’t very expensive and it was only 10 pounds to get in!!
Aqua land was about 15 minutes drive from where we were staying and was very easy to find, it was in Silves.

The second water park we went to was Slide and Splash this was about 20 minutes drive from where we were staying and was situated in Lagoa. This was definitely the better of the two. There was more for the younger child to do and the water depth (that the slides went into) wasn’t as deep so the middle child (Sophie who is 8) could go on the majority of them slides. The water park was the same price to get into, but was in better shape (whether it was younger or just kept better I’m not sure). The food was the same consistency as the last water park; cheap but tasteless!!

A couple of things to watch out for in the Algarve that I regard as disadvantages:

*The motorists are all mad. Be careful if you hire a car, they take no prisoners and the majority of them drive like they want to die young. I was scared at least five times and nearly crashed the same amount of times due to the madness of their driving. Drive at your own pace and if they want to over take you they can. The majority of the roads are good, but some can be a bit tricky to drive on (due to the surfaces etc)

*The child beggars. I find children begging hard at the best of times, but these children that are begging are no older than four years old. There was even a child of about five with a baby of about 9 months begging one night. I am really soft when it comes to children and this was quite distressing for me. Some people can ignore it and pretend it’ll go away if you are as soft as me however you might find it a bit distressing.

*Be careful not to get ripped off, we were lucky and met people who lived out there who advised us not to get tickets for water parks etc off people on the streets but to buy them at the water park or proper tourist outlets, they offer discount but aren’t always real.

So that kind of concludes my holiday in the Algarve. The weather was absolutely lovely all week and it wasn’t extremely busy anywhere that we went. I would highly recommend a holiday here it was a lovely place to take a family holiday.

Websites that may help:
http://www.algarve.org/parques_aquaticos​.aspx
http://www.eurosun.com/qpalmeiras.htm (where we stayed)
http://www.algarve-car-hire.co.uk/

Thanks for reading!!