Say no more, Albufeira. The biggest and the best, got every thing you need.

are there any apartments you can recommend would like to be near beach but not that near strip.

Look up Brisa Sol, always gets good reviews. 8 - 10 minutes walk from the old town and beaches and about a mile from the strip! Large supermarket (Modelo) and other shops within 200 yards, opposite McDonalds, KFC etc if that's your thing.

thanks i have seen that one but not sure if its too big we prefer smaller hotels. not into mcdonalds etc on holiday really like to eat out in restaurants traditional food etc. thanks

Hello again, we are going to a small hotel next door but one to the Brisa Sol, it is called the Aparthotel Paladim 4* it gets very good reviews on here and Trip Advisor, that is why we are trying it. It is about half way to the old town and the strip so it is in a good place, food in most restaurants in the Algarve is a lot cheaper than in Greese and Turkey these days and you get plenty of it, and it not covered in sauces to hide the taste, you can still get a beer for round about 2 euros ( local that is ) I will put a review up about the Paladim in a few weeks when we get back, you can find it on the Thomas Cook web site. If you have Google Earth you can see it next to a big super market near watch island, it is about a third of the size of the Brisa Sol.

Dave.

thanks for that . i'll have a look on google earth. yeah i was just reading in paper about it being cheaper than turkey and greece.

Well all I have to say about this place ( Paladim Aparthotel ) is that it should be a 1* not a 4* although the cleaners seem to be cleaning it all the time the place is dirty, the bath room was gruby and the shower curtain was all stuck together and also dirty and most night the water was cold in the shower.
The A C unit was so noisy it could not be used at night, there was bare wires on the patio light and the patio was never cleaned the whole two weeks we were there. We must have been very unlucky as far as sleep goes as we never had a night when there was a group of lads or girls running round at 4 or 5 in the morning, screaming ringing bells and banging about singing very loadly and the managment did little to stop it.
I would never recomend this place to any body we only went there from the reports we got of Trip Advisor and will have think again before we use that site to plan our holidays.
Dave.

Take a look at Casa Mitchell, Mililly. we have had customers stay there and they love the place. Very homely, clean and comfortable.