Albufeira Town & Marina holiday house: Albufeira

Beautiful spacious property located on a modern, clean and well maintained complex with a lovely pool. The house is well equipped for a self catering holiday with a built in barbecue on the patio. There is a small shop a couple of minutes walk, a very friendly family run restaurant (Cocheira) with a fantastic wine selection five minutes walk away and a well equipped supermarket further down the road.

The location itself is a little bit further than a 15/20 min walk to beaches, the Old Town etc. There are roadworks on the main road into the Old Town and it is not a pleasant walk and took us about 25 mins plus, just to reach the Old Town (the beach is further away than that). There is no proper footpath; it is quite scary especially in the dark. We walked from the marina one day and it took us 1hr 15 mins. Although it states a car is not necessary, unless you like walking, particularly in very hot weather, then I would recommend a car. There is a bus service which runs every half an hour but they have taken the nearest bus stop away because of the roadworks. The bus stop is a good 10 min walk. We were told that the works taking place were to provide a wider road, and also a pedestrian "walkway" with seating etc which would lead into the Old Town - I'm sure it will look very nice when it's finished.

The owners are very friendly. We had a couple of issues which they did respond to straight away - apart from an outdoor light which hadn't been fixed by the end of our hol! I did suggest that they got some fans as it was unbearably hot at night (Ana Marie did think this might be a good idea).

It's an ideal base with home from home comforts (oh apart from no kettle). We just found it a little too far out for our liking. Had we have been able to hire a car (there was a shortage when we went), then we might have thought differently as we weren't able to get out and about as much as we would have liked and there is really nothing within the immediate vicinity other than I've already mentioned.

The Old Town itself is a cosmopolitan, vibrant place with restaurants to cater for every taste. "Shalom" is well worth visiting and the pancakes - savoury and sweet are scrumptious. Would also recommend parasailing and dolphin spotting from the Marina - brilliant!

All in all we had a great time, with fantastic weather and very friendly people.