Albufeira Portugal

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Driving in Portugal is no different than driving in North America. The roads are a little narrower and usually in good shape. The roads through the small villages off the beaten track are a different story. The roads are extremely narrow and twisting. The drivers for the most part are not any worse than driving in some of our major North American cities. Montreal comes to mind.

The price of the room includes a buffet breakfast. The buffet is quite large and consists of fresh fruit, breads, pastries, pure juices, scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausages.

The hotel has its own underground parking, which is good because there is very few places to park around the hotel.

The hotel also has a pool on the top floor. It is indoor/outdoor (the pool has a retractable roof). Outside the pool and higher on the roof is a whirlpool. The views from here are magnificent, especially at night. There is also a sauna, a steam bath, and an exercise room. It also has its own restaurant, which serves excellent seafood.

The hotel was a good place to serve as a central location from which we could pursue several easy day trips to the sights around the area, including Lisbon.

The room prices vary by season. We were there in January (low season). Go to the web site to determine the rooms rates for the time you want. You can find it here.

The hotel is definitely four star. The room was large, clean, and well appointed. The bathroom was spotless and shiny with all the amenities, i.e. hair dryer, 120/240v plug for a razor or hair dryer/curler, and a good supply of shampoo, etc.

The room had a queen size bed (almost unheard of in Portugal), a couch, table and two side chairs, as well as a bar fridge and satellite TV.

The service in the hotel was exceptional - everyone was friendly and very very helpful. They even offered to follow me to the airport to drop off my rental car and then drive me back to the hotel.

The stated room price was 140 to 150 Euros per night ($150 to $160 US, $230 to $250 CAD), but we got the room for 80 Euros.

The Metro was only a five minute walk from the hotel. The Metro was a 15 minute ride to downtown Lisbon.

There is no swimming pool, sauna, or whirlpool at this hotel.

The bedroom has two twin beds pushed together. One bed was longer than the other as well as higher, so you can imagine what that was like. The beds were also hard as a rock, which took some getting used to.

The unit had definitely seen better days, and the attention to detail when cleaning was lacking. There were hair/dust balls around the edges of the rooms.

• Unit Type: 1 Bedroom
• Activities: Not Available
• Amenities: Fair
• Unit Satisfaction: Fair
• Family Friendliness: Fair
• Service: Good

I ended up getting a car from a compay called carjet.com. This is a web only based company specializing in Spain and Portugal. One of their companies called All-Inclusive-Car-Hire.com rents cars where the rental price includes all the liabilities.

I rented a car for 18 days at a total cost of 300 Euros. The car comes with a gas tank almost empty and when you return it they expect it will be almost empty. The company representative will meet you at your destination with the car any time of the day or night. The car can be returned any time of day or night. When returning, there are no papers to sign, nothing. You pay up front for the total cost of the rental.

I had no problems whatsoever with the company or the rental car.