T1 e T2 Marina Albufeira apartments

Clean and comfortable. Great food and staff

Nothing

Apartment was lovely and clean, location was perfect 5 mins away from old town ina taxi and a 5 min walk to the marina where there's loads of fab bars and restaurants

Nothing

The pool - it's absolutely amazing and it saved my stay. The staff were lovely and very helpful. The bar by the pool was good - served food as well as drinks and if you'd forgotten your sunscreen, you could buy it here. There was a library off the reception area where you could pick up a book to read while sunning yourself. The host, Johannes, came to meet me at the property to give me the keys (he'd offered a self check in too) and kindly stayed with me while I made sure that I knew how to work the AC, the TV, etc. and that was much appreciated. However, it was only afterwards, when I started to use the apartment, that I became aware of the issues which I've detailed below. Good to know: if you need a cab to Faro airport, reception will call one for you. There are two options. (1) One company charges €40 and reception gives you a voucher which you pay them for and show to the driver. This company has limited availability, so I recommend booking in advance. (2) The other charges €50 and you pay the cab driver. I was lucky and got the €40 option. I was told the service was reliable and good, and it was. The taxi arrived on time, it was a comfortable car with a friendly driver. Taxis are cheap - and you'll need them if you want to get around and see the old town. The cable TV, air conditioning and wifi all worked very well in the apartment.

I admit that I didn't contact Johannes about any of this as I was at the end of a two month trip and there were so many things that needed correcting I just didn't have the energy and chose to make the place workable for myself. But as he made a point of telling me in a message that he cleaned the apartment himself, it was a shock to find how dirty it was. The coffee table's wooden surround was disgustingly sticky to the touch, had rings of old glasses on the glass surface. I left it well alone. No one had dusted in ages. There were two inches of water in the coffee machine left by previous occupants. There was no detergent in the container in the kitchen to do the washing up with. The bottle opener was broken which was frustrating as it looked functional but wasn't - bad discovery when you are looking forward to a glass of wine. One of the small body/shampoo wash bottles provided was half full, an unwelcome reminder of a previous occupant, as was a long black hair on the living room floor. Hot water was an issue - in the sinks it was intermittent at best - thankfully one of the bathrooms had a shower that always had hot water in the evening when I came in from the pool so I relied on that. The unit I was in was on the ground floor opposite the car park at the front and looked out onto gardens at the back. The beach is about a ten to fifteen minute walk away. The apartments are close to the Marina - there's a lift but it was broken during my stay. The Marina was not what I expected. It put me in mind of the Monty Python Watney's Red Barrel sketch. You would not know you were in Portugal. Catering almost exclusively to Brits, it has amusement arcades, an outdoor laundrette, a mini-dodgems, indoor go-karting, pool tables ... and endless bars with football coverage. Might be a dream for some - just not for me.

Lovely apartment and very spacious with great facilities

apartment was lovely and spacious had all the facilities needed with baby and a lovely green area outside and lovely swimming pool