It’s starting to look like this is the year that inhabitants of the British Isles don’t need to head abroad to catch some summer sun, with predictions of some fairly high temperatures this week. Maybe we’ll catch the benefit of a home summer as well as the week we have just enjoyed on the southern coast of Portugal.
We spent the week in the Baia Cristal hotel which sits on a cliff top (a bit back fro the edge – not quite that dramatic) about a mile from the old fishing village of Carvoeiro. It seems to be a quieter location than some of the bigger resorts in the Algarve, which suited us fine. The hotel was great. It was clean, quiet and run by courteous and efficient staff. Its facilities included a couple of outdoor pools surrounded by a grassy area for sun worshippers as well as a small indoor pool and small exercise room. There were ample breakfast and dinner buffets whose quality was reasonable but had a bit of a canteen feel – inevitable I suppose for a buffet-style at a half reasonable price. On Friday evening, the staff donned bright green Hawaiian shirts for the weekly pool side barbecue – complete with after dinner entertainment in the form of a traditional folk dancing troupe.
The town itself – 20 minutes on foot, though the hotel provided a few courtesy coach runs during the day – has managed to retain its character. It’s arranged around a sandy bay, with dazzling white buildings rising on either side and shops and restaurants lining the three streets running from the centre. From the beach you can take a one hour motor boat tour of the caves that sit at the bottom of the seaside cliffs. These are home to various birds and other creatures; some of them hide sandy beaches.
For eating, there is almost an embarrassment of choice, with a range to choose from. We managed to go from a delicious salad lunch, through sushi, Italian food in a little place close to our hotel called the Mona Lisa, and one restaurant we visited on two occasions – A Rede, on the edge of town – with its magnificent fish of the day.
