Sunshine, sardines and spoilt fishing villages in the Algarve

Advantages: Sunshine, beaches and scenic rocky coves, interesting inner towns
Disadvantages: Irish bars, fast food and tacky tourist shops

...Just in case there is anyone who doesn't know, the Algarve is on the coast in Southern Portugal. Most tourists get there by flying to Faro and many of the cheaper airlines fly into Faro. Therre are about a dozen options for hire cars at the Airport so you can select your favourite comapany and then drive off to find your accomodation in the Algarve. Driving seems safe and with the help of our Tomtom we found our way around easily rememberring of course to drive on the right side of the road. The Algarve; Having been unimpressed with our accommodation (Albufiera Jardim 1) and stayed in for an appointment with our representative from Resort Point Services or Resort Promotions ( another long tale of woe) we decided that we were not going to be put off the area by this and decided we would explore. ALBUFIRA: On Sunday after our abortive...

catsholiday 16.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Algarve (Portugal)

  MOOSES GUIDE TO THE ALGARVE

Advantages: Loads to do/see, reasonably priced, great for seafood lovers
Disadvantages: Many places will rip you off, bull fighting

...towns and harbours. The Algarve is known as one of the most expensive regions of the Mediterranean to visit (but its actually on the Atlantic anyway!) and this is true if you stay in one of the major towns ~ they will rip you off something rotten (although its still not as much of a rip off as the UK!), but visit smaller resorts and you will find some very good value eating and drinking. Now onto a few of the areas I visited: OLHOS D’AGUA ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ This is the fishing village that our apartment was located in and as I mentioned it was First Choice who chose our location as we went on one of those (sometimes dodgy!) “Sundeals” but I honestly have no complaints whatsoever, and that’s pretty unusual for me (!) ~ although it did have some touristy features (the shops selling tat etc!) it was on small scale...

moose 31.07.2002 (01.08.2002) · Read review
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Review of Algarve (Portugal)

Family fun in the Algarve.

Advantages: Water parks, weather and accomodation.
Disadvantages: Three tired kids this morning!

...) 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...

carminator 19.09.2003 · Read review
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Review of Algarve (Portugal)

TAVIRA A QUIET TOWN ON THE ALGARVE

Advantages: Small and friendly
Disadvantages: None for us.

...TAVIRA a small town on the Algarve, this is a very quiet place so if looking for Night Life , look elsewhere. If you are looking for Peace and Quiet and the Beauty of Nature then come to Tavira. Fly into FARO Airport, usually at the time of year we go, Early January for a pickmeup after the Xmas and New Year, I am disappointed if we have to pay more than £50 return on Easyjet from either East Midlands or Stansted. The flight times are good for us From East Mids normally 06:30 departure. Arrives FARO about 09:15. Tavira is located about 24 Kilometers towards the Spanish Boarder. We book our Transfer thru WWW.AUTO-FARO.COM They charge 40 Euros each way for the 4 of us. No extra charges that is what you pay even if flight late. They are very good and friendly, the Taxi driver will give you a little tour of Tavira...

poshtroika 21.01.2008 · Read review
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Review of Tavira, Algarve, Portugal

Excellent Algarve

Advantages: Great for familys, nice beaches, very cheap
Disadvantages: touts on the beach, Albuferias old town.

...priced, I will know next time to take lunch with us! All in all it was a good day out and would recommend anyone going to the Algarve to visit Zoomarine. There are a number of water parks which range from £10 - £15 per adult and £8 -£12 for children, we personally did not go to any but were told that "the big one " was the best, maybe we will try that next year. We took a taxi into Albuferia old town for the day, the taxi cost around £2.50 and to be honest I wish we had not bothered, it was horrible, there were hardly no shops open and the streets were lined with beggars, we ate in a restaurant at lunchtime and it was awful, so we took off down to fisherman's beach for the afternoon, well to say it was packed is an understatement it was mobbed, we could not find a place to sit and if we wanted a sunbed they were charging £8.00 each! I...

tmullen3 11.09.2002 · Read review
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Review of Algarve (Portugal)

BEAUTIFUL ALGARVE

Advantages: Beautiful Scenery
Disadvantages: Hard to park

...I went to the Algarve in 1995. It was our honeymoon present off my mum and dad. We booked through a company called Something Special,who specialise in holiday villas. When we arrived at the airport the reps were there to assist us in the car hire (which was included in the price).There were directions to the villa which were sent to us about two weeks before. All we had to do was pick up the key for the villa at a designated site. The lady there was lovely, she was called Linda, she manages Something Special villas and spoke very good english.Good job really as I don't know any portuguese. Once we got to the Villa we parked our car in the car port situated next to our villa and entered the villa. It was absolutely brilliant.We had two bedrooms,two bathrooms,a private swimming pool just for the two of us. The resort we stayed...

belinda9 19.02.2001 · Read review
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Review of Algarve (Portugal)

Holidaying in The Algarve

Advantages: It's hot in the summer with great beaches
Disadvantages: The tourists- it gets absolutely packed with them!!

...The Algarve has been my holiday destination for the past 9 years. Each time I have stayed in a self catered villa inland. Although you do not get the luxury of a hotel you get the peace and quiet after a day in the main tourist attractions. I personally think that the best way to experience the Algarve is to hire a car and split your holiday into beach and inland. The Algarve has got large stretches of beaches with a variety of sandy and rocky beaches. This is great for sunbathing or rock pooling which can be really interesting for the adults and the kids alike. I know people who have been out fishing, surfing, jetbiking and swimming, and if you have kids hiring a pedalo with a slide can provide endless entertainment. The ocean is the Atlantic so swimming in the sea can be very cold, not advisable at Christmas. An alternative...

sleyley1 19.06.2007 · Read review
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Review of Algarve (Portugal)

Top of the shops.............

Advantages: see above
Disadvantages: see above

...Advantages: Loads of stuff available, good prices Disadvantages: can get busy at christmas time so much so people abandon their shopping I am a huge Asda fan, it's where I do most of my shopping and I know where everything is which makes it easier when dragging 3 kiddies along with you! In my local Asda we have a photo centre, cafe, George, electricals, homewear, toys, bakery, pizzaria, rottisary (chicken place lol), fresh meats counter and all the usual foody aisles plus we have a petrol station, cash machines and bus stop. It's the largest shopping store we have although we do have a Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, Co-Op, Farm Foods and Iceland. I have never had a bad experience with Asda and the stock is usually replenished quite quickly! They have such a huge range that I know I can do my weekly shop and more there. Everything...

jadiep890 26.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Asda (Shop)

Algarve - Al Be Back Soon I Hope

Advantages: Good summer climate, nice people, good food, need I go on?
Disadvantages: Had to come home

...I?d been to the Algarve before, four years ago, staying just to the west of the famous town of Albufeira, which was as good an introduction to the southern Portuguese coast as any, although the ?Strip? of clubs, bars and Irish Pubs in the centre of Albufeira did tend to make you wonder whether you hadn?t stumbled through a rip in the space/time continuum, and come out with the date intact, but the location shifted to Southend or Blackpool during a heatwave! Anyway, we were encouraged by the fact that we didn?t HAVE to go anywhere near this part of town, and by the general friendliness of the area. Eating out is good value in Portugal ? why, we even managed to dine at the next table to ?Richard and Judy?, much to my wife?s angst, since she appreciates that kind of thing but was facing the wrong way! (Yes, she does look a lot older...

BNibbles 14.08.2002 (08.09.2002) · Read review
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Review of Algarve (Portugal)

The place to visit when in the Algarve

Advantages: Fairly priced, good variety of animals which are well looked after, well kept and clean park
Disadvantages: None

...When I had first met my wife we decided to take a nice little holiday somewhere so I booked us a nice week in Portugal and organised us to stay in Vilamoura and we simply loved the place but what we have remembered the best about our entire trip was the visit to Zoomarine. The theme park is situated in a fairly remote area of Albufeira and spans quite a large area of land which in turn allows for large areas for the animals to be housed. The park has a large variety of animals including dolphins, seals, sealions, crocodiles, aligators, birds, tortoise and others with the animals well looked after. The park has a great variety of shows on offer aswell as a large swimming area (something we didn't know about until we were there), a number of gift shops and a large restaurant with hot and cold food on offer that was fairly priced...

tangoman1984 27.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Zoomarine, The Algarve, Portugal