T1 Alvor Férias, Piscina e Praia!

The staff are really nice, and the pool itself is good, but getting a sunlounger means being there right at 9am. Otherwise, you probably won’t get one that day. The rooms are fairly big and basic, though the bed feels like sleeping on a concrete floor. Fresh towels only come after the first week, so bring extras if your stay is a week. The apartment also isn’t cleaned until after that first week. The restaurant is overpriced. We paid 48 euro for two lasagnes, two drinks, and three portions of fries. The fries arrived well before the lasagne, which came 15 minutes later and was stone cold in the middle in both dishes. The lasagnes seemed to have been frozen before cooking, and the pizza did too.

The toilet had a sickening smell, and the black plastic covering on the balcony railings was unsightly and coming loose, making the place look run down. We got no room service during the whole week. There were only two towels, and they weren’t changed despite my asking reception. They said they’d bring two clean ones that day, but it didn’t happen.

There are a couple of supermarkets nearby, and the apartment is quite close to the gorgeous beaches of Portemao, with an easy drive to Lagos. It comes with a kitchen and everything needed to live there, though it’s a little oldish but perfectly usable. There are two swimming pools and enough room for all the guests.

There’s a good pool, though it could use more sunbeds. The rooms have the amenities you need, including WiFi and laundry, and there’s a supermarket five minutes away and beaches 15 minutes away. It was clean and tidy, if a little dated.