Portugal Holiday Reviews

All beaches are pebbles,excellent restraunts,very friendly people.very clean,beautiful flowers every where,shopping centre is excellent

Great beaches & large choice of places to eat. Plenty of water sports. Busy resort with plenty of choice.

Praia De Falesia is a relatively small, quiet area. Do not come here if you want an exciting, all night long, clubbing experience - you won't get that in Falesia. It is within a 15 minute taxi ride to Albufeira, where there is plenty going on late into the night, if that is what you are looking for. The beach at Faleisia is stunning, albeit reached via a stairway. The sand stretches both ways and you can walk either to a local village one way or millionaires row the other. If you just want to lie on the beach and take an occasional dip in the sea that is just as attractive an option. Just make sure you have access to some shade - hire a covered sun bed or take a sun umbrella. There is a small bar at the top of the stairs selling snacks and cold drinks and numerous vendors trailing up and down the beach with cold boxes selling ice creams and cold drinks. Of the beach Falesia has a small square of shops, bars and restaurants. The Chinese is recommended, good food well served and excellent value. In the middle of the square is a restaurant called Real, also highly recommended - fantastic fish dishes and the Portugese Steak well worth a try. There are a few bars showing sky sports and also with pool tables and darts. In the evening there were some activities in the square for young children, bouncy castle and a small electric bike circuit. There were also a number of souvenir type shops open into the evening. If you want a nice dinner, a few beers and, maybe watch a match, have a game of arrers or browse around the shops, you'll be OK in Falesia. If you want to get down wid de groove - you might want to look elsewhere.

As the resort was so good, we didn't really go out and explore the area, except for two day trips, one to the Slide n Splash, which was an ok water park, and the other to Zoo Marine, which was a very good park. The two highlights of the ZooMarine were the Dolphin Show, which was just beautiful, and the AquaLocos, I was in awe of what they did.

One of our favourite destinations in Portugal. the sun seems to shine all year round, there are plenty of lovely beaches and small kiosks serving ice cool drink to sip whilst basking in the sun. Just fantastic.

Although Balaia is quiet, it's a short taxi ride into Albufeira - about 5 euros for the strip and 7 euros for the old town - or you can go into Vilamoura for 20 euros. The coach transfer is about 40 minutes

We where all inclusive, so we never really left the hotel, other than going to the shop. Beach was good when you finally got there, very steep walk down especially with buggies.

The resort has changed since our last visit 3 years ago there seems to be a lot of hen and stag parites there now. There is plenty to do in the resort and a trip to the old town is a must. There is a train that takes you there but this works out more expensive than going in a taxi, the train is o.k. if you buy a ticket to use all day but otherwise take a taxi.

Good for relaxing. But not much to see or do in the resort itself. A car is essential if you like to get out and about. Albufiera and Vilamoura are short drives away.

The museum is in the center of Lisbon and accessible by metro. There are two buildings. One modern w/ permanent and temporary exhibits that can be challenging to appreciate. The other building has classic very fine antiquities, vases, jewelry, from Old Kingdom Egypt, Mesopotamian, Armenian, India, some Japan and China vases, several fabulous Asian carpets (on the floor), and mostly French paintings (and furniture) up to Monet and Manet. Gainsborough's Little boy blue is there. A wall of Corots. The collection is spotty or focused but the quality is excellent. Cafeteria is OK but has a great glass wall to an outdoor patio. we spent a rewarding 3 hours there to see everything.

Funchal is a typically busy town, but has a lot of attractions and sight seeing to keep most visitors happy. Fantastic taxi service, which is very resonably priced and very good opportunities for eating al fresco, particularly in the old town. Madeira is a beautiful island and must be explored to appreciate it. There are no beaches, but the scenery, both coastal and inland, is stunning. Although funchal is good, exploring is a must. Use the guided tours by minibus, very reasonably priced. Only downside is the depositing of the rubble from the february floods near the harbour. Although this has been compacted, they need to decide what to do to make it tourist friendly - landscape e.g.

This is not a resort for families or young adults. There are no beaches as such and the nightlife is low key which suited us. There was plenty to do in Funchal - huge selection of cafes, restaurants, museums as well as shops, boating and bus trips. Excellent transport links to other parts of the island and opportunities to take a boat trip to see whales and dolphins. We enjoyed walking along the promenade at different times of the day and watching the cruise ships coming and going.

There are lots of British bars and restaurants in Albufeira, which is great if you are travelling with young children as there is a lot of choice for them. The beach is lovely, but being the Atlantic it is that bit rougher and colder than Med destinations so you need to take care. But all in all it is a nice place and we would return.

Just a short taxi trip from all the nightlife you could want , great day trips to waterparks and zoo marines are a must , great if busy beaches are close too.

The resort has everything including a fantastic beach, huge choice of restaurants and cafes. Plenty of shops supermarkets, everything a young family needs