| | Semina - Santa Eulalia - Aptd.866, Albufeira, 8200-912, Portugal
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Overall Community Rating: |   8.2 (based on 3 user reviews) |
 Alfagar: Alfagar Apartments - a young familys view by Eric Barton |
| Posted 18 November 2004 about a visit in September 2004 | Overall rating: 9.0 |
APARTMENTS
The Alfagar apartments in St. Eulalia were an absolute delight. I went there with my wife and two sons, aged four and seven, in search of sunshine, sea and sandcastles and that is just what we found.
Our apartment was comfortable and immaculately clean. The lounge and large bedroom had full width patio doors with the view I have shown in my photograph below. A satellite TV offered some English speaking news channels and my sons amused themselves with Portuguese Ninja Turtles. My only gripe was the bathroom; it looked tired with some rather amateurish wall tiling.
The cleaners visited three times a week, towels and bedding were replaced, and my sons’ teddies would be found seated on their pillows.
GROUNDS
The gardens, footpaths and three swimming pools were all spotless.
Although there wasn’t a children’s entertainer, my sons were never bored. They had two shallow pools to paddle in, a big adventure playground and a games room in which to spend their Euros.
A cliff-top footpath at the back of the development gave views of the Atlantic and of a villa rumoured to belong to Portuguese footballer, Luis Figo.
The cliffs were steep and poorly fenced - this was not a place to let go of your toddler’s hand! About eighty moderately steep steps take you down to a clean sandy beach.
The on-site shop offered fresh croissants, cakes and bread and a multitude of fresh fruit and vegetables. Spirits and wine are offered at UK prices but a 330ml bottle of premium beer cost around 90 euros. The shop girls always chatted to my children and gave them free lollipops.
ENTERTAINMENT
Evening entertainment for the adults left much to be desired. On the night of our arrival we were too tired to go out – from our balcony we could see a fantastic display of traditional Portuguese dancing and music in the bar area. The rest of the week was karaoke, a Buddy Holly impersonator and a man with a squeaky voice and inflatable guitar!
We had five days of sunshine and two of rain. On the first wet day we visited ZooMarine and were treated to shows from dolphins, sealions (see photo) and birds of prey. We sat under cover while the entertainers performed in the rain. They wore wet suits – no problem! The huge aquarium, with its full sized Tiger sharks and sea turtles, was fascinating. The second wet day my boys asked to go back to ZooMarine – say no more!
RESORT
Albufeira old town had plenty of character and we enjoyed the cobbled town square with its’ street café’s and musicians. On two occasions we were approached by time-share salesmen with gifts of scratch cards - they put on Oscar winning performances when, surprise, surprise, we won the star prize!
The beach at Albufeira had fine clean sand and became moderately crowded in the afternoon. Toilets were a ten minute walk back to the town square and the gents’ toilets did not have seats.
The cost of eating out is similar to the UK. Try the Piri Piri, a tasty dish of spicy chicken.
OUR OPINION
The excellent facilities, clean apartments and warm, generous people all served to make this an excellent family holiday. I recommend it.
This review is the opinion of a diytravel.co.uk user and not of diytravel.co.uk. |
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 Alfagar Reservations |
| Alfagar: Alfagar Apartments A Young Couples View by Jonathan Stokes |
| Posted 05 November 2004 about a visit in October 2004 | Overall rating: 8.0 |
Ratings| Dining | 6 | | Location | 10 | | Cleanliness | 6 | | Service | 10 |
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Visiting the Algarve in the late Autumn was always going to be a gamble due to the weather but after carefully researching the accommodation, area and local attractions we were still skeptical. I am pleased to say we were very pleasantly surprised and it was actually quite warm. Most days it was around 20 degrees although we did have one entire day of rain.
We traveled with Thompson Holidays and the outbound flight was fantastic, smooth, well organized and a pleasure to fly (the opposite of the inbound!). When we arrived we were greeted by friendly reps at Faro airport who ensured we reached our accommodation with no stresses or worries. The self catering apartment was spacious and clean apart from an Ant Infestation in the bathroom that we quickly exterminated. The Kitchen was modern and well equipped although I agree with another review on this site that the lack of a microwave is a bit of a blow in the modern culinary world. Not that there was much need to cook with such a well priced excellent restaurant on-site. The living area was massive for two people although I did resent paying an occupancy supplement when the supposed 4 person apartment had only a convertible sofa and pull out bed for the third and fourth beds.
The town of Albufeira was a very mixed bag. The Strip was tacky and tasteless - if you want to go on a clubbing and pubbing holiday go to Tenerife or Kavos (Corfu) but not Albufiera. I ate at a restaurant on the strip and was nearly physically sick there and then. The old town however was fantastic. Bar street is worth checking out and if you want good food I recommend the Casa de Avo (Grandmothers House). I had a fillet steak that was bigger than my head for only 17 Euros whilst my girlfriend had Salted Cod which was also very reasonable. The whole meal was probably one of the best I have ever had and it only came to about 60 Euros!! Anyway back to the hotel, whilst The Restaurant was excellent the bar left a lot to be desired. Our first experience was on our second night when we were lured by the prospect of " A night of 60s music". The entertainer arrived dressed in pajamas bottoms and (loosely) matching jacket with his hair brushed up in a quiff and a pair of thick black glasses. He announced "Hallo I eem Boody Hoolly and zees first sung ees Peegy Soo". You can imagine the rest! After drinking a large glass of the local ale very quickly I realized that my nausea was probably more to do with the floating pieces in my drink than the butchering of 60s songs by Boody Hully. In fact we soon realized that we were feeling sick after every trip to the bar and especially after eating there.
However there is so much to do around the local area that sitting in the bar was not really an attraction. The view from the Hotel was breathtaking and we often walked down the endless steps to the beach in the evening and watched the sunset.
Our first excursion was to Zoomarine which was fantastic! The dolphins were incredible although we thought the treatment of the tropical birds was rather cruel as they were made to do somersaults and ride little bicycles. It is well worth going for the seals, birds of prey and dolphins though. Our other trip was on the Guadiana boat cruise, which is the river that separates Portugal and Spain. This was also excellent, especially the stop off in a local village. We had wonderful sardines and chicken cooked on a barbecue whilst three men played an accordion a drum and a triangle and encouraged everyone (after hundreds of glasses of wine) to skip around the room playing musical instruments.
The Alfagar is essentially a good complex with good facilities and good accommodation however it is in need of a bit of modernization and could do with another bar. We really enjoyed our stay in the Algarve and would recommend it to anyone looking to have a fun and varied holiday in beautiful surroundings.
This review is the opinion of a diytravel.co.uk user and not of diytravel.co.uk. |
| 1 of 1 users found this review helpful. Did this review help you? | |
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| Alfagar: a good place to stay by Edward Siddall |
| Posted 28 January 2003 | Overall rating: 7.5 |
i stayed here in march 2001 and these apartments are very good. there is entertainment every night and the food at the complex is very good. the only down side is that the accom is quite a way from the centre of albufeira.
This review is the opinion of a diytravel.co.uk user and not of diytravel.co.uk. |
| 1 of 2 users found this review helpful. Did this review help you? | |
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