Villa Help!

[Holidaypanicker]

I’ve been tasked with finding the villa for a family holiday and I’m finding it a bit overwhelming! It is for Lagos in Portugal and I think I’ve read too many horror stories about scam sites to feel confident doing this. Has anyone used a villa company they would recommend in the Algarve? It’s for a range of ages from toddler to grandparents, sleeping 6-8. And ideally walking distance to some restaurants/beach/marina type stuff. Is it unrealistic to have a villa that’s not set miles out of town?
Thank you in advance for any help, I’ve not booked a big family holiday overseas before and I’m finding it quite anxiety inducing!

We stayed in Lagos a long time ago. We had an apartment in a hotel complex which was lovely. It was a three bed apartment, but other smaller ones were available. Would something like this be an option? The kitchen was good, plenty of space and a big balcony. There were 8 of use so spread over 3 apartments ( the three bed was by far the nicest though). It was called the marina club hotel 11. Think it is only the club 11 that has the big apartment. It was maybe a 10 minute walk into to town. But check this since it was a long time ago.

Thank you very much. I’ll check it out!

This is why we ended up in an apartment - villas aren't by the sea / centre of town. Hiring cars and driving everywhere wasn't much of a holiday for us.

Will you be happy staying in the villa the majority of the time? Will you need to use public transport? Are there plenty of taxis? Is someone willing to hire a car and be the designated driver?

We've always used booking . com to rent villas / apartments abroad. If you set the filter for no. of bedrooms etc and choose a property at random & click to see it on the map, it shows you a map of the whole area with all of the other properties available & how much they are. I then clicked through the ones that suited us based on price & location.

Have used Villa plus many times, their website is easy to navigate for what you require.
Edited to add have had many villas within walking distance of shops, restaurants, beach etc. Ww often don’t bother hiring a car in Europe.

Thank you! To be really honest the villa request is coming from older relatives. I genuinely don’t mind where we stay but am trying to see if it’s feasible to get a villa that’s walkable to places as I’ve never been to Portugal before!

Have you ever had an issue with booking.com @CrazyCatMam (great name btw). They cancelled my booking for a hotel at a wedding and it was a total pain so I’ve never trusted them since. Might be a bit of an overreaction 🤣.

I’m happy to hire a car and there’s two willing drivers but we have a toddler so it means carting a car seat over there which I’m less enthused by!

Have definitely stayed in plenty of walkable villas in Portugal, but not in Lagos. Does it have to be there or are you flexible on other places in the algarve?

I’m open to other options, Lagos just seemed a good option as busy but not manic. Albufeira is a no though.

Booking . com are just the facilitators, it's the individual property you have the contract with and most properties are advertised on multiple platforms, not just booking.

I read every review carefully and would never book anything that's new to the website, or only has a few reviews. I only go for properties classed as very good or fabulous. Never had any issues.

Another plus is that since I book all our holidays / weekends away though them I get a significant discount (it's cheaper through the app) and money back in my wallet. Just before Christmas I paid for a weekend break with the money in my wallet!

Always double check the price though, just incase you can find it cheaper somewhere else.

I have booked villas in Greece through booking.com before and it's been fine. Also used jet2villas, that was Croatia though.

Thanks all, this is really useful and feels a lot less daunting than it did.

Yes jet2 are pretty good, also used Expedia although you’ll probably find the same properties listed on booking.com

Ok my comment seems to be hidden so MN obviously doesn’t like a certain travel site - e x p e d i a - 😆
but they’re also pretty good

Am sad we don’t have the laugh react any more. I’ll take a look at the pedia that must not be named, thank you!

😆 you’ll probably find the same properties as listed on booking com but still worth a look and you get points if you use regularly too

Try clever details. Booked in vilamoura through them last year. We had a great villa 10 mins from the port. Great for an evening stroll, karaoke bars if want a bit of fun, but nothing like Albufeira. Ubers are very cheap if you don’t want to drive. We didn’t hire a car.

IME there isn’t much difference between Booking . Com, AirB&B and Vrbo. All three platforms let you filter out properties, and/or see a map view of exactly where properties are at your chosen location. Often a property will appear on more than one platform, and if you can get the name of a property you like it’s worth doing a separate google search as sometimes you can find the property linked to a smaller local agency or the individual owner, although I would prefer to use somewhere where there is a bit of back up in case of problems. You can cross check reviews as well.

It isn’t always the case that villas are in the middle of nowhere, we sometimes find accommodation which is a bit on the outskirts of a resort town but easy enough to walk into the centre. I’m just talking generally here, I haven’t stayed in Lagos, although I’ve visited for the day.
Alvor is another nice place on the Algarve. I agree with PP above that a couple of apartments in the same complex could be another solution.

Simpson travel

https://www.cleverdetails.com/holiday-rentals/listing/all?check_in=&check_out=&type=&price=64%3B1996&capacity=3%3B12&baths=&beds=4&name=Bonito&ref=&sort_price=none

Thanks all. Jet2villas came good! Much appreciated, this thread was a huge help.

I’d recommend Villa plus, their villas usually have pool table/ping pong and we found the customer service really good.

I've used Villa Plus and Solmar Villas, both were very good.