One week in Portugal via Mark Warner for the kids half term in May 2011, last minute offer, LGW flights, arrived at Faro without issue, reasonable coach transfer to Luz and resort to find that the resort was a hill side setup, with the normal Portuguese Luz village and the resort intermingled.

Apartments comfortable, with only issue being length of beds, anyone over 6' would struggle being able to fully stretch out.

Beach was a little cold for swimming in May, and given its the Atlantic I suspect would have not been the warmest of swims even in peak summer.

Overall good time had by all after I settled the children’s complaints with the rental of a little car to avoid having to walk up hill in the hot sun from beach to room or the kids club reception, I would say this the biggest issue as even for breakfast the uphill walk from the blocks of apartments up to the reception and restaurant was a 10 minute one, certainly an issue that any one elderly would struggle with and perhaps should be aware of in advance. Note I doubt my non eco-friendly solution of car hire would be viable in peak time as parking around the village not easy.

As ever the kids thoroughly enjoyed the normal delights of Mark Warner kids club, one of the prime attractions of the holiday.

Overall worth a visit.

We have stayed in Luz every summer for the last three years - we've found it to be the perfect location for our family,

The first two years were with Mark Warner (who leverage Ocean Club's facilities and accommodation), but because our children are not using their clubs, we opted to go "independent" this year, and booked directly with Ocean Club.

It worked perfectly for us - we paid a deposit up front, and then the remainder nearer the holiday (costs are in euros, so its worthwhile using a credit card with a good conversion rate - we have a Post Office Visa for this purpose), Like Mark Warner we settled up with Ocean Club for incidental costs (eg drinks and snacks from their bars using a members card)

Key advantages:

+ We could use scheduled airlines instead of Monarch (which gave us better flight options)

+ We booked a taxi driver through Ocean Club. Its an hours drive, so ensure you have 110 Euros each way, Our driver was really good, careful and attentive. (Better than waiting around in the Sun for everyone to clear customs for the tour bus)

+ We could book exactly the location and size of apartment (we wanted to ensure three bedrooms)

+ We could opt to eat at any restaurant we liked - including the "Mark Warner" option if we desired.

+ We could the number of days (we opted for 10 instead the usual 7 or 14)

We will return again !

(Note they start taking reservations at the end of the year - they need to negotiate with the owners of the apartments that they provide in the town)

We stayed here from the 3rd September 2011 on a half board basis via Mark Warner and plan to return next year.

Our Apartment was clean and modern with 2 large bedroom and 2 large bathrooms. all rooms had balconies, the best being the living area - wow what a view! mountains and the sea - it was lovely sun bathing on it whilst my 22 month old son slept and we soaked up the 32 degree heat!

The food was excellent, both for the children and the adults. my only grumble would be that it was served from 7pm for the adults and id like to have eaten with my son and then gone home to put him to bed at 7pm. Adults can eat from the children's menus from 5.30pm, but the adults menu was so yummy we used the baby slumber crèche and my son watched a DVD with the free childminders whilst we ate our dinner in peace (just what we needed).

We didn't use the free day care children's club but heard from other parents that it was excellent. Our son was entertained enough by the pool-side cars and other toys laid out by the staff. I just sunned myself whilst watching him play.

The doctor in Luz is excellent - our son need antibiotics for an ear infection and I couldn't have been happier with the care we received. the doctor even gave us her mobile incase we had any further questions.

To sum it all up ...This is a lovely sleepy, quiet fishing town, with great restaurants and a lovely beach. life stops around 9pm and so you can get a good night sleep! its great for families - the beach has a blue flag and there are even restaurants such as Ciccas that serve home-made organic food. We had a great time and I didn't want to come home,

we had a lovely holiday,but then we are happy as long as we have a tidy appartmnet,good weather,good pool and beach.
How we found our holiday at ocean club-
Good points
1] Lovely large clean pool,we took our own food in a cool bag to save money which worked out great.
2] appartment was very spacious and in beautifull surrounings. we had washing machine,full sized oven,microwave,iron pegs and any cooking utensils and dishes you could think of.
3] large beach was lovely and clean with plenty of watersports.[only 10 walk]
4] fantastic bakers,lovely lady work very hard lovely fresh bread and cakes.
5] waterpark trip booked at reception to get 10% off was fantastic!
6] lotte 1 mirrage, on the corner we followed other trip advisor reveiws and went on our first night it was fantastic!! good food and fantasic service!!
7] reception staff very good tall man glasses will do anything to help, he gave us a lift to our appartmnet and carried our suitcases to our room.
only a few bad points -
1] the cleaners are hit and miss, the appartments could do with a good overall clean i was not the only quest to comment about the lack of cleaning! and a more frequent towel change is needed i gave up and washed them my self.[we moved the sofa and found toenail clippings yuck!]
2] if booked with thomas cook there is no entertainmnet day or night and rep is hardly ever there.
having said all that the appartmnets was lovely as they are all privatly owned is just the cleaners need to up there standards!
we had a lovely time and so did our children aged 7 and 13 my 7 year old was in tears the night we left because she wanted to stay! all she did was swim eat and sleep!
thanks for great stay ocean club**