Hi delteach,

You should be fine in Albufeira in early November. Although lots of restaurants and bars close in Winter, and particularly in November when the staff/owners take a well-earned rest after the busy season, there will still be a good choice of places to eat in the Old Town. I'm not sure about the new town/Strip area, which you may be slightly nearer to. The supermarkets will all be open, large and small.

Again, I don't know whether the bus timetables change in Winter, but you can probably check this out yourself using an excellent private website run by a member of this forum, Cubsur. I expect he'll be along soon to give you the info you need in a nutshell!

As for things to do, if you could let us know what your interests are we will hopefully be able to make some suggestions?

We love it there out of season, and I'm sure you will too!

Thanks Roseweb good to know it wont be a ghost town , our interests are varied really we like ancient buildings churches etc as well as modern culture water features are a like also falls rivers coves etc . not really into theme parks now we like to explore (or be nosey) thanks again D

Delteach

Within roughly 10 minute walk from Forte do Vale there's 2 large supermarkets at the Watches Roundabout which stock everything (Modelo and Pingo Doce) and there is another smaller supermarket very near the hotel..

As Roseweb says you should be fine in November. Lots of people go out on long stay holidays in November so I am sure there will be enough restaurants bars etc. open to suit you.

We will be staying at that hotel in March and the reviews all seem to be very complimentary.

Hope you enjoy your stay.

Sorry I haven't been back sooner. I've been hoping Cubsur would be along to tell you how easy it is to get to various places by public transport. I'll give him a prod!

The Old Town has some very interesting old buildings and townscape, although the main square and some of the esplanade has now been "modernised", so I think you will enjoy exploring that area and sampling some of the excellent cafes and restaurants. For an overview of some of the cultural sights and sites you could take a look at this website. The towns you might like to visit would be Faro (Old Town) and Tavira to the east and Silves and Lagos to the west.

I would imagine it would be possible to get to all these places by public transport but we really need Cubsur to help on this one. Another alternative would be to use a taxi firm who would take you on a day trip tailored to where you wanted to go or suggest one based on your particular interests. I haven't got any experience of using these, but I've read good reports of Alan Sutton of Owners in Portugal. Read this TA forum post and I think you'll agree that it could be for you.

The beaches are superb all along the coast, ranging from the very long Praia da Falesia with its red cliffs, through the coves and beaches of Albufeira and the typically Algarvian coves starting just beyond the Marina to the long stretch of sand starting at Gale and ending at Armacao de Pera. To see all these have a look here. You can walk along the cliffs or on the beaches, but since the cliff fall tragedy at Maria Luisa we're all a bit more aware of the dangers of walking too close to the edge of the cliffs.