[Kerr]

Heading out here late next week. Never been there or to Portugal before.

Any advice on where to go and what to do?

It's only me and the girl, so for the week it will probably be a fair amount of drinking and stuffing our faces.

Need to find a nice Scottish/Irish bar for the Rangers v Celtic game next Sunday. Anyone know a good one on the green side of the fence?

What about money in these places? Better to take all Euros, or do you get a good exchange for English notes over there or a better rate from the cash machines etc?

[Bungle009]

There is a very nice steak house called Wild & Co, at the bottom of the strip. The strip is the noisy part of town where the stag & hen nights tend to gravitate towards. The old town is much nicer and has been recently remodelled, and is very pleasant. The old town is much nicer, but I guess it depends what you are after.
I would take Euros with you. Exchange rate is pants however you change your money.

[- Paul -]

I'm going there myself soon also.

[Kerr]

It's been 30 degrees during the day every day since Friday.

Poolside with a beer at my side now.

Had to buy a bigger darker pair of perving sunglasses.

The strip is not anywhere near as busy or outrageous as I had been lead to believe. Although it's not our summertime I was lead to believe this was busy season here. Certainly not people out and about. Some bars are empty and walking down the strip not so long ago, some did not open this afternoon.

Prices and quality of food have been ok. Braved an Indian last night in the Old Town. It was enjoyable but was nothing like any Indian I've had before in my life.

Drink prices vary wildly. A large beer of their beer which is perfectly good can range from $1.50-€5 depending where you go. Cost seems to have no bearing on the quality of place or lager.

Some of the live music has been good but some of the bars seem to have the most useless musicians I've ever heard.

Anyways, back to sunbathing, dipping in the pool and drinking cheap lager. Sorry guys.

[mowflow]

Bit of a long shot as it's been about 7 years since I was last in Albuferia. Look for a group called Super Funk 4. It's a cheesey name but they are better than most of the bands i've seen filling places like the barrowlands. They used to play upstairs in a bar near the far end of the strip. There name doesn't make sense because there's only 2 of them, supposedly the other 2 got sick of partying and went home

[willhollin]

Try Pizzeria Fratelli in Olhos de Agua if you like Italian.

[- Paul -]

Looking forward to it - hope the weather stays good.

[Kerr]

Originally Posted by - Paul -

Looking forward to it - hope the weather stays good.

Weather is really good.

100% sun from morning to night but then it gets cool and you can wear proper clothes. Get the demims and shirts packed too. The lady might what a top for when the wind kicks up.

After all my slagging Michael Jackson played tonight.

In reality a total freak show where the guy looked, danced and tried to sound so much like the pedo it was actually awkward.

Elvis is playing tomorrow night and I thought he was dead too?

Off to Auqamarine which hopefully will be good.

Town was a bit busier tonight but was offered free shots to go into bars tonight to drum up custom.

Told by a long serving employee that the 16-19th of each month always dies off due to people coming and going.

[- Paul -]

You ventured out of the area at all? (Trips etc) - We've got a hire car so want to do a bit of touring.

[Kerr]

The driving standard is awful here. Nobody seems to know who has right of way.

The amount of cars with damage is alarming. I'd make sure you are properly insured!

Not that many nice cars either which I'm surprised by.

Sitting in ZooMarine just waiting on the bus home. It was a good day out and kids will love it.

Enough to make it last most of a day. Good dolphin show by anyone's standards.

I was a bit nervous about the high diver though. 26M climbing up that tower took some bottle.

Done the sightseeing bus tour the other day. It was ok, but the prerecorded guide and music was poor. Really never covered much.

The water park on the way here looked good but was a fair distance back. You would need a car as there does not seem to be shuttle buses running.

Not seen the go-karts as yet and apart from that it's scooter hire and offroad treks advertised everywhere.

[Kerr]

Must say that my illusion about The Algarve and Albuferia were unfounded. I thought it was going to be a little more classy than your usual Spanish resort, but sadly not.

With the odd exception the food was sub-standard. Wild&Co was about the best as recommended. The entire strip had the same menus selling the same thing with the same specials of peppered steak and chicken piri-piri every night.

Most bars after dark were about 5euro a drink. Bearing in mind a bottle of Vodka is only 5euro it's hard to justify. Take into account you are drinking in a concrete shed with no facilities then it's taking the p*ss.

Clean toilets are rare. Toilets with paper, soap, water and a dryer must be <5%.

If it does have paper the chances are you are not to flush it. Bin provided.

English Football non stop. Honestly first to last every single day in every bar/cafe/club etc.

Elvis/MJ touring all the pubs everynight.

A few good bands in Wild&Co double up to do acoustic set at Libertos. Other than those two nothing else the length of the strip I found worth visiting.

Replace Benidorm/Magaluf on the t-Shirts and penis-shaped bottle openers and you have covered most of the shopping.

It's such a one dimensional place. No variety at all. After a couple of days you have covered all that it has to offer.

The Old Town was better, but not by much.

I'm bored to tears with all these holiday resorts. They are all the same. In fact I'd put Albuferia below Salou and even Sunny Beach in Bulgaria.

At least Sunny Beach was cheap and you were not getting shafted. You accepted shortcomings as it was cheap.

In the UK we would not pay 5euro a drink, be happy to pay good money to eat poor food and there is certainly no chance we would accept faclilites as poor.

Think next time it's either back to Florida or a city in Europe.

[willhollin]

I agree Kerr, if it wasn't for the fact that we stayed all inclusive and the hotel facilities had enough to keep us occupied for a week we would never go back.

Looking at Florida myself.

Enjoy you holiday Paul!

[- Paul -]

Hence why we have a car! TBH though - if there's a pool (which there is) or there's a beach (which there is) - kids will be happy = us happy.

I was under no illusions when I booked - that was the main reason I booked out of the area.

[Kerr]

There is quite a few attractions that will delight the kids.

Zoomarine and the swimming parks spring to mind but you would need a car to cover the distances unless you wanted to sit on a bus for ages.

We went to relax and enjoy good nights out but it really did not match what I expected.

The beach is nice so no issues there.

Speaking to the guy in Erin's Isle he said there was only 2 weeks of the season to go and his bar and many others just close until next year.

Not sure how much of the town shuts up shop but he made it sound like most.