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Old 20 Sep 19, 04:58 PM  
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Mobile Some much needed Portuguese Sun- Live Report Complete

The time has finally come for me to start my very own trip report for our holiday to Portugal! After us counting down the days we have finally arrived at Manchester airport ... I have made the decision to attempt a live trip report so fingers crossed it goes okay as I’ll be doing it from my phone!

I did a pre-trip report for our holiday here:
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1144456
If anyone wanted to read that at all

I will do a brief introduction anyways- It is just me , Claudia & my boyfriend, Reuben. We are both in our twenty’s and really looking forward to a relaxing holiday! We are both self employed and tend to do long hours during the week so this holiday is mostly about relaxing and taking it slow.
So without further rambling I will start with a quick post on our pre travel day... I will make this quick as it wasn’t really exciting or anything 😂

We both were working so that took care of the morning and early afternoon, we managed to finish off at 3:30! A nice early finish to get the holiday started. My mum and dad had just come back from a 2 week holiday in Florida that morning so we popped to go and see them for an hour after work for a quick catch up and de-brief about their holiday. It was a flying visit though as we had plans that night to attend a wine,beer and cheese tasting with a group of our friends. The tasting was at 7:30, it was a good night! We tried four different Spanish beers and three wines. I’m not a huge beer lover but Reuben is so this was his favourite part... ok to the wine next, it was great, this was my favourite part! All in all it was a good night, we left around 11 o’clock and headed home to bed. That was the end of our pre- travel day!



On to travel day...
I woke up at about 7:30, I tried to to have a lie in but didn’t succeed. I got up made my self a coffee and sat on the sofa reading several Disney and Orlando brochures my mum has bought back for me! Our flight wasn’t until 4:40 so I had a fair amount of time, we had primarily packed before hand so there wasn’t an awful lot of packing left to do! After reading these I woke reubs up and then got in the shower about 9:30.


Once we were all up and ready I cleaned the house, did the final bits of packing etc. We had promised my grandparents we would go and visit them before we left... at the time we ment like a week or so before our trip. We never managed to fit it in and this was the only available time we had! So about 11:45 we went over to see them, they don’t live far so it only took us about an hour round trip- I had explained we couldn’t stay long due to the flight!

After getting back to the house at about 1 o’clock we grabbed the cases and headed for the airport. Reuben’s parents had very kindly offered to take us to the airport and we left about 20 mins after getting back.

We got to the airport around 1:45, checked our bags in and got through security within about half an hour. We then headed to giraffe for some lunch, we hadn’t actually eaten anything as we’d had a pretty busy morning. I ordered a lemonade and a chicken & tomato linguini and Reuben ordered a beer with a chicken rodeo burger! It came quickly, they were both nice although my pasta was tricky to eat with the small airport knives you get given! We then did a bit of shopping, Reubs bought a watch which he is very happy with and then we grabbed a coffee before boarding!



We were sat in Starbucks when time really started to run away from us😳 I looked at the board and we then realised it was showing ‘gate closing’ with that we got up and almost ran to the gate... we even got a customer announcement to proceed immediately to the gate ... ooops😳

Anyways that’s where I am now up to as we are currently sat on board and Jet2 have just announced we are going to be on the ground for another hour before we are able to take off... in a small uncomfortable seat, surrounded by rowdy guys on a stag party this is not what you want to hear.

I will update the thread when we land or tomorrow morning

Edited at 03:59 PM.
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Old 20 Sep 19, 05:10 PM  
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Wow a busy day with all that visiting. Hope you get off the ground soon. Following along
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Old 20 Sep 19, 05:20 PM  
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Originally Posted by Disney Bear View Post
Wow a busy day with all that visiting. Hope you get off the ground soon. Following along
It has been! Looking forward to getting there now hopefully we can take off soon😳
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Old 21 Sep 19, 08:12 AM  
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The rest of travel day... We finally took off around 6pm with a flight time of an two and a half hours. It wasn’t a bad flight at all, we had some Prosecco and some crisps and it was pretty much time to land. Once we landed we got in to the terminal within 20 mins, I’ve never ever been somewhere with SUCH quick baggage claim! We were through immigration if 5 mins and our bags where off waiting for us already. We thought we were doing very well on making up for lost time at this point. The plan had been to pick up the car and drive down to Alvor, where we are staying, check in and head out for a bite to eat In Al Dente. This is Reuben’s favourite place in the world so he had been looking forward to it for a long time ! After we had collecting our bags we headed to the rent a car area... not realising there is two and the other one is miles away😕 que a small argument as I said I told you so... about 15 mins later dragging a very heavy suitcase we were at the rent a car desk and got given our little fiat punto. It’s small but practical and nice enough, we both drive automatics at home so a manual was tough to get used to for reubs (ideally I won’t be doing any driving lol). I will photo the car at some point later lol.



After this de-tour it was about 9:15pm. Not too bad but with an hours drive to Alvor we knew we wouldn’t make it to the restaurant in time for it’s 10pm close. We then decided to visit Continente, this supermarket is great I would liken it to target! We picked up a few bits for our apartment and a pizza for dinner. We were on our way by 9:45 and we headed to Alvor. By this time we were both getting tired and a bit snappy 😳 So when I told Reubs to turn right and take the turning to Spain... again que another argument... oops. In the end the wrong turn only set us back about 10 mins! By 11pm we had arrived at Luna Alvor Bay our hotel for the next week. The hotel is good, simple but comfortable and has what we need! We have a studio apartment with a sea view which is wonderful. We popped a pizza in the oven... realising they don’t supply oven gloves, tea towels, trays etc etc. It does seem however the kitchen was equipped with everything else you could ever have in a kitchen- except what we needed 😂 We managed to get there in the end, pizza was good and much needed. By this point it was midnight and we were both tired! We unpacked and headed off to bed.


And that is the end to our travel day, not the best- but I know it could’ve been worse! We have now decided we will be opting for morning flights where possible though! On to a day of beaches and shopping today 😃 And a picture of this mornings view...

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Old 22 Sep 19, 08:52 AM  
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Sounds great despite the hiccups! Looking forward to reading more.
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Old 22 Sep 19, 08:56 AM  
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Our first day has been over all pretty good! We woke up about 8am got showered etc and headed down to Alvor beach for a wander, our hotel is perfectly situated for this and it only took us a couple of minutes to reach the pier!
We had about an hours walk along the beach, reached the cliffs and explored some caves- it was lovely! On our way back we spotted a jelly fish that had been washed up on the sand, it was the biggest one I’ve ever seen!



We got back to the hotel to wash the sand off etc and then we headed out down to Alvor town. We then got pulled over by a police officer for going the wrong way around the car park😳 oops, luckily he was nice enough and just told us not to do it again ! We walked off as if we’d just been told of in school...
We then got caught in a rain storm and took shelter for a coffee. The plan was to have a wander around Alvor and then get some breakfast. We found a nice little cafe and both had a full English breakfast about midday which was nice!



We then headed to the supermarket again to buy a few supplies and then went to Aqua, a big shopping mall. We had a bit of a mooch around for a few hours, fairly unsuccessful. I got some make up and Reubs got some socks... could’ve done better!

We then returned to the hotel to sit on the balcony with a drink and play some cards! This was going well until I let 5 bottles of beer slide out the fridge...
Reubs insisted we could clear this up ourselves... we could not. We didn’t have any kind of brush or mop or anything. Thanks to a very kind maid we had it sorted in about 10 mins! Another oops of the day... it was becoming a common theme!



After we had gotten this sorted and changed clothes to something less causal we were ready to head out in to Alvor. We were only 5 mins away from our chosen restaurant tonight, Al dente. Firstly we went for a drink in a sports style bar across the road, this turned into a few more as the heavens opened and prevented us from going anywhere. We had to move from our seats outside and sit at the bar. Here we ordered another drink and Reuben made some friends! He played pool against two Portuguese guys and won both times... in result of this they bought him another beer😳 just as we were about to leave! The place was nice enough I had two cocktails, a sex on the beach and a tequila sunrise and Reubs had pints of beer. The pints are only 90 cent a pint so you can’t complain too much at all!

At about 8:30 the rain was lighter and we were able to make a run across to the restaurant. We sat down in the restaurant which was beautiful inside. Our server was lovely and very quick to come over to take our order! I ordered a glass of white wine (€2.85 so cheap lol ) king prawns and a chorizo and chicken pizza. Reuben ordered a beer, honey and goats cheese bruschetta and the same pizza as me. Both where fantastic and it’s safe to say we were stuffed. The bill game to €46 euro, and Reubs has an extra beer. We thought this was great value!





We headed off back to the hotel and were asleep by about 11!
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Old 22 Sep 19, 09:26 AM  
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Great trip report so far. Will be following for more updates. X
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Old 22 Sep 19, 09:49 PM  
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Day two... We had a little bit more of a slow day today. We woke up around 9am, had a coffee on the balcony and then headed off to the beach again for a morning walk! It was much hotter and sunnier than yesterday which made our beach walk that bit nicer! We had about 45 mins on the beach before heading back up to our hotel.



Our plan for the day was to drive into Lagos. Lagos is only half an hours drive from Alvor and it’s very easy to get there. Once we had arrived we found somewhere to park, after taking a few detours in to the very tiny streets we were parked up and heading down to the harbour area. We had a walk along the harbour and stopped for some lunch in Quay which directly overlooked the harbour. It was a lovely restaurant and very busy. We both had a fizzy orange to drink and I ordered a chicken Kiev and Reubs had a burger. They were both fantastic, very huge in particular reubs’ burger - I’ve never seen any burger so thick!



After lunch we had decided to walk up in to the town to find a mini golf course that Reuben had been wanting to do! It was a lovely course situated on a roof garden, it was fairly quiet and we had a great time! We did 18 holes and unfortunately for me I lost! Reubs scored 48 and I scored 54, I was holding a steady lead until hole 10!😡 we had a great time doing this though!



After this we headed back to the car park and drove back to our hotel. We arrived back around 3pm and decided to spend some time in the pool area and sun bathing which was lovely to have some down time! It was 23 degrees and sunny 😎 I listened to a Disneyworld podcast on Spotify and Reubs watched some sport!



We went back up to the hotel room to shower and change and then headed out to Alvor about 5pm. This was the first time we had walked there, it only took about 15/20 mins so not bad at all! We had a look in a few shop windows along the way to the main road with all the restaurants/bars on. It was fairly early when we went out so we went for a drink first, we chose to go to Star tiki bar- most of the bars close by were sports bars and very rowdy and busy so we opted for the quiet option! I only had a coffee and Reubs had a beer. We sat and people watched on the balcony area, it was another great way to relax.

Around 7pm we were starting to get hungry so had a little walk around looking at menus, we decided on an Italian restaurant called pepperino. We sat down and after a long look at the menu... everything looked good it was hard to decide... we ordered. I ordered a buffalo caprese and a sea bass risotto and Reubs had calamari and a calzone with four cheeses, rocket and ham! Both were fantastic. Mine came with two sea bass filets, way too much food! Unfortunately one of the fillets had a lot of bones in it, I left most of this one anyway as the meal was massive and all of it was beautiful! We also ordered wine and beer to go with our meals! Overall we had a lovely meal. They only draw back was the rowdy football crowds in the bars across the road singing chants at one another, this lasted a good 20 mins 😳 thankfully they moved on after that!





We then paid the bill and decided we’d head back to the hotel... we stopped in a few shops along the way and stopped for a ice cream! The ice cream was amazing I opted for Nutella and Reubs opted for after eight mint. We then made our way back to play some cards and have a drink on our balcony.


A slower day today and thankfully no oops moments!
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Old 23 Sep 19, 10:34 PM  
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Day three.. the sunniest of the days! We woke up this morning to bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky! We got up about 9am and got ready to head down to the beach! We took a towel down so we could sit and enjoy the morning sun. The beach was busier today with the weather changing and the waves were huge! They were crashing down so much you couldn’t really go in the sea! We sat on the beach and watched the tide come in... perfect😎



We headed back up to our room to wash the sand off and get ready to drive out to praia de rocha. It took about 10 mins to drive there, not far at all! Eventually we found somewhere to park as it was pretty busy, after faffing with going to get some change to pay for parking we were sorted and we headed in to the main town area. We had a mooch in the shops , I bought a cute little back pack! All the shops over look the sea so it was a lovely walk.



We were heading up to bulli and pupe an Italian restaurant that Reubs had been excited to revisit. Again it was right on the cliff front overlooking the sea. We sat down around 12pm, we kept eating lunch fairly early as we have been skipping breakfast! We both ordered a fresh orange juice and a pizza. I had a smoked ham and rocket pizza and Reuben had an anchovies and olive pizza... he doesn’t like olives so he then spent the whole meal picking them off 😂 It was lovely food and once again we were very full! We then had another drink and a coffee to follow. Once we had finished our meal we had a slow wander back to the car. Our original plan was to visit the beach but it was very very busy so we decided against it. Praia de rocha is much busier than Alvor !



We headed back to the hotel for a sit by the pool and a sun bathe 😊 We ordered a cheeky glass of wine and a beer! We sat and had these on the sun deck by the pool! After having these we had decided to go and try out Alvors adventure golf course. The course was good fun, much harder than yesterday as it was on a hill! I won today with a score of 65 and Reubs a score of 66, very close! Turned out though I had matched the best score for the day! I made it on the leader board



Back to the hotel for about 5pm to change and freshen up before heading down to Alvor town for the evening again! I had a coffee on the balcony before we went out and Reubs had a beer. We walked to Alvor around 6pm. We went to a pirate themed bar called Tortuga tavern, we had a few drinks here - Reubs had two pints of beer and I had a raspberry lemonade to start with and then had a glass of white wine! All four drinks came to €10! We had been scouting out restaurants on our walk to Alvor, the idea had been to go for a tapas meal however our idea of tapas seemed different to the menus we saw! Instead we opted for a steak house, it was fantastic. I had bbq chicken wings to start followed by a 8oz fillet steak with creamed spinach on the side and Reuben had scallops to start and a 11oz ribeye steak with a side of tripple cooked chips! Both were incredible! We also ordered onion rings to share, unfortunately these weren’t great at all- they’d most likely been frozen and put in an oven surprised at this as everything else was first class! This was our most expensive meal at €75 but with two drinks each on top of that we didn’t think it was bad at all! We then decided to get an ice cream and head back to the hotel- we went for the same as yesterday, Nutella and after eight mint! Lovely 😃



We then returned to the hotel where there was live music on in the lounge. We got a final drink here and listened to a guy on a classical guitar- he was great! A lovely end to a lovely day!

Edited at 10:38 PM.
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Old 24 Sep 19, 10:30 PM  
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On to day four! Another early start today! I woke up about 7:30 had half an hour on the dibb before I got up and made some coffee. Did the usual morning routine and we were out by 9am! I was feeling peckish this morning and craving a croissant, we walked to intermarche, the supermarket about 10 mins away from our hotel. Really feeling the heat this morning- the nicest day yet, highs of 27! We each got a chocolate croissant and a bottle of fresh orange to share. It really was fresh orange as you added oranges to a juicer and watched it make your drink for you- it was delicious. We ate this as we made our way down to the beach for our usual walk!


We did our usual walk along the beach, the waves were less frequent than yesterday so I went further in to the Sea feeling brave. I was wearing denim shorts and unfortunately I got soaked by a sneaky wave 😂 Wet denim is the worst lol. Once we had finished on the beach we went up to the hotel room to shower and change. Today we are heading to sagres to ‘the end of the world’. We left the hotel at 11am, the drive was just under an hour.

We arrived at 11:50 am to the fort in sagres, we parked up and walked through the fort walls and purchased two tickets to go past the walls. For both of us it was €6, for the views alone it was worth this and more! We did about an hours walk around the cliffs and took in the views of the sea! All you can see is the ocean, which is why it is called the end of the world as everyone thought the world was flat. We went Inside the tiny watch towers, the little church and up along the walls and saw the cannons etc. We had a great time.



Around 1:45 we decided to go and head for some lunch down in sagres. We found a little beach restaurant called Nortada. It was on the beach entirely and the views where fantastic. I ordered a sprite and a tomato, mozzarella and pesto sandwich and Reubs had a fanta, followed by a beer and a steak sandwich- we also ordered fries to share. Lunch was great the portion size of the chips was crazy for the price, Only costing €23 for all of it! We got the bill and set off driving back to Alvor...



We parked up in the harbour in Alvor around 3:30pm, we had a walk along the front and then we went to grab an ice cream... from the same place as the day before and we got the same flavours, they’re too moorish! We sat and ate these outside of the little market hall in the center of the town. Then on to a little souvenir shopping. We got a photo frame and a hand painted dish for ourselves, a painting of Alvor for Reubs parents, they love it here so much so we are going to get it framed and save it as a Christmas pressie! The first one bought this year! We also picked up a few trinkety bits for reubens cousins! We drove back to the hotel for a chill out in the room and a drink on the balcony before we headed out for dinner. Tonight the plan is to go to Atlantida, this restaurant is situated on the beach about 15 mins along from our hotel, so we plan on heading to the beach for sunset at 7:30! 😊



We went down to the beach for around 7pm- we saw the sun setting on the beach and it was beautiful, we decided to go for a quick drink at the sea deck bar, the drinks here were nice and only €8 for one pint of beer and one wine! However we didn’t get served and ended up going up to the bar to order and later to pay- this isn’t usually the done thing in Portugal so it wasn’t great! We also realised during the course of our drinks the restaurant we had planned on going too is shut on a Tuesday! Instead we headed up to Casa do Rio. This restaurant has a lovely location on its own cliff over looking the harbour. We took a taxi here as it was very windy and a little chilly, it took about 5 mins and cost €4! Very good indeed. Reubs and his family had had many meals here so we were expecting great things, unfortunately it wasn’t great at all. Firstly the service was slow, our drinks took about 15 mins to arrive and at the same time I was told my main I ordered wasn’t available, instead I opted for a prawn curry and Reubs had chosen sirloin steak! We also decide to share a few starters. We ordered a prawn cocktail, cheeey garlic bread and a chorizo type Portuguese sausage. The sausage arrived 10 mins after the other starters and prior to this we thought they’d forgotten it all together, it wasn’t really our thing but that’s personal taste. The garlic bread was fine and prawn cocktail was good. My main was bland and seemed like something you’d buy as a ready meal! Reubs steak was very tough and chewy, chips were frozen food and the salad was average too. Not a great meal for us at all, the service wasn’t great either. We won’t be back!



We walked back to the hotel to watch some tv before bed, both feeling disappointed by our meal!
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