Parents Weekend Away Part 2!

Hopefully you’ve read Part 1 so you know the reason for the weekend away and a bit of what we got up to on our first day. If not, go take a look by clicking here

Ok, so on to the next day! Breakfast was included in our hotel stay, so in the morning we went down to the restaurant area and was greeted by friendly staff and (again) beautiful weather and scene setting Mediterranean sounding music. Perfection! Lovely holiday feel!  I wish I could have breakfast like this every morning!

After breakfast we headed to the beach. The sand was already really hot, but didn’t quit burn your feet yet! That came early afternoon! Hot hot HOT!  We stayed and relaxed there for a couple of hours. It was packed full of people! It os a very popular tourist area. I’m a people watcher so I had a great time! Haha As it was so hot we cooled off by going in to sea every now and then. With it being the Atlantic Ocean, it was FREEZING! So so cold. My husband was braver than I was and went fully in….I just went in up to my knees!

We then went for a little wander around the town and made our way to the marina where we had booked on to a boat trip to see some caves! The marina was so fun and colourful!

My husband booked us on the boat trip before we left, to make sure we were able to do it. So glad he did! We LOVED every minute of it! The only thing we were disappointed by was that we didn’t get to go inside Benagil Cave. We went up very close to all the caves, but sadly didn’t get to go inside any of them. When we go again we’ll be making sure we go on a boat tour that does take you inside.

That being said….it was still great!! We went with a company called Algar Experience. The staff were great! We learnt a lot and we had a lot of fun! One of the things we learnt is that the Algarve area was originally Arabic, until the King of Portugal decided he wanted it and kicked them out. I never knew that! Anyway, the coastline and the caves were stunning! Absolutely beautiful! The tour took just over 3 hours and when it got to the Benagil Cave they let you get out and swim for a bit around the boat. They were very strict with how far away you went from the boat. We both jumped in to the FREEZING ocean, and swam for a few minutes before joining the party on the boat again. Had to be done, no matter how ice cold it was!

 

After the boat tour we headed back to the hotel and got ready to go for dinner. We found restaurants quite amusing. There is always someone hanging around outside trying to get you to go in and eat. They’ll spark up conversation with you and try to entice you to eat at their restaurant. Some are better at it than others! We had lots of good food there. On this night we actually ate at a Mexican restaurant right by the beach. It was DELICIOUS! We also had a really good Jambalaya the previous night. The major thing we noticed with restaurants over there compared to England is that they are a lot more relaxed, chilled and slower paced than we are in the UK.

After dinner we went and chilled on the beach and watched the sunset and then wandered around the shops and got some presents for the kids and enjoyed some of the street entertainment.

…part 3 (and final part) will be coming soon! Will we recommend visit Albufeira??

Have you ever been to Albufeira? What did you think of it? Let us know in the comments!