Ididmyc600
Posts: 1,309 +5
Hi All
As you know I went on holiday for a fortnight to portugal, it wasnt as planned though, we were originally going to Menorca, this was our first overseas trip as a family (kids aged 17 16 14 12) and we asked for a holiday where there would be plenty for the kis to do, so our travel againt suggested a place called cala n bosch on the coast of menorca, all sounded ideal and I paid up.
However a few days before going away we were informed that a building site had somehow popped up next to our villa and that it was full of heavy equipment and very noisy, so with our choices of cancelling (yeah right) or taking Portugal as an alternative we took Portugal.
And here's where it went wrong, you see we originally booked a place with plenty for the kids to do, instead we got an apartment in a place that was 3 miles or so from any kind of town centre, all they had was 2 pools that were freezing cold and unuseable (except for kids why is it they never care if the pool is cold enough to have penguins in it) a tennis court in a bad state of repair, oh and they charged 7.50 euros an hour for it, 1 pool table at 1 euro a go, a supermarket that charged more than a 24 hour garage and a snack bar with prices that matched the shop.
Needless to say with a 6 people taxi's into the local town were expensive as were the buses (when you could find 1 that you could understand), and the taxi's had their own price structure, not sure about anywhere else but in the Uk you pay a set price usually, in Portugal each driver had his own idea about what he charges, it ranged from 3.95 euros to 7 euros for the same trip.
On our first week we shared the hotel complex with a bunch of golfers, it was funny one night in the bar when at least 15 old men came in all drank wine all finished at the same time and trooped out to go play golf.
The entertainment was crap on Monday we had this woman who thought (wrongly) she was arethra frnaklin, Tuesday and Thursday we had Kareoke which was Ok as I sang for the first time, wednesday we had an old dude playing an organ and saturday was a parrot show, well it wasnt a show as such it lasted about 10 minutes, the 2 guys spent the rest of the evening taking pictures with people and a parrot for which a charge of..... 10 euros,,, was charged...oh well we had it done as we had sod all us else to spend money on.
On the plus side though the beach was nice and the Atlantic Ocean was clear and reasonably warm and we found a nice bar about 15 minutes from the hotel.
To be honest we would have had more fun having a week in Rhyl Wales and it would have cost less as well....
I know people look forward to their holidays as did I but when it goes wrong all you want to do is go home.
Did we complain, oh yes and they offered to move us to a livelier place.... if we paid an additional 700 euros, like I could afford that.
Oh well im back now with some happy memories but mainly just glad to be back and a little wiser about going abroad.
Regards
As you know I went on holiday for a fortnight to portugal, it wasnt as planned though, we were originally going to Menorca, this was our first overseas trip as a family (kids aged 17 16 14 12) and we asked for a holiday where there would be plenty for the kis to do, so our travel againt suggested a place called cala n bosch on the coast of menorca, all sounded ideal and I paid up.
However a few days before going away we were informed that a building site had somehow popped up next to our villa and that it was full of heavy equipment and very noisy, so with our choices of cancelling (yeah right) or taking Portugal as an alternative we took Portugal.
And here's where it went wrong, you see we originally booked a place with plenty for the kids to do, instead we got an apartment in a place that was 3 miles or so from any kind of town centre, all they had was 2 pools that were freezing cold and unuseable (except for kids why is it they never care if the pool is cold enough to have penguins in it) a tennis court in a bad state of repair, oh and they charged 7.50 euros an hour for it, 1 pool table at 1 euro a go, a supermarket that charged more than a 24 hour garage and a snack bar with prices that matched the shop.
Needless to say with a 6 people taxi's into the local town were expensive as were the buses (when you could find 1 that you could understand), and the taxi's had their own price structure, not sure about anywhere else but in the Uk you pay a set price usually, in Portugal each driver had his own idea about what he charges, it ranged from 3.95 euros to 7 euros for the same trip.
On our first week we shared the hotel complex with a bunch of golfers, it was funny one night in the bar when at least 15 old men came in all drank wine all finished at the same time and trooped out to go play golf.
The entertainment was crap on Monday we had this woman who thought (wrongly) she was arethra frnaklin, Tuesday and Thursday we had Kareoke which was Ok as I sang for the first time, wednesday we had an old dude playing an organ and saturday was a parrot show, well it wasnt a show as such it lasted about 10 minutes, the 2 guys spent the rest of the evening taking pictures with people and a parrot for which a charge of..... 10 euros,,, was charged...oh well we had it done as we had sod all us else to spend money on.
On the plus side though the beach was nice and the Atlantic Ocean was clear and reasonably warm and we found a nice bar about 15 minutes from the hotel.
To be honest we would have had more fun having a week in Rhyl Wales and it would have cost less as well....
I know people look forward to their holidays as did I but when it goes wrong all you want to do is go home.
Did we complain, oh yes and they offered to move us to a livelier place.... if we paid an additional 700 euros, like I could afford that.
Oh well im back now with some happy memories but mainly just glad to be back and a little wiser about going abroad.
Regards
