Lagos, Portugal

ShriekingSheet

Hi All,

Thinking of going to Lagos with my girlfirend this summer and looking for any thoughts from people who've been.

Fairly set on going self catering appartment route. €584 gets us 9 nights in the Vilabranca Appts, but some iffy reviews on Trip Advisor. Aqualuz is a 4* hotel, but also has reasonably priced appts (I'm checking are they in the same complex as the hotel). It would cost a few quid to trade up to these. I think Marina Club is also recommended to be good. €65ish per night is our ball park budget.

Anyway, the main thing I'm looking for a steer on is where to stay. We're mid-twenties, like clubs and pubs, like good food and want a nice pool with reasonable access to the beach. My concern is it may be a little quiet...

Thanks

tweety76

Hi,
Not sure about Vilabranca location but Marina Club location is great, also the marina park( think they are called something else now)- further 10 minutes uphill. Beaches are beautiful stunning and unspoilt

Restaurants are TOP NOTCH especially if you like seafood, I didn't see any "clubs" when I was there its not quite along the lines of your usual resort a little bit more reserved, i.e trad style with narrow cobbled streets but there are a good selection of bars for late drink etc. including Irish bars. I went in Sept both times and it was a bit quiet, but July and August can have people queueing on the streets to get a table in a restaurant. Husband and I were both approx 30 when we went( no kids).... Anyhow I would totally recommend

If you have been to the likes of torremelinos, praia de rocha or santa ponsa its quite different not as lively but plenty to do still.

ShriekingSheet

tweety76 wrote: »

Hi,
Not sure about Vilabranca location but Marina Club location is great, also the marina park( think they are called something else now)- further 10 minutes uphill. Beaches are beautiful stunning and unspoilt

Restaurants are TOP NOTCH especially if you like seafood, I didn't see any "clubs" when I was there its not quite along the lines of your usual resort a little bit more reserved, i.e trad style with narrow cobbled streets but there are a good selection of bars for late drink etc. including Irish bars. I went in Sept both times and it was a bit quiet, but July and August can have people queueing on the streets to get a table in a restaurant. Husband and I were both approx 30 when we went( no kids).... Anyhow I would totally recommend

If you have been to the likes of torremelinos, praia de rocha or santa ponsa its quite different not as lively but plenty to do still.

Thanks Tweety,

That's the second recomm I've had for the Marina Club.

rossie1977

there is a great beach in lagos, its a nice little town, i can't say anything about the nightlife as it was feb time when we were there and there is zero nightlife in the algarve at that time of year

if you fancy a trip to lisbon its about a 2.5 hour bus ride and its cheap

Sammer

Hey SS,

I stayed in Vilabranca last year. Great place for that price. Apartments are massive. Nice balconies for brekkie overlooking the pool. Only a short walk to the old town, you cant really stay in the old town as its 'old' and there is no space for decent accommodation unless you wanna hostel it. Walked past Marina Club, looked full of families and Germans in toight shorts :mad:. One thing is though Lagos is anything but quiet - bars stay open all night - great mix of restuarants and bars, not tacky south of Spain style - really cool and good craic, more of a surf vibe running through it.

phog

Hi I stayed in Villbranca in 2007, I found them okay, I had no complaints.

The town is great and taxis are dirt cheap. We hired a car and did a tour of the region and visited a few towns and resturants each evening.

One thing is I found the wind chill to be cold.

If you have specific questions PM me if you like.

ShriekingSheet

Wow, really helpful stuff thanks. Yes Villabranca seems to be a "you cant go wrong" job all right. Thanks for the insight on the Marina Club Sammer- good to know

Aqualuz has caught my eye on various sites. It's only slightly more expensive, is 4 star and possibly slightly closer to town? I think so anyway - finding it hard to get my bearings from the maps. Has anyone noticed this place or know if it is in fact any better located?

Seems a good distance and exxpensive to get to from Faro. Thinking it might work out better value to rent a car from there, not having to wait for a shuttle bus and driving direct, as well as having the car for the week.

phog

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

Wow, really helpful stuff thanks. Yes Villabranca seems to be a "you cant go wrong" job all right. Thanks for the insight on the Marina Club Sammer- good to know

Aqualuz has caught my eye on various sites. It's only slightly more expensive, is 4 star and possibly slightly closer to town? I think so anyway - finding it hard to get my bearings from the maps. Has anyone noticed this place or know if it is in fact any better located?

Seems a good distance and exxpensive to get to from Faro. Thinking it might work out better value to rent a car from there, not having to wait for a shuttle bus and driving direct, as well as having the car for the week.

Dont recall seeing Aqualuz so cant comment.

We got the shuttle bus to and from the airport, not great delay in either direction.

If you stay in VB, there is a nice convenience store across the road and another one up the road that is almost directly oposite the entrance to the resort. They have better choices and cheaper then the on site shop.

We used to walk into the town every evening and get a taxi home.

The reception staff in the resort were very helpful in organising whatever you needed, including booking resturants.

Sammer

I booked our trip with Surfholidays.com so they organised a transfer for us - about €130 - €140, but pikced us up and dropped us there in an hour. You can go into Faro and get a train or bus for few euros i think. We surfed for most of the time and they took us to different beaches so didnt really need a car. Lagos centre is cobblestomnes and all the accommodation is outside it - 5/10 min walk away, you get the hang of it after a day there. All this talk makes me wanna go back

Pythia

Would highly recommend you go for Marina Club if you can get it. We got the rooms with a full kitchen and sitting room, more like an apartment than hotel.

Myself and boyfriend have been twice and are early twenties. This is not the place for a 'clubbing' holiday but there are bars which play load music til late and have young people in them which was what we wanted. There's also lovely quiet bars and hundreds of delicious restaurants. Highly recommend the Italian, generally a queue outside but worth the wait! Beach is beautiful and marina is very picturesque too. Overall an excellent choice.

bmurph1

hi sammer,

have booked a trip with surf holidays too, will be heading over to lagos next tuesday.
im on my own so and flying in to faro,

is it euro130 each?
and is it easy to get a train/bus in faro to lagos?

Thanks in advance

Sammer

Not sure to be honest, think it depends on which place you are staying. You staying in apartments or the surf house. maybe email I think they are pretty quick at getting back

buzz55

Hi Bmurph1, I'm just back from Lagos at the weekend so to answer a few of your questions:

1. to get from Faro airport to Lagos by public transport, you will have to take a train from airport to Faro train station (around 8 euro), then get the train from Faro to Lagos (costs around 6 quid for a single ticket). Be aware that the train takes a loooonnnnnnggggg time - they'd give Iarnod Eireann a run for their money in the slow stakes. Took around 1 hour 45 minutes. We then took a taxi from the train station in Lagos to Vilabranca which was about 10 euro.
We booked an airport transfer for our return flight, it cost 65 euro from Vilabranca apartments to Faro airport and took just under one hour. Well worth it, I couldn't the train again.

Lagos is a lovely town, which I thankfully found lacking in the tackiness that can be found in other 'resort' towns. Plenty of pubs, restaurants worth queuing for, cheap to eat out, taxis are cheap. Overall I found 90% of the locals to be v friendly, we got 2 bad tempered taxi drivers but everyone else was fine.

Enjoy!

Tiriel

Hi all - great posts so far and thanks!

Just wondering - where did you guys book your holiday? I can find it on www.letsgotravel.ie but that seems to be the only option? Has anyone used this company before? Have pretty much settled on this now so just want to book it!!

Any advice/info appreciated!

Sammer

havent used the other company before, we booked with surfholidays.com
Enjoy...

funshin

Thinking of going to Lagos in the summer with my boyfriend. I am looking at accomadation and loads of places keep coming up in Kuala Lumpar Lagos, is this some area or something in Lagos? What is the name of the main area I should be looking for places to stay?