We went on a holiday that we haven’t really done before –hotel, with a pool, and a beach. It was a new feeling! Normally, it’s a citytour, or a drive here and there, but this was for one thing – relaxation. I wasgoing away with work for a few months, and we thought we should have a nice familyholiday.
We had looked for a beach holiday and chose Portugal. It wasanother tick, which is one of the first things we look for, and it was a niceprice and that. We went to the Algarve, to Albufeira, well, a beach down theroad from it – Praia da Falesia. It was a hotel called Victoria Sport and Beachhotel. It had a couple of pools, a little park, a kid’s club, and it was nearthe beach. The ‘sport’ bit was it had a full-size running track, and folk gothere to do warm weather training and that. I say full size, it had 4 lanes,but it was defo 400m.
Praia de Falesia
Went to the beach, which was about a 15 min walk away. Hadto go down a load of steps to get to it, but it was quite a big beach, withdeck chairs and parasols in lines, and a nice stretch to the sea. Hired acouple of lounger things, with a parasol. This was a no brainer. It was bloodyboiling, and would only have lasted about 10 mins in the heat!
Kids absolutely loved it. Took some toys down, bucket andspade and that. I took a book, but there was no chance of reading. Can’t relaxand take your eyes off the kids, especially when it comes to our two!! Favouritebit was burying the kids in the sand, and then making Stan laugh so much he wee’dhimself! Can’t even remember what made him laugh!
Kids Pool
Headed back to hotel and had a splash in the kid’s pool. Itwas awesome as it was so quiet! Had it all to ourselves most the time. Just oneother family would come with a baby, otherwise it was all ours! There was thiselephant slide, which I moved so it ended up in the water. Otherwise, it was aweird drop on to a really shallow pool. Next day, another family had moved itback. I moved it when they left!
Big Pool
Round to the big pool, which the kids loved even more. We hadn’t really taken them swimming much this last year, but they were still really confident in the pool, with armbands. Stan asked to have them taken off, and then just sunk! He then asked for them back on, realising what they do! Oh I forgot to mention, this was the first outing for Peppa Pig! Did feel a bit odd getting into a kids pool with a Peppa Pig tattoo.
Kids made friends with other kids which was nice. Wasn’tever overly busy, could always get a lounger and parasol without putting our towelsdown at 0530 or whatever some folk do.
Zoo Marine
One of the days we went to Zoo Marine. A water park/aquariumplace. Some of it was busy, some of it was ok. Went on a few rides, saw somefish and that, saw a pirate show. Kids had a good day.
Had another day at the beach. Went to the same parasol man.Everyone had a lovely day. We did a self-cateringthing, which kept costs down. Had a walk to the shop to buy pasta and fruit andbreakfast stuff. Me and the kids did go down for the breakfast a couple ofdays, which they liked.
Went for pizza down the road one of the days. Was quitecheap. Nice pizza. There wasn’t much to do in the area, but that suited us asall we wanted was a ‘relax’ and a pool and a beach, and that’s what we got.
It was another tick, kids probably enjoyed this more thanother holidays, and we went home happy with a bit of son on our face and asmile too. Will defo go back to Portugal, but probably Porto or Lisbon nexttime.