Beach - Praia Da Rocha is probably the best.

Beach - Praia de Oura (Albufeira) - Have a look at Clube Praia De Oura - recommend it!

Evenings - Old Town Albufeira.

Walking aroung day and night - Albufeira.

I would plump for Albufeira but I would look for an apartment/hotel nearer the beach. Have a look at the Recife - only been for a drink though - not grand but not far from the beach/town either and they have Happy Hours!

Please take into account, the further you are away from the beach/town, the more you could be paying out for taxis etc so if your accommodation cost say up to £50 more for 1 week, you could easily save that on transport!

Thanks for that Suzie.

My stalling has worked against me. The rates for the Quinta Da Bellavista have either risen and are now showing as Studio only, or in some cases have sold out totally. I'm rather annoyed because I had convinced myself that Albufeira was worth a revisit for the first time in 4 years and I'm back to square one again now....ah well. Plenty of time to keep looking, but I am definitely erring towards Albufeira over Praia Da Rocha at the moment, prices permitting.

If the Recife you mention is the Vila Recife near Old Town, that is £226 for our dates. Not that steep in all honesty, but I would rather be in between both Old and New Towns to be honest.

Will keep you updated. Thanks again.

Yes that is the one. I think it is belongs to the same chain as the Sol e Mar.
Last time, we chose the Rocamar due to the position but the Villa Recife, although hasn't got sea views, is so good for the beach and town. It seemed quite basic but staff were friendly and the drinks were cheap!
Would recommend it if priced accordingly.
That is the area we like - we have visited the Strip a few times but would not rush to go back!
You are lucky, you still have Vegas to look forward to!!

Hi Suzie,

We did opt for Albufeira in the end, and booked the Janelas Do Mar Apartments in Montochero for £180 for the 7 nights. I appreciate they are a bit of a hike from the Old Town and beach but relatively close via a short cut to the Strip. That will do us nicely, reviews seem mainly good across a few sites I've looked at and compared to other website prices which were £300+ I think we have got a bargain. I booked through Lastminute.com, so fingers crossed everything is ok with that.

Roll on September!!!

Ju

Bet you feel relieved now that you have made your decision - no more looking at different sites -you can relax!
Think you have made a good choice - now all you have to do is to look forward to it!

Thanks Suzie.

I think relieved is a good description. After finding that deal at the Quinta the other day and missing out I had set my sights on a return to Albufeira, so to find another great deal coming up a day later made the decision fairly easy to be honest. I'm sure we will get to Praia Da Rocha one day, but apart from the obvious benefits of staying in Albufeira anyway, I do like Vilamoura as well, so we can hop on the bus and take the short journey there at some point during the week also.

Now that flight and hotel is booked, I need to book the transfers and more importantly save. Only 5 weeks this Sunday until we head down for a free Holiday Inn night (thanks Pointbreaks), and then fly out the next day.

Oh, and then just the small issue of saving for Vegas in November as well..........

I love holidays!!!

Thanks again for your input. Much appreciated.

Try looking at Travel Republic for transfers - last time we booked with them and they were cheaper than most even using their codes. Might not be so good this time of the year though. Good luck.
Off the thread I know but we stayed at a Holiday Inn last weekend - what are Pointbreaks?

Hi Suzie,

Yes, I looked at Travel Republic for transfers for both Praia Da Rocha and now Albufeira and they are still the cheapest it seems. The quote I got the other day was £24 for two returns from Faro to our hotel in Albufeira, which I think is excellent value. We have automatically saved £18 already by going with Albufeira over PDR on transfers.....

Pointbreaks? Well if you are a member of the Priority Club with Holiday Inn obviously you are aware you get points for stays which you can then use towards future nights and other perks. Well, if you try and redeem your points for reward nights you get the options of various levels of accommodation for set points, but at the bottom of that list is Pointbreak stays. For just 5,000 points you can choose from a number of hotels throughout the world. These hotels tend to be newly built, although on occasions I have seen established hotels listed as well. Earlier this year I saw the new Holiday Inn Express Lincoln City Centre available (we both love Lincoln) and booked it although we had to cancel in the end (we still got our points refunded). I was looking for a hotel close to Stansted before our holiday to Portugal last week and there was nothing closeby, but I still booked the Holiday Inn Aylesbury which I know is an hour or so from Stansted but it will still be a nice relaxing start to the holiday. Not only that, but you are only normally offered a standard room when booking through Pointbreaks but the Holiday Inn Aylesbury offered a King Bed Suite, so I booked that!!!

Other hotels that were available recently were Holiday Inn Express Epsom Downs, Holiday Inn Aberdeen, Holiday Inn Kenilworth (near Coventry) and the best one Staybridge Suites on the Quayside in Newcastle. Amazingly the Staybridge was available on the Sunday of the August bank holiday.....

There are plenty of European and further afield choices as well including the USA. They update it quite regularly so I always check back. A free night is a free night and for 5,000 points is well doing I think.

HTH, and thanks for the advice re: the Algarve. Glad we have it booked now....

Thanks for that information - how many visits are required to earn 5000 points?
Might join if easily collected but we don't stay in hotels in the UK much.

Tranfers are even cheaper than we paid a few months ago - T Rep are very good, aren't they?

Shame you can't take your sunbeds and parasols with you when you go to Albuferia - bet you wish you could!!!!!
Maybe a couple of lilos would be a good idea - at least it would save you 15 euros a day!