Alagoa Mar Hotel

6 readers found this review helpful

Booked last minute on the First Choice website so was allocated on arrival which was a risk but I was most impressed with the Alagoa Mar.
It was halfway between the strip and the beach and there were 2 supermarkets within easy reach of the apartments.
The staff were really friendly and helpful and the pool was really nice.
My only gripe was if you have a room facing the main road the noise from the traffic is really noisy, as the rooms overlook one of the craziest roundabouts I have ever seen.
Although at the same time this feature can provide it's own form of entertainment. Watching how the logic in the Portuguese Highway Code on roundabouts causes quite a few crashes (if your on the roundabout you give way to people waiting to join it), we must have seen about 3 crashes in the week we stayed.
Both the beach and the strip are about 15/20 minutes walk from the hotel but there is a mini train that’s runs through Albufeira round the clock.
Alternatively Taxis are cheap, it was basically a flat 5 Euros to go anywhere in the resort. The strip comes alive at night and there’s a plethora of restaurants to choose from with all tastes being catered for.
Whether it was local dishes, Chinese, Indian, Italian or Bangers and Mash at one of the British Bars. I'll stick my neck on the line and say the Salami Pizza at Lisa's Italian were probably the finest I've ever had!
There are also a range of clubs and disco pubs on the Strip as well.
The nightlife isn't as hectic as somewhere like say Faliraki or Ibiza as Albufeira is more of a family resort and when you hit the strip, a lot of the bars are filled with families until around 11/midnight when there are more adults out.
This was my first trip to Portugal and I'd love to go back again one day, hopefully for two weeks this time, as there so much of Albufeira and the strip I didn't get to see this time round.