we booked a 3 bed villa with private pool through Travel Republic, as a result we didn't know which villa we'd be staying in 'til we arrived. It was the Casa Carina (Villa 12). The villa was enormous, 3 large bedrooms, 3 large bathrooms, massive open plan lounge/ dining area & a reasonable sized kitchen. The garden was also huge, you could easily have fitted a further 2 villas in. In general, the whole 'quinta' area was very open and spacious - it would take in the region of 25-30mins to walk from one end to the other.
The communal pool area was very clean and also very spacious. We ate in the pool snack bar a couple of times and the food was typical snack bar stuff and a reasonable quality. we went to some of the evening entertainment and the staff worked hard to get everyone involved but I think it was just too early in the season as it was fairly quiet and most guests had young familes and left by maybe 9pm.
Our 5yo went to the kids club a few times and loved it. Nearly all the children were german when we were there but I guess this changes depending on who's holidaying that week.
We hired a car for the holiday and found that between the saving from not taking the resort transfer and the savings from being able to shop at the large supermarkets it more than paid for itself. We thought we'd hardly use the car other than this but found we used it pretty much every day. Laziness maybe but everything's a fair trek when you've got two young children.
The main resort is within walking distance but it's a fair old climb home. We took a taxi if we were out on the evening & I think it was something like 5euros to get home.
The Monte Carvoeiro complex is about a 5min walk away and has a really nice courtyard with lots of really nice restaurants and bars and much closer than the main resort. It's also very child friendly as there's a large area in the middle where they can run around with their friends and be seen from every bar/restaurant and no traffic.
we really enjoyed the privacy and space of the villa but it was nice to have communal areas too for socialising and would happily return here again
- Quinta Do Paraiso Carvoeiro
