Villa In A Peacefull Place Near A Beach.

We had a wonderful stay at the villa last summer and an all round lovely experience.

The facilities were just as described and everything was as expected, if not better. Perfect for a small group of friends or a family.

The location is ideal, secluded but close enough to the big beaches (a short drive) or just a short walk to the quieter, much smaller beach where you can kayak and swim and do other fun activities. It's also just a short, pleasant walk from the nearest shop for food supplies and a few small bars and restaurants.

Check in was very easy and Fatima was very helpful and accommodating, despite us being very late arriving after complications at the airport.

I would love to visit the villa again for another stay this year if I am able to and could not recommend it enough for anyone looking for a low cost peaceful holiday.

Reply from Fatima

Dear Calum:
Thanks for your Nice review and I am happy you enjoyed your Stay .
Just a quick note,for a low cost holiday better at Low Season.
It was my pleasure to had you and friends at the villa
Looking forward to welcoming you back soon.

Villa is set in a picturesque, quiet location and is equipped with everything you will need. It was great that pool towels were provided as this saves weight in the luggage, pool was fantastic and very welcome in the hot weather. The outside kitchen came in handy in the evening to cook and dine. There were plenty of seating areas around the outside of the villa where you could seek shade if you wanted.The villa was spacious, had beautiful views from the roof terrace and the villa felt very secure. On arrival we met with the owner in a designated meeting spot who then took us to the villa and showed us around and made us feel very welcome. We were able to contact the owner at anytime if we had any questions.

We had a wonderful holiday and the villa is indeed a very peaceful place. All you can hear are the birds and a few dogs barking. It is well equipped in terms of both indoor and outdoor kitchens. It was useful to have both washing machine and dishwasher. It would have been better to have been provided with a few dishwasher tabets and washing machine capsules, as well as a supply of toilet rolls and bin bags as we have received elsewhere. The bags are essential as waste has to be taken a 5 minute walk away to the communal bins. Not a problem really as you couldn't stay here without a car anyway. There is a wall safe for valuables but the villa is behind a sliding, heavy, steel locking gate and is very secure. A small plumbing problem was immediately resolved the next day. There is plenty of storage space in every room and the mattresses are very comfortable.The garden is huge and delightful and it is overall an ideal place to relax, sunbathe and swim. Car access is very tricky down a narrow lane overgrown with a tall hedge on one side and a wall on the other. The hedge scratched our hire car and we were glad we took out extra insurance to cover the €400 damage it caused. We had a large estate car and it was impossible to get in or out without contact with the hedge. There is an excellent barbeque and fully equipped outdoor kitchen. Eight sunloungers and a shaded day bed are more than adequate and a big pile of pool towels is provided. The pool is super - deep enough for adults to dive at one end and big enough for proper exercise. Not safe for small children. There were only 2 comfortable cushioned adjustable upright outdoor garden chairs which was a bit of a problem as there were 4 of us oldies and 2 had to sit on the hard iron garden chairs around the many tables on the property. Seating was another problem indoors for us. There are 2 big lounging sofas, but you have to lie on them, you can't sit. The only other seating is two old and not very comfortable armchairs. Not good for pensioners. The owner connected up the wifi which works well and, if you are clever enough to work out how the satellite TV works with 2 controllers and no written instructions, that works too. The oven was entertaining as it is a calor gas one and not at all modern. Once was enough for us trying to light it with matches and it takes for ever to get hot so timing anything is guesswork. There is a small but adequate freezer section inside a big fridge.The showers in both bathrooms were very good and liquid soap is provided for handwashing, as were plenty of towels in all sizes. It is perhaps worth noting when booking flights that you are very unlikely to be able to get into the villa on arrival until after 5pm. And you are asked to leave at 10am (which was kindly stretched to noon for us). So in effect you lose a day at each end of your holiday. Try for a flight that arrives mid afternoon and a late morning one for departure. There are plenty of big supermarkets nearby (open until 10pm) and a mini market within 5 minutes by car. Lots of restaurants in Carvoeira and one good one within 5 minutes on the adjacent Rochas Brava Estate where there is also a good cafe/bar and mini market. Beaches are nearby but parking is a big problem and be prepared for a long walk from the car. Also, most of the beaches are accessed down steep hills so tricky for those with walking difficulties. We found a couple of great beaches half an hour away that were easily accessible and had parking, but we were early season. We had a great holiday and given what we paid, this is a super villa.

Reply from Fatima

Dear Graham and friends :
Thanks for your review and feedback . I am glad you enjoyed your stay at the villa has it seemed from our chat at your check-out.
Thanks for letting me know some issues ( unfortunattly it is to late to do something for you ) so we can always try to improve however I do need to clear up some of it.

Regarding check-in and check- out times ( I noticed you rated 3 star )
Check in and check-out times are clear on the advert and in all touristic accomodation from Villas Camping, Hotels and others there are rules regarding check-in , check-out times, as villa needs to be cleaned and when there are departures and arrivals same day this rules has to be followed as I did explained you; however you did stay an extra couple of hour more at the departure with no extra charge.
When guests have an early flight arrivals and late departure that was your case so should book extra nights or ask landlord in advance for an early check -in and /or check out with or even without an extra depending in each case.( you wished to stay at villa until 6pm at the departure) ; so I would recomend you and future guests to follow this sugestions.

Regarding dishwasher tablets, washing tablets , toillet rolls and others...
Villa is self catering
However there were a couple of dish washer tablets left, enough toillet rolls for the first day use ,-when for the interim cleaning- that you did not wanted- more toillet rolls would be supplied- as well plastic bags were on the all baskets and a couple of bags were left by the sink and you did not use ; you left all garbish bags -from all holiday- in a really big bag at the end of stay ,garbish should had been taken to the containers

Regarding Hedge
I feel sorry that you had damage in your rented car, but I have never been told about it anyway.
The road it is narrow indeed but wide enough for trucks , caterpillar, vans , jeep, big car.... ;transfer vans pick up and drop off guests often never had problems and other guests driving never complained about it, I have a van myself and never had a scratch too.

Regarding Pool
As far as I am concerned the pool at Villa it is as safe for children as other pools, it has a demarcated area in darker blue tiles from the not so deep area (1,oom deep )to the deeper area , parents should always look at their children and they use the inflatables too, so I do not understand this comment at all, why is this pool not safe for children ?

Confortable / Unconfortable seats

Outdoors
Pool chairs
There are enough pool chairs 9 ( 4 of it very comfortable that can be easily removed anywhre outdoors as it has whells and are very light).
Porche area
There are a bed / sofa to seat or lay down with side table
Hammack
2 armchair with cochins and table
1 puff with back rest

Barbeque area
Table with 6 iron chair with cochins
3 high banches

Rest of outdoor area
2 iron table with 4 iron chair each with cochins

2 double pvc chair
2 individual pvc chair with table

So , it is not possible to have 8 chair or seat all the same everywhere as people are not all together at the same time at the villa,

Indoor
8 wooden chair with cochins at dinning room
2 big sofas where lay down or seat at living room
2 reading single sofas at living room that I has far as I am aware and until now no complain are comfortable enough.

Regarding satelite TV
There are 2 remote indeed , one it is just to open tv and select sat. the other is for the satelite to choose from menu, there are instructions indeed in english and several languages on the shelf under tv ;and on the arrival when I tried to explain you how to work with it I have been told you were not going to watch TV at all, next day when I phoned I tried again to talk about Sat,; I did send several SMS ( as you did not had Whatsapp ) during your stay asking if you needed something and I never got a reply, so it seemed everything was ok .

The stove and oven are indeed gas but the oven is very good , maybe it takes longer to warm up than electric ones but it is warmed it is quicker than the electric, as soon we will change for the new kitchen we will change the oven and stove too for electric.

I feel sorry that I could not do anything about some of this issues but anyway I was not told about any of this during your stay, like regarding the chairs I could had bring 2 extra that were not on use (from another accommodation ) and the Sat that working perfectly .... but you did not wanted to know how to work with it...

Hope to welcome you again and than that communication could improve so while you are on holiday things can be done when possible to improve your stay and that your holiday can be memorable.

The property is lovely, clean and welcoming, Fatima was very helpful and gave us useful tips on places to visit .The pool was kept
clean and Fatima was able to adjust the pool lights so they came on late at night. Lovely lemon tree in the grounds which Fatima was happy for us to use ! The villa was situated out in the country slightly but only a 10 min walk to the lovely village of Rocha Brava, which has a local shop and some great restaurants. The only downside for me was the barking of the local dogs at night ( they are kept outside ) but as we had the fan on to keep us cool ( needed in June as no air-con) we didn't notice it too much - but some might more than us.
Would recommend having a comments book - as this is useful to make notes in for future clients as we visited lots of places and learnt a lot that we would then let others know about. ie: pick up bags of little oranges for a couple of Euro on the road side and use them for fresh orange juice each day ! lovely !
The overall area is a great place to visit for families with children as there are lots of lovely beaches and not too far from the water park. would recommend a visit to Lagos and going on one of the dolphin tours - this was fabulous ! Also the 70tf Schooner day out was amazing for us with Dizzy Dolphins.
The food and drinks are very reasonable and the Portuguese people came across as very friendly.
Overall we all thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Algarve and would definitely recommend it to others and would return if the opportunity arose.

Very nice villa which was very clean and tastefully furnished. It was also very well equipped. Plenty of room for our large family and the outdoor facilities were very impressive.

We had a fantastic stay, beautiful villa and we found everything we needed there or in the local facility. The two closest beaches were lovely and we managed to walk everywhere with 2 young children. If your looking for somewhere quiet with a beach nearby, this is definitely somewhere to visit.