Where do you recommend in Portugal?

[Lloydcolestilldoesitforme]

Quite fancy Portugal this year for a summer holiday. The beaches look stunning and I hear good things about it.

We are a family of four (2 girls 8&9). My preference would be self catering but somewhere with some facilities i.e. pool. close to some bars, restaurants. Not too 'resort'-ish. But open to suggestions!

Probably best to avoid Albufeira unless you like busy commercial?
Monte Gordo is in the Eastern Algarve, lovely, plenty of cafes and restaurants, beautiful beach but not over commercialised.
At the opposite West of Algarve end is praia da Luz, smaller and family oriented, everything within walkable distance.

I would say Carvoeiro, but I'm biased as I live here

It's quite a small village but has lots of restaurants, shops, bars etc, lots of self catering accommodation and close to water parks, zoo marine etc for days out - let me know if I can be of any further help!

We stayed in a villain carvoeira in May was perfect. Lovely place. Not too commercialized but enough to have everything you need was lovely. No big beaches just little cute coves we loved it and so did our 4 yr old

We stayed in Alvor a few years ago.

It was perfect for what we wanted, which was nice places to eat, including restaurants with real Porteguese food, and barbecued fish caught in the day, a few bars and a lovely beach. Our kids were about 11 & 13 at the time.

We stayed here. It was ok; clean, tidy and spacious. There are a few shops, cafes and a bar on site.

I would stay away from albuferia, villamoria and faro. All very resort based or busy towns. We loved Lagos which had great beaches and a busy marina, but a much more Portuguese feel to the place.

I love west of Lagos or East from tavira. Ideally id stay in sagres. Luz is nice if a little touristy. Central algarve overdeveloped for my tastes.

The golf resorts near to faro (Quinta de lago, vale de lobo, Dunas Douradas etc are great if you have £££ to spend on a villa. There's usually a good restaurant to walk to and nice quiet beaches as well as private pools. Personally I don't mind a meal out in vilamoura and find the food excellent round that area (what's it called?) as it's more international and imaginative.

Sagres, Luz or tavira better on a budget. Or anywhere around ria Formosa natural park.

I've stayed in plenty of places where you need to drive to beaches (budens is slightly inland but has good golfing type resort that has nearby supermarket and great access from Lagos-sagres) and most restaurants but you have great choice if you hire a car. My absolute faves are bergau, zavial, mareta, tonel, beliche, ingrina. Ah I love Portugal!

I avoid like the plague anywhere like albufiera, priaha da Roche, Alvor etc.

Sagres is incredibly windy in the Summer and the water is pretty cold.
Most beaches lost a lot of sand last year and it's not likely that they will have it back next Summer.
So, unless you are very keen on surf, I'd just visit for the day (it's got a great landscape and a bit of history too, plus great fresh fish).

If you can avoid August, as it's the worst month for numbers of people. July is usually hot enough and more reliably sunny.

I go on holiday to Praia da Rocha, actually in Portimão, and it's not too bad on the side of the beach that I go to, the Marina side.

I do second going somewhere around the Ria Formosa, such as Tavira.

Zen, we did have a great day at Ingrina the previous year, but the water and the weather were particularly warm that year. :)

We love that corner of Portugal, because that's where my dad was born and still has family there. But I prefer warmer climates.

We like Western Algarve-Salema, Burgau , Portimao and Lagos. Nice feel to it and lots of golf resort type accommodation-so privacy but still shared facilities such as communual swimming pools and tennis courts if you want for the kids to still have some company.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Shall get busy with some googling today and likely come back with questions!

We went to Praia da Luz and Lagos last year - loved both and will prob go back this year

Watching with interest. I am trawling holiday websites which are incredibly slow today.
Carvoeiro looks good but I can't find any villas.

If you want to send me details of what you're looking for and when, I'll see if I can find anything?

costacoffee we are thinking of Carvoeiro. Will we need to drive to get around to beaches etc? Is it expensive to eat out?

It really depends on where you stay whether you need a car or not, there are lots of apartments within walking distance of the beach/restaurants etc and some villas - however, some owners are extremely optimistic about how 'walkable' their place is. If you want to send me any links to the places you're looking at, I'll let you know if I think about the location

There are restaurants to suit all pockets - our favourite is a small Portuguese place where the main courses are 6-10€ (pork, chicken, steak) and a bottle of wine is 6€, then there are places where we can spend 60-70€ a couple and everything inbetween. Happy to answer any more questions!

Hi Costa,
I go to Carvoeiro a lot - would be really interested to hear your favourite restaurants if you don't mind sharing? We have been to Tia ilda a lot in the past, and also the Italian at the bottom of restaurant hill, just set back from the road (I forget the name). We always have a car so wouldn't need to be only restaurants in the town centre.
I love trying new places!

Well, we go to Jomar a lot, that's the place I mentioned earlier that's really good value, it's not fancy at all but good food, freshly cooked and really nice people (they're our neighbours!)

A Vela is good, so is Taste, for a special occasion we go to Ele Ela or O Farol on Rocha Brava and special mention for Bella Vita on Clube Atlantico if you like Italian! They do everything from pizza and pasta to steak, seafood - can be pricy but fantastic service and a brilliant dessert Bella Vita which is a tasting plate of 4 or 5 desserts with fresh fruit.

For lunch with a lovely view we go to Algar Seco Bistro (on the top by the pool, not down the steps to the rock pool) they do fantastic salads.

Casa do Bife for stone steak, they also have some good value set menus including wine/coffee

A Paleta near pingo doce in lagoa is a good value Portuguese 'locals' restaurant

Ponto de Encontro on Areias dos Moinhos has just changed hands and is very good and good value

A Tasquinha up at Monte Carvoeiro is also very good - there's just so much choice!

Thank you! Will take note of all! We're not there again for a while but I can't wait. Even more now I have some restaurant recommendations :)

Costa, I'm on trip advisor looking at Carvoeiro! Looking for a laid back place to stay, hopefully with quiet gardens and a pool and near beach! We don't want entertainment or kids pools etc, our priority is swimming and gardens. We don't drive though! Don't mind hotel or apartment, really, just something gardeny and comfortable....does thing cause anything to spring to mind, for you?!

Hope you enjoy them - let me know what you think!

Another vote here for Carveiro.

What time of year are you thinking of Avaline? There aren't many places with big enough gardens to walk around - as the climate/landscape doesn't really lend itself - nice cliff walks though?

If you don't want to hire a car, have a look at Monte Dourado (but privately not resort-owned) Monte Carvoeiro, parts of Quinta do Paraiso, Areias dos Moinhos, Algar Seco - but not Vale do Milho, Rocha Brava, Centeanes, Sesmarias or Pedra Grande

Thankyou costa! We want to go mid June! Gardens to sit and read in?

Prefer pool areas that aren't just concrete... You know? It's nice to sit under a tree and find a cat to share breakfast with, rather than sit on concrete and hear cars..that kind of idyll is what I'm fantasising about!

We don't really have gardens here, even for residents, they're more likely to have tiled terraces.

We have a few borders with oleander, hibiscus, bouganvillia, and the rest is tiled, grass isn't very practical - too expensive to water - and the only grass that is hardy enough to grow is so hard and prickly that you can't walk on it barefoot!

It's a rocky, sandy, hilly landscape here - yes there are trees and hedges and greenery, but not really what I'd call gardens - sorry!

I can give you a choice of cats to borrow though - we've got 12!!