Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Muckies Portugal/Algarve trip report part 1

This is only our second visit to Portugal, our first time was in October 2005. The weather then was ok and we thought it would be great to go back again to the same area, but this time in the ‘Summer’.

Our main consideration was to go as a family, there are 4 of us Mrs Muck (Cath), Son (Gareth 19), Daughter (Emma 16). In October Gareth couldn’t come because he is away at University and this was his 1st year studying Law.

It’s not very often that I will book a package holiday, in fact I won’t usually but Thomson’s here in the UK have a wonderful ‘Villas with pools’ brochure that shows privately owned Villas for rent. The deal is straight forward and includes flights, Villa and Hire car as well as use of their local representatives.

http://www.thomson.co.uk

As explained earlier, one week was all we could muster due to other commitments, but we took the single week and went for it.

We live in Cardiff, Wales and we have an international airport here, however to fly from Cardiff adds a further £480 to the price of the holiday for the 4 of us so we decided that £480 would be better spent on us.

So we decided to fly from Gatwick, seems dull, but fuel is about £40, parking is about £46. That gives us £394 towards spending money and other things.

So off we set at 07:30 on the Sunday morning, knowing that the M4 and M25 motorways should be clear. Thankfully they were and we arrived at the car park ‘Courtlands’ at around 11:00am
http://www.courtlandsparking.com

Car was booked in and we were soon on the way to Gatwick which was just a few minutes away.
After a quick meal at Garfunkels at Gatwick (we didn’t want food on the plane)
Check in went ok and we were soon jetting up the runway towards Faro.

When we arrived a couple of hours later, the captain gave us the weather, the local time which was +1 hr according to them and welcome to Palma. Very strange as we were in Faro…lol or so I hoped. So they were a bit confused but we were in the right place .

The weather was gorgeous and we made our way to collect the car. Thomson use Europcar http://www.europcar.com/ and we picked up the car with no fuss at all as I had pre registered on line placing all my details on their database, this reduces the time by about 15 mins.

The car that is provided in the package is a small Vauxhall Corsa type vehicle, which is a bit daft for carrying 4 adults and bags, so I arranged an upgrade to a larger car.

The Renault Megane we got was about 6 months old and plenty big enough for us all, it was a diesel which was good for fuel consumption.

We left and headed west towards the Villa which we had been to before. Villa Danielle is at Sesmarias, a residential suburb of Carvoeiro which is central Algarve.

After about 45 mins we arrived, having stopped off at a shop to get some basics for evening and breakfast.
We found the key and we were in.
Day 1
After a good nights sleep we awoke to beautiful sunshine, Cath and I slipped out to the supermarket, left the sleeping teenagers to get their teenage beauty sleep.

When we came back about an hour and a half later, they were still in bed!

Eventually they arose and appeared downstairs. Now with half the day gone, the question arose about what we were going to do today, weather was fine. So it was unanimous…….. shopping…….well not quite unanimous but I was outvoted.

Now you can call me a grumpy old git, but shopping is probably the last thing on my list of things to do. Anyway I was outvoted and we drove to Guia to ‘Algarve shopping’.

The shops here were just like shops and they sold things like clothes. Sadly I was not too interested so I went to get some food, now being a hater of everything Mcdonalds, I ended up with some Brazilian food, which included spinach, chicken, beef, pork, quite nice. Anyway Muck family joined me and the kids had Big macs; Cath had a sandwich. So a good variety of food here…

There were no shopping bags in sight so a wasted shopping trip. IMHO.

The Megane car has a key card, and no metal key, a bit like a credit card but thicker, now this card fits into a slot on the dashboard, sadly the receiver had collapsed into the dashboard but I managed to get it working and started the car.
Give me a real key any day.
I called the hire company who offered a new car but by now I was confident that the car would start so I declined and said I will call into the local office when I was nearby.

So we made our way back to the Villa and into the pool, that’s more like it !!

Dinner tonight was at the gorgeous Oasis restaurant in Carvoeiero.
http://www.restaurantoasis.com/

Eventually after much deliberation, Mrs Muck decided what to wear and off we went.
It was again a fabulous meal and great atmosphere.
We went there last October and the impression was the same.
We needed a taxi there and back but for €5 each way it was ok.

Day 2.
Having popped into the Europecar office when I got up, the guy there was not in the least bit concerned about this key fob hole. Anyway I came away with it working the same. But it was working, so that is all that mattered.

One of the places I wanted to visit was Portamao pier as recommended here by Teresa, thank you we found it and it was just as you said.

On one side of the dock there were men cooking fresh Sardines, (and many other types of fish) the smell was delicious. On the other side of the dock there were tables and chairs to sit and eat the fish as they are cooked.
Anyway Mucky family are fairly new to eating fish, we never really liked it, but the last few years we have endeavored to eat several different types of fish, with the exception of Gareth the student who feels sorry for them; so he doesn’t eat them. He prefers a steak or a chicken lol 

So I chose 6 sardines and they were taken away for cooking.
They were beautifully cooked and smelt gorgeous. Anyway Emma asked if I will top and tail it and get the bones out for her. So I placed my knife in its neck to take off the head and a load of liquid came out of its mouth, it was just like this poor little fish was being sick. Now Emma and Mrs Muck were almost throwing up, Gareth was looking away in disgust and I was laughing my head off…(so was the fish lol)

Anyway eventually we tucked in and it was really gorgeous, Gareth enjoyed his burger lol.
We left portamao and headed west to Sagres as suggested by SloJan and Tere.

Now Sagres is at a South westerly point and is Europes most southerly populated town. It has a fort type structure, which is thought to have been Prince Henry's School of Navigation.
We paid the €1.50 each and spent a couple of blustery hours walking around the cannons and fortifications. Well worth a visit.
The weather was distinctly different in this part of Portugal, definitely more open and windy.
Now time was getting on and the World cup game between Portugal and France was on TV. Portugal was gradually coming to a standstill so we wanted to get back to see the game with the Portuguese people.
So we had a quick swim something quick to eat and watched the game.

France won 1-0 and Portugal were out, but the attitude of the Portuguese was great, the people I talked to said that they were pleased with how well they had done and there is always next time.
Now by contrast, England, and especially the English press are never happy, even if they had won they would have given them a hard time.
The evening was spent drinking Portuguese wine and beer watching the football.
A good end to a great day.

Part 2 to follow…..