We decided to take our summer vacation down in the Algarve, to follow Portuguese tradition and see what the hype was all about. Ever since we have lived over here everyone has talked about the Algarve region and how beautiful it is. They do it right over here as far as the holidays go and taking time off. August is the holiday month, where most people will take at least two-to-three weeks off of vacation. Keeping to the over-worked, American way we took a long weekend instead to enjoy our "holiday" and it was great. The region is so beautiful and the beaches and water are much softer/bluer than up north where we live. We opted to stay at a Hilton, knowing we would have English speaking staff, and it worked out perfectly. The resort was so family friendly, had daily kid activities, special plastic serving ware at breakfast buffet and the staff was so kind. I was in heaven being there because for the first time living in Portugal, I actually felt like I could have conversations with strangers. There were so many British families staying at the resort and I could listen to and talk to them ALL day long. Their accents are the best and they are such lovely people. Annabelle had an absolute blast playing with kids all day long and actually got to communicate with some of them. Thank goodness.
We were within walking distance from the marina, which was so neat. It was much larger than we expected and lined with a variety of restaurants. Our first night we opted for an Irish Pub, as they had chili cheese nachos on the menu…something I have never seen over here. They were amazing…at the time :) We spent one of our days with the Pintos and their family enjoying the beautiful beaches. They knew of a great beach to go to about 20 minutes outside of the "main beach", so was so glad we got to see more of a locals spot. We spent 4 great days there and wish we could have stayed for more.
Annabelle loving life!!
I love this picture so much because it captures the diversity of the families that were vacationing at the same time. We had a little Spanish boy, Portuguese girl, British boy and AB all playing together, not knowing what the other was saying, but spent a good hour laughing and splashing around together.
First night at the marina. We opted to take our picture in front of the smallest boats…(not really but funny looking at the picture in detail).
The beach that we went to on Saturday was lined with these dunes behind the beach. They probably stretched for miles with beautiful white sand in front and the ocean further down. Almost providing a private backdrop.
The architecture and some of the homes in the area were unreal. I tried to take pictures as we were driving, but didn't get any to do it justice. The region has exploded over the past 15 years and the street systems were not developed to handle the amount of traffic the region now sees. We literally had to drive down all these dirt roads and one way rocky paths to get to our hotel, but found out that the entire place is the same due to the boom.
The marina and a glance of the restaurants and boats lined along the perimeter.
Family selfie on the way to the marina.
Last night.
