Me and my best mate booked our holiday through TeletextHolidays online. What we thought we had booked was a 4*, recently renovated self catering apartment in the heart of Albufeira. However what we got was a 3* not so recently renovated apartment in the middle of Vilamoura. When I originally called up the holiday advisor (Qwerty Travel) to confirm my booking, the nice chap on the end of the phone told me that we would be heading off to these luxury apartments in Albufeira. So when my friend and I landed (after a 2 hour delay) we discovered that our apartment was actually in Vilamoura and that was only after we spent 15 minutes trying to tell the transfers driver that we wanted to go to Algamar Apartments, not Alfamar! We set off at midnight for a 25 minute drive to Vilamoura and spent another hour and a half searching for our apartments as the transfers guy had no idea where it was. After a lot of shouting of the apartment name and a quick attempt to drop us at the wrong hotel, our apartments were discovered by one of the other English passengers on the coach as we drove past. So at 2 in the morning we finally arrived at our apartment. The apartment itself was clean enough (although during the week we did have a minor ant and wiggly bug infestation) and the maids came in everyday to tidy up and change the sheets and towels. We had a pool facing balcony with a little table and chairs and a lovely little kitchen. The pool was always clean and cool. At night and during the day you could hear the banging and drilling of construction work nearby but it wasn't unbearable. And about a 5 minute walk around the corner was the Vilamoura Marina, which was full of good bars and restaurants and plenty of shops.
Despite all the things that went wrong my friend and I had a fantastic holiday and we were overall pleased with the apartments.
The only advice I would give to those planning a holiday at the Algamar Apartments is: get a taxi to the apartment from the airport and keep an eye out for the Casino, as it is just round the corner from Algamar.

I'm sorry to rate this accommodation so poorly, but we were so shocked at the state of the place, we just wanted to let people know that it is not advisable to stay here in December (if at any time of the year).

The weather, I know is not guaranteed, but if your accommodation is comfortable, you can still relax and enjoy your stay away from home.

The clue as to how bad the accommodation was going to be, was that our taxi transfer driver did not know where it was - we had to get out of the taxi with our suitacases in the rain and look for the booking office. Having found a local behind some locked gates, he pointed in the direction of the local estate agents. We was then escorted accross the road by a travel agent whom was talking on the telephone and laughing intermittently, and then shown to our room (we had to be quick because the lights were on timer and once they go out, it is completely pitch black)

The Algamar is a self-catering accommodation. Upon entering our room, the first thing that hit me was the smell of mustiness, the staines on the floor tiles, the army camp type twin beds (it was supposed to be a double room) and the black spores all over the radiator's! This should have been the moment we turn to the estate agent and request she find us alternate accommodation, but we didn't - our mistake!

The cooker and the fridge, not to mention most of the cooking area was covered in grease and grime and the smell was terrible. Our view from the patio doors in which incidently was supposed to be the harbour encompassing boats and fishing restaurants, was in fact a dirty, horrible swimming pool full of debris and filthy deck chairs, surrounded by accommodation for the locals and no sign of the sea! Much to our disappointment, we decided to look for alternative accomodation ourselves in which was the Dom Pedro Hotel a few hundred yards away. This incidently was quite reasonable, although the restaurant in the hotel was not open, so we had to go to a neighbouring hotel for something to eat!

To finalise this experience, we decided to leave Portugal the next day on account of everything being shut and the only attraction open was the Casino!