Well, have to say, Good Holiday!
Great weather with a nice sea breeze, friendly locals & a nice area.
Sea wasn't as cold as we expected & seemed clean. Thought Marinha best local beach & Armado on the West coast best overall, great surf.
Enjoyed the Festa weekend before last, good atmosphere & music followed by brilliant fireworks.
Just hope the area isn't spoilt by over development.
Somewhat confused by the water shortages we had been reading about on this forum, expected limitations & possibly periods of non supply.
Found no mention of it at villa, Gardener watered garden with sprinklers daily as did all neighbours, one neighbour washed his car 3 times to my knowledge! You have to wonder where it is all coming from, there surely can't be an unlimited supply !!
All in all a great place for a relaxing holiday, thanks to those who answered my earlier posts before arriving.

Welcome back and pleased you enjoyed it.

We were without water twice I think in April for just a couple of hours at a time. It didn't stop the pool boy coming in and cleaning and refilling the pool, nor did it stop the gardener watering his plants

Glad you had a nice time ididntdoit. We knew you would

I think they have decided to hold off the water rationing until after the tourist season is over. Then we have to pray for LOADS of rain otherwise...

i only hope that algarve have one of the worst wet winters for the last years, i can't even imagine how next summer will be if doesn't rain this winter

we to have just returned & had a nice holiday but, not sure i would return as found everything to be on the xpensive side, especially the restaurants in CVO

liked
the beaches although water was to cold for my liking
waterparks
Zoomarine
entertainment in the village square
Sagres
seafood rice
the small church made up of human limb bones & sculls

Disliked

the beer
the prices
the noise from the bar underneath our appartment in the early hours of the morning
getting ripped of by by a riding school advertised in free map , 30 Euros each for a halfdays riding through lovelly countryside ( not ) turned out to be half hour sitting on a horse in a paddock at the back of a riding school with the owners taking the piss out of my wife.
Auo jardin car rental trying to charge me twice for rental & being really unhelpful, then ripping me off when I extended the rental.
also be warned that taking out the damage waiver insurance in britain as it does nt count & you have to take out there damage waiver or pay for any damage.

That waiver thing was what caught us out. UK regs are different to the Italian ones. We thought we were properly covered. be very careful.

Disliked

the beer
the prices
the noise from the bar underneath our appartment in the early hours of the morning
getting ripped of by by a riding school advertised in free map , 30 Euros each for a halfdays riding through lovelly countryside ( not ) turned out to be half hour sitting on a horse in a paddock at the back of a riding school with the owners taking the piss out of my wife.
Auo jardin car rental trying to charge me twice for rental & being really unhelpful, then ripping me off when I extended the rental.
also be warned that taking out the damage waiver insurance in britain as it does nt count & you have to take out there damage waiver or pay for any damage.[/quote]


you make it sound that carvoeiro's in spain, every place got it's good and bad, i enjoy carvoeiro every time i go there, probably because i tend to stay out of tourists atractions and do what the locals do

Which Horse riding establishment...?? I intend to take my Kids....but would like to know which one not to go to.......Also where is the Church ???..never heard of that..

We returned from Carvoeiro early Monday morning after a great holiday - staying in the Rocha Brava complex.

Weather fantastic, apartment great.

Did not think we got ripped off with prices in bars and restaurants - when it becomes as expensive as England you may have reason to complain!!

More ripped off in the taxi back home from the airport!

Will be back next year for yet another relaxing holiday in the sunshine.

Julie & John,
South Manchester.

Can't say we found sea particualrly cold, not as warm as the Med but not too bad.
Prices in Carvoeiro seemed on par with most other holiday destinations, certainly cheaper than our first week in Tavira! I expect they go down in winter though!
My beer was OK, as long as it's cold I don't often complain.
Stayed in a 3 bedroomed villa to the East side of Monte Carvoeiro development & it was nice & quiet, over the years have learnt that if you don't like noise at night to avoid most apartment complexes!
We used Autorent for car hire, only problems were being supplied with a Corsa when we expected an Astra or similar (somewhat cramped with luggage) & picking up a car in the dark at airport & finding it came with a nail / slow puncture in front wheel!
Had puncture mended in tyre centre for amazing 5 Euros.
Only thing we really thought was expensive was the boat trip from Carvoeiro to visit caves, 60 Euro's for 2 adults & 2 kids seemed a bit over the top for 50 minutes in a fishing boat.

I also found it more expensive this year, i havnt been in August for about 6/7 years so maybe the prices do go up in the summer months, i normally go in April or May and havent noticed the high prices then.
Just as an example for a large beer and vodka & coke (Not smirnoff but house vodka) in Flic Flac it was 8 Euros which is still cheaper than some London pubs but i know you can get it cheaper in Witherspoon pubs in my area.

I live in Carvoeiro and noticed that during July and August the prices went up considerably. I paid €9 for 3 cokes in one bar (I won't name names as they are probably all doing it). I paid €6.50 (or near enough) for a small bottle of HP sauce in a small shop and in another place I paid almost €10 for 3 cokes and 2 bags of crisps. This is considerably more than I had been paying. (must be at least double).

The supermarkets also put their prices up, including some of the ones out of town.

If these establishments put prices up so much during tourist season how do they expect to get tourists to come back? I am barely buying anything in Carvoeiro. I will wait until someone confirms the prices have come back down. Although I have to say that the place that charged my €10 euros for the coke and crips did charge me €2 for 2 cokes the other day, so maybe prices are back to normal.