I had booked a villa through Villaplus.com + car then booked the flights myself with tomsonfly.
We stayed in Sao Rafael just behind the Hotel Maritim, the location was perfect and we were really pleased with the standard of the villa, i would highly reccomend this company for villas.
Sao Rafael was peaceful and beautiful the views to the beaches where really lovely, When we arrived on the Thursday the kids jumped into the pool and stayed there for 3 hours. We walked down the nearest beach and restuarant and had a lovely meal. Friday we stayed at the pool all day
and went to the Dom Dinis for our evening meal, we sat outside, the service and food was alot more than what we thought it would be, i had chicked piri piri, mmmm.
Saturday morning we were up at 7am with a big thunder storm and it rained most of the day, we went to Albufeira and and didnt like it very much, but i knew this before we went that this wasnt the place for us ( this was from reading on here), to me is was a little like Blackpool (sorry), so we carried on to Vilamora, though we were stuck in traffic for 2 hours, the portugese were driving home from their holidays that day so we were told later and the traffic was bad.
Vilamora's marina was nice even though it was raining, we walked around and bought a few things then headed back home along the A22 about 5pm, which was traffic free.
Sunday we went to Scoobys pool bar for the hubby to watch the grand prix, the kids and me went to play golf and then swam at the pool there this is a deep pool 6 ft, it was really friendly and the food was nice and british!
Monday we went to Zoomarine, this is a must a good day out, i loved the entertainers who greet you at the entrance and entertain you before each show. We saw everything the dolphins, sealions etc...
We also went to Algarve shopping centre and did a big shop here we found it cheaper than going every morning to Tommys around the corner.
We ate at Sao Domingos wow this was also nice and the service very good.
Tuesday we got up early to walk to Gale beach for the water sports, on the free maps there is a track to walk it ha ha, well those of you who are familier with the area will no this cant be done, even though the views were fantastic on top of the cliffs it was a little dangerous
We ended up coming out by the hotel Grande, the hubby went for the car and we drove there which is a good 15 mins
that night we ate in a resturant next door to Tommys dont remember what it was called the food here was also nice.Wednesday we headed back to Gale beach early to get a parking space, and we were the first on the jetskis and the pedalos! this was great fun.
we left about noon as the man came and asked me for 30 euros for the sun beds so we went 
We then went back to Scoobys for a full english for lunch
Our last night we were going to go to O Marinheiro, but we didnt like the look of it and went to the Dom Dinis again and got a lovely welcome, again the food was lovely.
We really enjoyed our holiday in Portugal , I think it is the best food we have had in any holiday we have been too, and that is saying something we are quite picky eaters. We also loved the portugese people they are really friendly.
Ali
