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Advantages: Sunshine, beaches and scenic rocky coves, interesting inner towns Disadvantages: Irish bars, fast food and tacky tourist shops
and make me very sleepy and my other half does not drink wine especially when driving so we did not venture to the vineyards. We did however find a very pleasant restaurant where we enjoyed a cataplana even tastier than the one we tried in Albufiera in that it was a creamier sauce and the pork was not on the bone or fatty so we were happy with our choice. I also tried a Limoncello (I read a review on Dooyoo about this and was keen to sample it) and was most impressed. It was refreshing, lemony and light and I will definitely have a go at making some when I get back home.
SUMMARY:
I?m not sure that I would come back to the Algarve; it was nice to enjoy sunshine and some of the beaches and coast line areas are lovely but I felt the whole area lacked something; It might be that we were put off by our awful accommodation and initial impression ...
Advantages: Loads to do/see, reasonably priced, great for seafood lovers Disadvantages: Many places will rip you off, bull fighting
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Portugal is situated to the West of Spain and the bit at the bottom is known as the Algarve. I really went on holiday with a rather negative view of the area, I was expecting shell-suited English louts sitting in tacky English-named pubs and masses of building sites (I had heard that it was over-developed and a constant building site!). But, I was actually pleasantly surprised! I ended up situated between the two biggest resorts; Albufeira and Vilamoura, in a village by the name of Olhos d’agua and I have to say that, after traveling around the area, I couldn’t have asked for a nicer place to be located in the Algarve.
The major resorts are relatively loud and tacky yes, but get out and about and you will see the real Portuguese way of life; the white washed buildings, the picturesque mountain villages and the quaint fishing ...
moose 31.07.2002 (01.08.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Algarve (Portugal)
Advantages: Water parks, weather and accomodation. Disadvantages: Three tired kids this morning!
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 ...
