Portugal with teens

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I was thinking of taking my 14 and 16 year old to the Algarve for our next holiday - is this a good idea? I've been to Portugal on a fitness retreat before and love the beaches, but have never taken the kids there. It would just be the three of us. Next question would be - what resort/area/hotel would you recommend for a mid-price budget (round £1,200ish pp for hotel/flights)? The kids will want somewhere with other teens and where they can take pics of themselves looking cool for Insta (they won't want to hang round with mummy the whole time), my son will need somewhere with sports stuff going on, and I like nice bars and restaurants with good food and ideally a bit of culture! TIA!

I know the Algarve well and have teens!
I’d suggest Lagos or if you could stretch to it Vale do Lobo is full of teens in the summer, great beaches, some nice bars/watersports. There’s a nice beach club called Well which is very Insta coveted. If they would like to learn how to surf then Gale has a surf school and great beach and near to Albufeira. The strip in Albufeira is more geared up towards hen/stag parties and a bit rowdy but the old town is lovely.

Vale de Lobo looks interesting - is it a bit like a Portugese Center Parcs (with sea and surf)?

Not as such. It’s a resort with private villas on the beach and a golf course, it has a centre (the praca) which has restaurants and the beach club and there’s a nightclub there and mini golf etc. it’s quite posh as in the “golden triangle” of the Algarve. It’s full of teens and families in the summer and there is live music and entertainment in the evening. There’s a huge water park close by Aquashow which my teens love.

Sorry to jump on this thread but I’m also looking for a similar type of holiday and @Thischarmlessgirl your suggestion sounds great. I just wondered if you need to stay in the Vale de Labo resort as this is where the teens tend to hang out or if we stayed nearby, is it still a buzzy area that’s good for teens?

Easiest to stay in VDL but certainly not cheap. You could stay close by in Almancil or Quateria and uber there (Uber very cheap and available) Vilamoura is also nice (marina, posh boats and restaurants) but more grown up I’d say

Hi op. I have been looking in to this exact question myself and where to go with teens. I found a hotel I quite liked the look of in Lagos . There is a beach there called Praia da dona ana which looks lovely and can do snorkelling at. Or possibly stay in villamoura but not sure what beach like there. I think the beach in Alvor is also good for kids. But one thing I have discovered is that the sea water temp in August is about 21degc and lots of the reviews online say the water is too cold for swimming. I guess it depends how keen you are, but eg Majorca is normally about 26degc . So I am kinda wondering about that. Also lots of reviews I have read say it’s quite windy everywhere. And even the pools can be a bit chilly because of this. Looks like there are some good water parks to go to though.

The beaches in Vilamoura are lovely, Felicia Beach is beautiful, if you google pure beach club in Vilamoura, that’s very cool.
The sea is cold, it’s the Atlantic but people swim in it all of the time and in the summer you’ll be fine. I have a home in the Algarve and we spend every summer there and it’s never stopped us going into the sea, pools absolutely fine as well. Last August it was 33 degrees some days with a breeze but not particularly windy. If you go to Albufeira Marina, there is a great go-kart track there, and you can get various rip boats to do dolphin watching trips and snorkelling and there’s also a kayak centre not far from there.

Can I ask for those recommending albuferia - we were all set to book then read some awful reviews about the strip - we want to be near the old town, but everything I've found is "by the strip" and the old town is 30 mins walk away (we'll have a toddler)

just how awful is it, to walk through to the get to the old town?

It’s ok, you don’t have to walk, there’s a little train that’s pulled by a car which small children like which can take you down to the old town in about 10 minutes. The strip is a typical strip of bars aimed at groups of men and women, so it can be a bit rowdy but nothing horrendous! Also, Uber is very accessible here if you wanted to get a taxi

We went to Lagos in August a couple of years back. It was too windy and chilly to go on the beach or eat outside. It’s put me off going back.

Yes this is my concern as read this a few times. But some people say it’s fine so I think some weeks more windy than others

Just grab an uber - old town is great for any age inc teenagers I would say. Ubers take literally a couple of minutes tia drive and only a few euros. We stayed just outside so maybe 10 min drive in a beautiful hotel and never had a problem going to the old town every night. Good in all the restaurants we ate in was brilliant there too. I have coeliac disease and didn’t struggle

What is Faro airport like? I’ve heard of huge delays there both arriving and leaving due to queues for passport control. Is that true?

Faro has had awful queues but I just saw they have introduced evisa gates now for British citizens so the queues should be much better (when I went there were two flights from the uk arriving and only 2 people individually checking passports!)

Wow! That must have taken ages!

We are thinking of going for five nights so I don’t want to spend half the time at the airport! Hopefully the new gates will help.

@WindyRoses we stayed just outside Albuferia last year and walked the strip a couple of times with our teens and it was ok. However, we weren’t there late at night. We’ve booked to go again this year and we have booked a villa near the strip so our teens can go out independently. I am however, now worrying over this decision!

old town isn’t far away and can be walked from albuferia but we used bolt which is the same as Uber but a little cheaper.

Lagos is lovely but we were warned it gets very very busy in August ie restaurant reservations essential etc.
Faro airport not so good - took us 2.5 hours to go through passport control three weeks ago. A colleague went during half term and was in the queue 3+ hours. The new machines were sitting in the side but my understanding it’s going to be some time before they’ll be in use but I may be wrong there.

Vale de Lobo is a nice place but utterly expensive, the Well pool is €30 to get in and they will check your bag for food/water leaving you to pay the €5 for their water and €29 or more for a poke bowl at lunchtime. That said the people watching is second to none! I don't know the other areas that well but the marina towns are lovely and set up for tourists and teens to have a lovely time. Can frequently be windy at the seafront.

e-gates are thankfully up and running now as there have been issues and massive queues at Faro. I am here currently and no queues at all and used the e-gate so hopefully all good for the summer season now