This week you'll find me well and truly back into the swing of everyday life and missing poolside Portugal life terribly. Last week was spent enjoying sunny, beautiful Portugal in a villa fit for a king.
I think really I was mainly in desperate need of a holiday, having not taken any real time off since Christmas, but going somewhere completely new with a great group of people was just what I needed. Considering we booked it all back in February, it came around really fast and minus a couple of hiccups, it went off without a hitch, I'm already eyeing up where to go for our next one!
We stayed in the most beautiful villa, which might be one of the best places I've stayed, just off from Albufeira Marina with a wonderful view of the harbour. The bedrooms were quite basic but the rest of place was great. It even came with a patio that allowed you to (although you probably shouldn't have) jump from the house into the pool. Having only stayed in villas with family, doing it with friends was definitely much better than had we booked a hotel, it allowed us so much more freedom to do what we want, even if that just meant relaxing or barbecuing - almost every meal we had at the villa might have been a barbecue.
We booked it through Villa Plus, with our flights and cars being done separately because at the time we booked it was cheaper. It was really easy though and they have so many more places to choose from across Spain, Greece and The Algarve so I'm sure they'll be taken into consideration if we do something similar again - I mean all their villas have a ping ping table, so...
The general holiday vibes were just spot on. My one regret (have to get this out there) was our visit to the abysmal Zoo Marine, honestly if you're heading to the Algarve any time soon, don't believe anything you read - it's a shoddy water park and an even worse zoo - only allowing you to see most of the animals through the medium of show. What.
Glad to say I tried the traditional seafood cataplana, not really my thing, the piri-piri chicken I had was much nicer.
Naturally, because I'm me, I have a few more posts coming up, I took a pretty offensive amount of photographs as usual but as I don't mean to overwhelm (but probably will anyway), I figure it's easier to break it down, sharing this snapshot selection first.
Silves Castle was a great way to spend an hour, and for €4, you can't really complain.
Selfies in Silves.
'Wanna dig a hole?'
Favourite room in the villa. ♥
Famous Sir Cliff's Famous Wine.
'Best Viewed From Above'.
I must say that even though it was only Portugal and only for a week, and in a pretty touristy area, this little trip has really inspired me to travel more. I hadn't even realised that, Northern Ireland not included, this was my first time abroad in over a year. It's not that that's a long time but I hadn't even been thinking of going away.
Obrigada, Portugal for igniting this wanderlust in me, refreshing me and getting me ready for whatever the rest of summer has to offer.
