When in Portugal, do your own thing
Furthermore, the practised disdain of travel reviewers in lambasting resorts plying them with food and lodgings will find no sanctuary here. I paid for my holiday. I come to tell the truth.
While we’re dabbling with declarations of interest, it’s worth saying that consideration has been given, on an ongoing basis, to packing up and giving Algarve life a real go. On occasions, that became a serious consideration. December and February (oddly) are the only two months I haven’t spent time on Portugal’s Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts. The passport officers at Faro airport smile at me now. At least, I think they do.
The excitement of the Kamakaze, the Torpedo and Pistas Brandas (look it up), at Slide and Splash water park, in Lagoa, is still there, and watching your youngest kiss and hug Alpha the Dolphin, at Zoomarine, would bring a tear to a glass eye — and not only for the exorbitant cost of over €500.
Nowadays, we thrill in unearthing a delightful, German-owned restaurant on the side of a dusty, country road between Algoz and Silves. O Alambique, and in branching off the N125 to discover Benagil beach, or having the conviction to drive west on the now-tolled A22 to prosecute the claim that Salema is one of Europe’s candy-eyed beaches. It is.
Hidden Algarve? Is there such a thing now? It will never be Spain, but the strip from Quinta la Lago to Portimao is well-trod. Many go as far north as the Alentejo, for a truer Portuguese experience, but even within Central Algarve — its most populous region, especially in August — there are undisturbed treasures.
Thus, we delight in driving through, and beyond, the apartment-wedged road into a resort born of the 1970s, Armacao de Pera, which has dragged itself up by bootlaces and presents early-morning, beach-front coffee houses, and fishermen in tractors hauling boats and catch onto the beach.
We slip quietly into the one-square village of Alcantarilha, to O Cantinho restaurant — a little bit different, but in a good way, reported one Trip Advisor reviewer — where the grilled sole fillet matches the rib-eyed steak in scale if not substance. (Dining tip: don’t ask the owner-chef for tartar sauce, he gets quite huffed).
Across the street is a fragment of Hidden Algarve. In fact, quite a few fragments. Behind the church is a tiny chapel known as ‘Capela dos Ossos’, the Chapel of Bones, ceiling-to-floored with the skulls and bones of parishioners taken from the local cemetery. I know.
Not far away, if you were a crow, is the rail crossroads at Poco de Baretto, a station for local Algarve travellers. A short distance away, on the back road to Silves — once the moorish capital of the Al Gharbh — is an unpretentious-looking frontage that masks one of the finest dining experiences in the region.
And that’s a mouthful.
Marlen Schmidt, the owner, modestly suggests “we try our best to provide a nice evening for you.” She does that, and much more. Over the last 14 years, she has turned a roadside non-entity into a honey trap (www.alambique.de) that the good and the great leave their marinas, pools and villas to find. She beams before bringing our two youngest into the kitchen to make home-made plum ice-cream for dessert.
We thank her and pledge to tell no-one of our discovery, hoping few find out too fast. I fear we are late.
EIGHT years ago, I stood at the high-point of a sprawling, 500-acre site at Morgado da Lamera, and had Drogheda man and Oceanico Developments co-founder, Gerry Fagan, promise I was standing in the footprint of what would become the most imposing golf clubhouse on the Iberian Peninsula. He wasn’t exaggerating. Amendoeira Golf resort opened with course creations from Nick Faldo and Christy O’Connor junior, and a body of construction work that had few peers, in terms of quality and finish, on the Algarve.
It was Oceanico’s fourth and most ambitious development, possessed of a style and grandeur that had investors wowed from planning. Oceanico delivered on everything it had planned, before the ‘great crash’ intercepted its momentum.
Had Amendoeira got across the line a year or two earlier, it would have trafficked many investors out of the safe havens of Vilamoura and Quinta. But it still managed to take off on reduced throttle. Slowly, it found its feet in the tourism marketplace and, though we willed it to succeed, we secretly hoped it would never be overrun. It hasn’t been, but our time there was sprinkled by events of considerable stature — from the World Kids Golf Championship to the use of its dedicated sports centre by English football teams, Blackburn and Swindon.
The Dublin hurlers and Kerry footballers are spring visitors, wowed by what appealed to us — undisturbed quiet as the sun heads west to bed behind the par-5 No 16 on the O’Connor course.
Amendoeira is in its own shadow, but, with wheels, you are close to everything. And that is its greatest attraction — a haven that’s a mere five minutes from Armacao, ten from Algarve Shopping, a monstrous spending arcade the size of Dundrum, at Guia, ten minutes from Slide and Splash, and two minutes from Aqualand, another water park, just off Exit 7. Shamefully, we didn’t make it again, this time. Twenty minutes west of Vilamoura, twenty five east of Lagos. If you need to step out into the bustle of morning action, go elsewhere. We went to cool engines.
As the summer traffic departs, Algarve will fill with the autumn golfers. Amendoeira’s two courses are completely booked for the weeks before the Oceanico-sponsored Portugal Masters. They have just released details of an alluring golf-all-you-want accommodation package at the resort. There are eyebrow-raising elements to the free-golf offer. If you are looking for the catch, you won’t find one. I’ve been there. They’re essentially looking to put heads on beds.
The Unlimited Golf Package for Amendoeira kicks in this weekend, from just €230 per person for three nights. Five- and seven-night breaks are also being rolled out.
Oceânico holds the whip hand on golf in the Algarve, with five courses in the Vilamoura area, including the Tour favourite, Oceânico Victoria, and the revered Old Course.
One of these can be added to the roster for an additional €35 per person, which isn’t a lot for the time of the season, and the unlimited package also includes one free upgrade to Laguna, Millennium and Pinhal.
Prices are as follows, based on four people sharing a two-bed apartment: for Nov and Dec 2013 and Jan and Feb 2014, three nights cost €230 per person, five nights, €445, and seven nights, €560 pp per package. For Sept 2013 (and 2014) and May, June, July and August of next year, it’s €265 for a three-night stay, €515 for five nights and €650 for seven. High-season prices for the unlimited golf offer are still excellent: this October (and 2014) and March, and April 2014, three nights at Amendoeira are €295, five nights, €575, and seven nights, €725.
* www.amendoeiraresort.com or www.oceanicodirect.com.
Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com) flies from Dublin, Cork and Shannon to Faro — Dublin all year round; Cork and Shannon (frustratingly) until the end of Oct)
Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies from Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Derry and Knock to Faro. All excluding Dublin are seasonal.
www.amendoeiraresort.com / www.oceanicodirect.com
Reservations: email to res.amendoeira@oceanicogroup.com or phone: +351 282 320 671 (Courtesy buses available at resort).
Zoomarine (www.zoomarine.com/en/theme-park)
Slide and Splash (www.slidesplash.com, +351 282 340 800)
Algarve Shopping (www.algarveshopping.pt)
Alambique, Poco Baretto (www.alambique.de)
Tel: +351 282 449 283
Porters, Armacao (+351 282 314 720)
Cantinho, Alcantarilha (+351 282 322 914).
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