Vilamoura, the debrief

 

Despite, having travelled extensively in my life, I had never been to Portugal, it just never really appealed to me. Last year I booked to go to Portugal for my 60th birthday and cancelled it nearly at the last minute and booked to go to Mijas ( and look how that turned out).

So when I found this holiday over Christmas I thought that I might as well give it a go.

So firstly, I booked to go to one  apart/hotel which was made up of 3 separate 'apart/hotels' ( I didn't know this at the time), I was not in the one that I booked, although they were all interlinked.

The apartment was great, it was very large with a large balcony, the bathroom had a bath as well as a shower, which gets top marks in my books. The kitchen was fully equipped and the dining area was large.

However I was on the 2nd floor of a block with no lift, also well away from the main hotel and with poor lighting at night.

The hotel bar was widely used by locals, which could be a little daunting going in on my own for a drink. The English restaurant round the corner was not bar, just a restaurant, but they kindly allowed me to go for a just for a drink, I did usually eat there and the food was exceptional.

The weather was very good and it was lovely to be sunbathing on Christmas day, even a couple of days of rain didn't dampen ( no pun intended) my exploits', I was out and about no matter the weather.

The hotel provided a mini bus transfer 3 times a day to the Marina, one lady rode it there and back 3 times a day whilst I was there, she never got off, just did a round trip.

By the fish market in Quarteira, I found public toilets, which were a sight to behold. The ladies comprised of two toilets and a room for a lady who kept them tidy, they were spotless and after anyone used the toilet, she went straight in to clean and wash the floor!, clean and fresh smelling, meanwhile landing at Newcastle and nipping for a wee, before my case came round, not as clean and fresh.

The main thing that struck me was how Christmas was celebrated, it was no where near as in your face as the UK. For a a holiday resort the decorations were low key and tasteful. I found this very refreshing after leaving England totally overstimulated by the  obsession with trying to knock out the National Grid with electric lights on  houses. 

So would I go back to Vilamoura, the answer is no.

Nothing wrong with the place, but I just wasn't too struck with it. I would go back to Portugal, ( I am going back to Portugal), but this wasn't the place for me.