My husband & I have just returned home from a week at Vale DeCarros with our 2 year old daughter.

The appartment ended up ok. After our 2.5 hour wait we were finally shown to our studio. We hauled out suitcase, buggie & 2 yr old up a spiring staircase in the mid day heat to find the boiling box room stuffed with 2 single beds a very old & broken travel cot, a worktop with 2 rings & a sink over a fridge. We looked into the bathroom and there was only a shower, no bath. How were we supposed to wash our toddler? We could not stay there so my husband paid for an upgrade to a 1 bedroom apartment. This was much more spacious and was on the ground floor. It was mopped twice during the week and the sheets were changed once, the day before we went home. I bought cleaning products & cleaned daily myself. We also resorted to pinching clean towels from the cleaners trolly as she did her rounds as we never had our towels changed and you had to PAY for clean towels, something I refused to do!

We had to pay to hire the toaster, hairdryer & safe key... We had to pay for extra butter for our toast, for sauce and vinegar. At one point we were expecting an electricity bill at the end of the week?!!! Ha!

The staff were efficient but we often felt like we were putting them out of there way, especially during the day at the bar (the dark haired girl) and at reception (the blonde lady).

The poolside bar served good basic food to be fair. Plain snacks such as burgers, toasties, hot dogs, salads, pizzas. Very reasonable also.

The family entertainment did not start until 9.45pm by which time our daughter was in bed so there was absolutely nothing for her to do. The 'kids club' opened 1 day which consisted of me colouring a picture with my daughter while we listened to the leader try to speak English badly. I would not have left my daughter there on her own.

The weather was beautiful & Portugal is a beautiful country. We will go back but not to Vale de Carros.

just back from a week at vale de carros, the studios are basic but clean only 2 ring hot plate if you want to cook we managed to cook what we wanted on them you can hire toasters etc but you can buy toast butter and jam from the bar or any bar for about 1 euro. supermarket very near and another one just a bit further away we found the one at the top of the road turn right the cheapest. it has 2 pools the top one is less noisy, the sunbeds are very hard if you like lying on sunbeds i would take a lilo to make it more comfortable the prices for them near by where about 17 euros, there are about 10 places to eat near by i belive the food at the bar was nice and good prices about 5 euros, vale de carros is nowhere near the strip 10 euros each way in taxi or the old town 12 euros each way in taxi, you can walk to the beach about 20 to 30 mins walk but there is a courtesy bus that you can book the day before, we enjoyed our week we would not have wanted 2 weeks to far away from old town but we new that before we went we only paid 200 pounds for 2 people for a week incl flights so very happy. don't use resort hopper very bad transfare waited 90 mins on bus before we started of then they were 30 mins late on return only just made the flight.

Stayed here for 4 days and ended up loving it. We were disappointed on arrival though as I had e-mailed beforehand to ask for a studio round the quiet pool and ended up next to reception but got used to it and watched the comings and goings from our balcony. Had a problem with the hot plate in that it blew all the sockets when first plugged in for a hot drink for breakfast first morning so ended up with cold water to drink ( a bit early for wine)! Reported this to Reception on our way to Falesia Beach, which incidentally was a very pleasant walk, and on our return a brand new one was installed! Found the apts to be well maintained and very clean and very charming, lovely old style set in very spacious well kept gardens. Excellent value for money. The only drawback were the sunbeds, did not like the fact they were screwed down and so close to each other, I like my own space, and there were not enough to go round either. Ended up lying on the grass which was not a hardship as bought an inflatable, ok for a few days but wouldn't like to do that for a whole fortnight. The weather was amazing better than when we were in Alvor early Sept. Loads of restaurants near by, ate at a local Portugeuese one and the Italian farther up the road on the way to Olhas and both were good. Walked to Olhas de Agua 2 nights which was a very pleasant walk, just had to go back to 3 Marias and Fratellis, both excellent as usual. Found the studios to be quite spacious but you really need to have nice weather as not really comfy enough to sit inside. The large terrace was definitely a bonus as sat on the 1 sunbed we had for a couple of hours each day. Got the sun from very early in the morning until mid afternoon which I thought was good for early october. All in all a very enjoyable few days and would return.

Lovely resort and staff, just a shame it is so far out. Would go back if I had a car. The Algarve is a let down though unless you want to watch football, get offered illigal drugs and drink beer all day!