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Articles By andrew jones
Golf Club On Tour In Portugal's Central Algarve
By: andrew jones
Golfing haven and child-friendly Algarve luxury
Quinta do Lago - the perfect destination all round.
Six of us have just returned from a ‘boys-only’ central Algarve golfing week based at a ‘Hollywood Hills’-style rental villa, we booked the accommodation through Azure Holidays who have an excellent selection of holidays villas in Quinta Do Lago.
The Quinta do Lago property was awesome; particularly the luxury outdoor lounge and pool areas, and I took full credit for finding it! Sporty Doug was straight into the pool on arrival and somehow I found myself nominated for a local supermarket run whilst the rest of the group settled in for the evening with some beers.
By the time I got back, the electric BBQ – a bit of a beast that was built into one of the exterior walls on the pool terrace – had caught everyone’s eye. After a bit of a battle with five would-be BBQ kings – Pete drew the longest straw and the rest of us were confined to just watching the ‘main man’ in action with the tongs as he tried to persuade us that he really does know when chicken is cooked properly. Surprisingly we all made it through the night.
Stu (known affectionately as ‘admin Annie’) had booked all our green times with military precision and had even printed off a daily schedule for all of us. Little wonder he’s the secretary of the Gold Club back home. He’d pre-booked 4 different courses online to get the best prices and saved us a considerable amount of wedge.
We opened our cards by playing Quinta do Lago South, a course well known for hosting the Portuguese Open. This course definitely favors the longer hitter although you also need a good line. It’s a good course for all standards but sadly none of us made any impression on Colin Montie’s record ‘62’. We hired buggies for Quinta do Lago north and there was much banter as Pete took a double dunking on 13 and 18. Aside from lots of watering holes, this course offers stunning views and some great par-5 holes.
We also played the Ocean course – with its narrow fairways along the cliff top. It’s easy to be distracted by the sea views here – ‘apparently’ that’s why Doug hit a pine tree and ended up behind his start position and at risk of joining the following group. We also played Larajal - the newest course in the Almancil area - that has plenty of obstacles and lakes as well as narrow fairways. It demanded far too much concentration for me and was a day I’d rather forget, so I’ll gloss over that one…
We had one non-golfing day when a couple of the group went to the local driving range to brush up. There were wild accusations of secret golf lessons - but I couldn’t possibly comment! The rest of the group had a tour around the area stopping at a couple of other local courses for a looksee – including Pinheiros Altos, Royal and San Lorenzo – Almancil and Loule Castle before checking out purpose-built sporting and sailing destination Vale do Lobo.
The spring weather was pretty much perfect – blue skies, around 20 degrees and sunny every day except one, when it was a bit overcast and the heavens opened whilst we were on course.
Apart from the morning when we had an 8am green time, Doug was he only one insane enough to be up and out at 6am. Religious about his morning running - he headed down to the beach towards Val do Lobo and around the nature reserve tracks, trails and walkways. We heard all sorts of tales about the benefits of barefoot running on the sand and all agreed that it sounds like a great idea…until you step on something you’d rather not have stepped on.
BBQ dinners at the villa were great, followed by plenty of gentle ribbing about the day’s winners and losers at local Quinta plaza pubs De Barra and The Melting Pot. Generally, at least two of us would get stuck there and then get stuck in bed the following morning. We didn’t miss any tee times though, which all things considered was pretty good going.
We couldn’t stay without at least one visit to the ever-popular Chicken Shack restaurant on Quarteria Road and we also found a lovely beach restaurant further along the road at Trafal Beach that I’ll come back to with the Mrs - as romantic sunset dining with the boys wasn’t really on the cards. Speaking to other golfers, local beach restaurants Julia’s, Maria’s and BJ’s - as well as the fish restaurant Passos - were all getting great reviews.
The good thing about Quinta is that it’s not just a golfing venue but you could easily bring your family here and have a fantastic beach or active holiday (hiking, riding, tennis etc) as well as spending a couple of days on course. I wouldn’t hesitate to come back with the family to exactly the same villa - providing the wife lets me bring the clubs…(read
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Category : Travel
Padi Open Water In Mallorca
By: andrew jones
Late last July I completed my PADI – a worldwide recognized dive qualification – in Mallorca and am itching to get back into the water having not had the opportunity so far this year and not having the inclination to brave the UK's chilly waters.(read
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Category : Travel
Day Around Royal Golf Course Vale Do Lobo
By: andrew jones
My wife and I stayed in Vale do Lobo last year for the first time – taking up an offer to join friends at their rental villa in the resort.(read
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Category : Travel
Vale Do Lobo Tennis Tournament Last Year Looking Forward To This Year
By: andrew jones
Wimbledon may be over for another year but we're counting down to our family summer holiday trip to Portugal's Algarve as we'll get to see some of the greats of the tennis world at the annual tournament – the Vale do Lobo Grand Champions.
We'd never been before last year, but found ourselves staying with friends in a Vale do Lobo rental villa last August and happened across the tournament. It was so much fun that we skipped the queues at pricey Wimbledon this year in favour of a trip back to see some of the greatest players in guaranteed afternoon sunshine for just €17 a ticket. Kefelnikov, Ivanisevic, Rusedski, Enqvist, Muster and Leconte are all due to play this year. Not bad if you think that Greg Rusedski was still on the pro tour only a few years ago.
They might not quite be up to matching Rafa set for set, but for us the players had so much fun and involved the audience so much that we'd choose it any day over serious grand slam viewing. You not only see the legends enjoying their tennis but also get great courtside seats so you can actually see what's going on. When we went to Wimbledon one year we were so far away from the court at the back of the stands that I couldn't even see the ball and ended up feeling I'd have been much better off watching it on the TV.
Also, as we'll be taking the kids it's great that the matches are mid-afternoon and evening so we can escape the midday sun. Knowing the Algarve pretty well it's more than likely to be blue skies and sunshine for the duration of our holiday so you can plan to watch a tennis match with some certainty, rather than watching the weather and wondering when play will resume!
The academy itself is a stunning venue just on the edge of Vale Do Lobo. It has about 15 tennis courts, mostly hard court, as well as a mini court for children. Friends of ours who stayed in Vale do Lobo villas last year and had some coaching said that the standard of tennis instruction is great and that they always have plenty going on and lots of people to play with. Being more spectators than players, we're going to watch and to try to start getting our kids enthused about the sport from an early age.
This year we're heading back to a self-catering villa in Vale do Lobo for a two-week summer break that coincides with the tournament at the Vale do Lobo Tennis Academy (August 10-13). We're planning to spend time at the beach and visit some of the fantastic nature reserves along the stretch of coastline. I might even slope off for some driving practice if I get an opportunity.
We've hired a car to give ourselves more variety of eateries than Vale do Lobo as we find it can be on the pricey side for a young family and we're also planning to self-cater to help keep costs down. We might also nip over the Spanish border and explore Seville for a day, as it's something we didn't get around to last year and it seems such a shame not to when it's so close.
The Vale do Lobo villa we hired last year was fantastic so we've opted for something very similar this year. In our experience Vale do Lobo villas tend to be clean, spacious, well kept and meet or exceed expectation compared to rental villas elsewhere.
The Grand Champions tournament is called ‘Wimbledon on the Algarve' but in truth it's much better than that if you like to relax and enjoy your sport in the warm weather, and in a holiday spirit. I really would recommend the tournament to any tennis fan as it is just so much fun and played in such good humour.(read
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Category : Travel
Festival Pollensa Last Year Looking Forward To This Year – Family
By: andrew jones
If you like your classical music there's still time to catch the ‘Festival Pollenca' in northeast Mallorca which runs every Wednesday and Saturday for the remainder of July through to the end of August.(read
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Category : Travel
