Hello Earthlings,
So many people had said that Albufeira is beautiful and that I would love it but I was still a bit wary. We booked to come here last September and I've been so excited about it since so I was a little bit nervous, what if I hated it? But as soon as I was on the coach from the airport I knew I would love it. One of my favourite places was definitely the Old Town but I won't go on about that too much as I'm going to dedicate a whole post to the beauty of it.
We stayed at Monica Isabel Beach Club and I can't fault the place, sure some aspects of the room were a bit run down but it was nothing compared to the terrible hotel Jack and I stayed at in Paris so to me, it was luxury. Being all inclusive I obviously took advantage of the food and I have to say the chocolate chip cookies that were available at breakfast were heavenly and I may be turning into one... There was always fresh fruit available and a variety of Portuguese style dishes with some safety dishes such as chicken nuggets. Free rum and orange cannot be missed out as it is wonderful. The hotel itself it split into the main hotel rooms near the restaurant and what not and then further apartments, we were all in apartments that weren't far away from each other or the main building or the beach. Our room was also coloured a warm orange and I personally loved it. I definitely recommend coming to this hotel, walking distance from the strip and Old Town (or a free shuttle bus) and close to sandy shores...I loved it.
My days were full of general relaxing as the past few months have been hectic with exams so it was nice to sit down and do nothing. Although me being me, had several clumsy incidents and as I'm writing this the night before we fly I'm waiting for disinfectant to soak into my foot as I tripped and cut it earlier.
I surprised myself by swimming in the sea, admittedly using my flip flops as floating devices and then advancing onto a rubber ring, major improvement I know. I could've bobbed up and down on my rubber ring for hours as it was so relaxing but then I got sunburn! Admittedly not as bad as Jack and my cousin Jake but my arms and back were caught and turned a lovely shade of ruby and proceeded to sting for a couple of days. My tip there is to reapply sun cream and then if you burn anyway get some aloe vera gel and whack it in the fridge for a bit.
On this holiday I've also managed to tick another task off my bucket list...seeing dolphins swimming in the wild. Jack and I went out on a speedboat to explore caves and look for dolphins. We didn't take our phones and didn't have any money on us to buy pictures of the dolphins we saw but we saw quite a few. It was amazing and definitely something I'll never forget, although I had convinced myself that I wouldn't be sad if we didn't see them because they were wild and I would much rather not see them than see them in cages. So, I definitely got very lucky but I'm so happy. The caves were amazing as well, we managed to get right in some of them and the shores were so sandy with no pebbles or shale or anything like that and the sea was literally turquoise. Basically, the closest thing I've ever seen to it was on Instagram. It really was a fantastic experience and I would definitely recommend it, we paid €35 for 2 hours and it was worth every penny (cent, every cent?).
We also managed to see some football whilst we were out here, Sheffield Wednesday had pre-season friendlies so Dad and Jack were very happy and me and Jake tagged along anyway. I enjoyed it, even if the taxi driver did stop to let us out in the middle of a roundabout.
I loved every minute of my trip to Portugal and we made so many amazing memories that will be laughed about for years to come. There's so much more that I could ramble about but I will end by saying I will definitely be back to explore more of this beautiful country. Thank you very much to my wonderful family and boyfriend for making these past 10 days incredible. I'm also aware that this post has literally been the ramblings of a child excited about Christmas but oh well.
Until next time, Lia x
So many people had said that Albufeira is beautiful and that I would love it but I was still a bit wary. We booked to come here last September and I've been so excited about it since so I was a little bit nervous, what if I hated it? But as soon as I was on the coach from the airport I knew I would love it. One of my favourite places was definitely the Old Town but I won't go on about that too much as I'm going to dedicate a whole post to the beauty of it.
We stayed at Monica Isabel Beach Club and I can't fault the place, sure some aspects of the room were a bit run down but it was nothing compared to the terrible hotel Jack and I stayed at in Paris so to me, it was luxury. Being all inclusive I obviously took advantage of the food and I have to say the chocolate chip cookies that were available at breakfast were heavenly and I may be turning into one... There was always fresh fruit available and a variety of Portuguese style dishes with some safety dishes such as chicken nuggets. Free rum and orange cannot be missed out as it is wonderful. The hotel itself it split into the main hotel rooms near the restaurant and what not and then further apartments, we were all in apartments that weren't far away from each other or the main building or the beach. Our room was also coloured a warm orange and I personally loved it. I definitely recommend coming to this hotel, walking distance from the strip and Old Town (or a free shuttle bus) and close to sandy shores...I loved it.
My days were full of general relaxing as the past few months have been hectic with exams so it was nice to sit down and do nothing. Although me being me, had several clumsy incidents and as I'm writing this the night before we fly I'm waiting for disinfectant to soak into my foot as I tripped and cut it earlier.
I surprised myself by swimming in the sea, admittedly using my flip flops as floating devices and then advancing onto a rubber ring, major improvement I know. I could've bobbed up and down on my rubber ring for hours as it was so relaxing but then I got sunburn! Admittedly not as bad as Jack and my cousin Jake but my arms and back were caught and turned a lovely shade of ruby and proceeded to sting for a couple of days. My tip there is to reapply sun cream and then if you burn anyway get some aloe vera gel and whack it in the fridge for a bit.
On this holiday I've also managed to tick another task off my bucket list...seeing dolphins swimming in the wild. Jack and I went out on a speedboat to explore caves and look for dolphins. We didn't take our phones and didn't have any money on us to buy pictures of the dolphins we saw but we saw quite a few. It was amazing and definitely something I'll never forget, although I had convinced myself that I wouldn't be sad if we didn't see them because they were wild and I would much rather not see them than see them in cages. So, I definitely got very lucky but I'm so happy. The caves were amazing as well, we managed to get right in some of them and the shores were so sandy with no pebbles or shale or anything like that and the sea was literally turquoise. Basically, the closest thing I've ever seen to it was on Instagram. It really was a fantastic experience and I would definitely recommend it, we paid €35 for 2 hours and it was worth every penny (cent, every cent?).
We also managed to see some football whilst we were out here, Sheffield Wednesday had pre-season friendlies so Dad and Jack were very happy and me and Jake tagged along anyway. I enjoyed it, even if the taxi driver did stop to let us out in the middle of a roundabout.
I loved every minute of my trip to Portugal and we made so many amazing memories that will be laughed about for years to come. There's so much more that I could ramble about but I will end by saying I will definitely be back to explore more of this beautiful country. Thank you very much to my wonderful family and boyfriend for making these past 10 days incredible. I'm also aware that this post has literally been the ramblings of a child excited about Christmas but oh well.
Until next time, Lia x
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