Having returned from a 2 week holiday to this apartment block, I felt I have to warn everyone to avoid it like the plague.
This is the first package holiday we've been on since our Honeymoon 5 years ago, but having a 3 year old, we decided that we would give somewhere a try that had a kids club and plenty of things to keep her occupied.
The apartments were in Praia Da Rocha, a very commercialised resort on the Algarve.
In the brochure it stated there was a kids club, health club, sauna, jacuzzi and nightly entertainment amongst other things. The apartments were spread over 6 blocks, which was a little off putting, but we decided to give it a go anyway. Bad mistake.
We went on holiday with my brother, sister in law and their 7 month old baby. Consequently between us we had 5 pieces of luggage, 4 pieces of hand luggage and 2 pushchairs. When we were booked in we were told to go to the lifts to floor 2, then find our apartment block, go to the lifts to floor 5. No help was given to us with this luggage and needless to say we struggled.
Never mind, we'll be unpacked and settled in soon. When we got to the apartment, what a disappointment. I wasn't expecting anything special, but it was such a contrast from the non package accommodation we normally stay in that my mouth fell open.
Before looking closely at the apartment the first thing that hit you was the horrible green painted furniture and matching kitchen cupboards. My favourite colour is green, but the shade used was vile. Everything was painted, even the dining table and 4 chairs (there was 5 of us plus the baby).
To the bedroom (same paintwork), one of the doors was hanging off the wardrobe, so I adjusted the way they opened so that it wouldn't fall off onto anyone. 3 of us would be sleeping in the bedroom and we were given 6 tiny draws, 12 hangers in the wardrobe and 1 shelf. Needless to say our clothes were just piled up on the shelf, so no hope of creases falling out (I don't iron on holiday).
The 2 main beds were the most uncomfortable you could imagine, there were more springs than padding in the mattress and the pillows felt like they were stuffed with golf balls. Needless to say we didn't get a full nights sleep for the duration of the holiday. My daughter, thankfully, was on a spare bed from beneath the sofa, which we moved into our bedroom (just enough floor space) and this had a sponge mattress, so at least she had a decent nights sleep.
The other bedroom was identical, although the wardrobe door didn't fall off until the middle of the holiday!
Our bedroom was in the corner of the building and the small window was placed as close to the corner as possible, so that anyone looking over their balcony had a perfect view into our bedroom. We therefore had to keep the curtains shut most of the time (I'm not an exhibitionist) to avoid naturally nosy neighbours.
To the bathroom. There was a cupboard beneath the sink, which would at one time have been used to keep your toiletries, but not now. When you opened the cupboard door the musty stench was unbearable. There was also no window, so shower / bath time caused enormous condensation problems. Thankfully, though with no window it didn't do a lot to help, my sister in law took an air freshner, but with 5 of us need I say any more?
To the kitchen. We had booked a self catering apartment, not that we planned to do much cooking on holiday, but we expected the basics. There was sufficient cupboard space, good news, or was it? My brother looked into one base cupboard and found silver fish crawling over the crockery. We decided to wash everything we were likely to use and keep it on the work surface.
Self catering, eh? There was 5 glasses, which only held enough fluid for a large gulp, which meant that you needed about 3 or 4 glassfuls to quench your thirst. There was no tin opener / corkscrew / toaster or microwave (maybe I'm just used to the better things in life?) The cooker didn't work, although the hob had 4 working gas rings.
I thought, that this was perhaps the norm for a reasonably priced package holiday, so we didn't complain.
Day 2, we entered the apartment and noted a very strange smell. After sniffing around a bit, we discovered that we had a gas leak coming from the hob. We opened all the windows and rushed to tell reception. They said turn the gas off at the mains and they would send someone along shortly to fix it. A couple of hours later a man turned up to fix it with a screwdriver and said keep the mains turned off after using the hob!
The apartments were cleaned 5 times a week, ha. This consisted of mopping the floors, but didn't include sweeping them first. This meant that all the crumbs and bits spilled over the years were building ip a cruddy deposit in every corner of every room!
I've now been put off self catering package holidays for life.
To the apartment blocks. Where was the gym / sauna / jacuzzi / kids club? Not here, that's for sure. We spoke to the Rep who told us that the hotel across the busy main road was the sister hotel, which had all these facilities (that's certainly not what was indicated in the brochures).
There was 2 swimming pools and a children's pool, but there was that many chemicals in them that it hurt your eyes if you stayed in too long. I never saw anyone cleaning the pools and they were a bit scummy around the edges, however, every morning a man walked round the pools squirting the chemicals (perhaps this was their idea of cleaning).
There was a snack bar besides the pool, which served ice creams and drinks, but also served cold chips and burgers that were hanging around for hours.
Nightly entertainment. There was a children's disco every night at 8.30pm, but we didn't go to one as we were usually in the resort itself at that time getting something to eat. Later entertainment consisted of a guitarist singing old favourites like Volare! We only plucked up the courage to listen to this once.
We spoke to many other guests who all had the same opinion of the place and there was that many people complaining with nothing being that done we decided not to waste our time.
If anyone is still reading, the plus points were that there was a laundry service (we didn't use it though), a souvenir shop, a hairdressers (again we didn't use it), a newsagents / sweet shop and a very basic supermarket that kept running out of things such as bottles of water.
There was several guests in wheelchairs and there were ramps alongside all the stairs, which was also needed by us having the pushchairs, so one more plus point.
I hope that nobody reading this has already booked to go here for their holidays and I would strongly advise anyone thinking about it to re consider.
We booked with First Choice, although Airtours, Budget, Cosmos amongst others all use this accommodation.
All in all the accommodation spoilt the holiday and we were all glad to get home for a decent night's sleep.
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