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This review of their family holiday in Portugal has been sent in by Jemma who describes herself as a thirty something, who lives in Nottingham, and has been married to Simon for almost 10 years. They have three kids, Oscar who is 5 and Henry and Heidi who are 2. Jemma writes a lovely blog called Twinkles and More and I love it. You should head over and have a read.  Jemma can also been found tweeting @twinklesandmore so why not give her a follow.

When considering a day out with the kids or things to do in a new area, why not try our search function, click here to try it.

Last week we went to Vilamoura, which is in Portugal. We went a couple of years ago for my Dad’s 70th birthday and had a great time, so when decided with my parents where they wanted to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary, Vilamoura seemed like the perfect choice.

We set off on Good Friday, which was the day of my mum and dad’s anniversary. The flight was at 8.30am, so we had an early start. Simon and I were both tired as Oscar had been ill just as we were going to bed the night before, with what appeared to be a tummy bug. Not a great start, but when we woke up on the Friday he seemed fine – phew!

The kids were great on the plane. They all took their favourite comforter and I’d put together little plane good bags for them, which seemed to do the trick. Having done lots of long haul flights, the two-hour flight to Portugal was pretty easy.

 

With us having the children we tend to stop in villas whenever possible. The five of us being crammed into one hotel room for a week is not ideal and a villa gives us the space we need. Plus we find that it generally works out cheaper. We’d chosen a four-bedroomed villa on holidaylettings.co.uk and on arrival we weren’t disappointed. It was lovely and spacious and very well equipped and we also had our own pool. More details of the villa we hired can be found here

 

The main area in Vilamoura is the lovely marina. There’s a really good selections of bars, restaurants and shops. Is also nice to see all the gorgeous boats too. Our villa was only a couple of kms away, so most evenings we’d walk down and get a taxi back.

Photo courtesy of: www.ezportugal.com

 

 

 

 

 

For my mum and dad’s anniversary meal, we’d decided to go to the ZU YI Chinese restaurant which is on the Marina. It’s lovely and contemporary, very child friendly and the food is lovely too. We had a great meal.

Unfortunately the day after we arrived Simon and I were both struck with what must’ve been the bug Oscar had the night before we went away, so we spent a day lazing around recovering. It only seemed to last 24 hours, which was lucky as all the adults seemed to come down with it at some point during the holiday!

Over the weekend the weather was lovely, so we relaxed a little by the pool and we spent most evenings at the Marina having drinks and food.

Another area in Vilamoura, which we love to visit is the Old Village. It isn’t far from the Marina, and although its name suggests otherwise it’s a relatively new area, with a range of villas and apartments, set close to a golf course. In the Old Village there are a handful of bars and restaurants, which are lovely. We particularly like the Princess Restaurant, in fact we liked it so much we ate there twice! There is also a train, which drives around the Village and the Marina. The kids loved this and it’s a great way to travel from the Old Village/Marina if you don’t want to walk.

 

 

 

 

By the Monday, the weather had taken a turn for the worst. It was cooler than it had been, and it rained! On Wednesday it rained so bad that we spent all day at the villa. It was actually really nice just to relax and not be rushing around. We played some games and I even managed to read a couple of books, it was lovely.

 

The last day before we came home the weather improved, so we spent the morning having a long trip on the train, eating a huge breakfast and enjoying ice creams in the sun! The twins still have a nap, just after lunch, so we had a couple of hours relaxing by the pool whilst they slept, it was bliss!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The holiday was lovely and relaxing and although the weather wasn’t great for the whole trip, we still enjoyed it. It was just a shame we never managed to get to the beach.