Vilamoura holiday apartment: Vilamoura

Firstly I would like to thank James and his lovely family for the use of your superb apartment.
This holiday was our fifth in Vilamoura in the last three years and by far our most enjoyable.
The apartment is beautifully appointed throughout and very spacious with its two large bedrooms and a large living room that open out on to a superb patio area that leads to the outstanding swimming pool and Jacuzzi.
It is also ideally located for all the regions superb golf courses and the marina with all its fabulous restaurants.
All in all it is a superb base for your holiday being only twenty minutes from Faro airport and with the EN125 running close by you will be able to explore the whole Algarve region easily.

Both myself and my partner stayed at this beautiful apartment from the 12th of January for one week. I could genuinely not believe the standard of the apartment and the complex. There was all the basic necessities ie:dishwasher, cooker, washing machine, microwave and then there were the extras. The entire apartment has piped music in every room (bathrooms included), blackout blinds, huge plasma tv with sky tv, dvd, cctv, intercom and a beautiful marble fireplace, which we lit on the evenings we did not go out - it was just heaven. There is a large veranda area at the front and pool side of the apartment - the latter leading directly out onto the pool. This is a ground floor apartment and the view out towards the pool is beautiful. The pool and garden area consists of decking, shubbery, grass area, Jacuzzi, large pool and baby pool and is immaculate. At night, spotlights light up the entire area and there is even underwater lighting in the pools. The walk into Vilamoura is about 25 minutes and the scenery is lovely. The taxi service is faultless, once phoned, they were outside the apartment within 10 minutes and they cost between 5 and 8 euro depending on the time of night or morning!!! in our case. The Irish Cabin Pub is hopping after 11pm and the bands are excellent. There are loads of bars, cafes, restaurants down on the Marina and it is a great place to relax and watch the world go by. We took a boat trip and it cost 15 euro each for 3 hours (wine included) it was good fun and a great way to see the algarve from the sea. Seemingly in summer they stop off at little beaches and rustle up a bbq etc. We found the Matador pub great for "happy hour" all local drinks were half price and then there was a "cocktail hour" again the same. The quality of the food in the restaurants was unreal and you could eat out for a couple with wine for 20 euro - unbelievable. The whole Marina area is beautiful and of course the yaughts or mini-hotels were stunning - you would really wonder who could afford such luxury. We had an amazing holiday and will definately be returning to this paradise. Before I go, a special thanks to Andre who was our "meet and greet" he gave us loads of little tips about where to eat, drink etc. and is a gentleman. If you get a chance to go to Vilamoura - DO (by the way it is seemingly famous for its golf - we dont play) and if you get a chance to stay in this wonderful apartment DO, it is really 5 star luxury.

We rented the apartment at the end of October and I have to agree with everyone who made comments about the actual place that it is a very spacious and beautiful apartment, however I was very disappointed with it's location. I had been told that a car would not be necessary to stay here and Vilamoura was a 15 minute walk. This was not true. When we did walk, it took us 40 minutes and that was not at a leisurely pace. There were no pavements for the first half so pushing the pram of my 7 week old daughter was hazardous to say the least. We ended up spending an absolute fortune on taxis (around 300 euros) as we had to take 2 taxis (we were 4 adults and 1 car seat) every time we wanted to go out. The one time we tried to ask for a large 7 seater the cab never arrived and we ended up calling an hour later to try and get 2 seperate normal taxis. I was disappointed when James did not reply to my text when I told him our opinion as up until then he had been a great help.

Over all I cannot fault the apartment however I would advise anyone renting it to make sure they hire a car as it IS NOT within walking distance of the marina !!!