We absolutely loved our 10 day stay here in July/August. The house exceeded our expectations and had everything we needed for a very comfortable stay. The children's play house full of inflatables, a pump ( for the inflatables we brought with us), parasols and bats and balls for the beach an excellent touch. It was fantastic to have lots of kitchen knives that actually cut vegetables and a freezer full of freeze blocks and a cooler to put them in for longer trips out. The house was so good we probably stayed 'home' more than we usually would on holiday as with the larger than expected pool there seemed little reason to go out some days. Carvoeiro is a 30 min walk away, but if you want a closer meal out we can recommend the Italian on the way to Carvoeiro and only 5-10 minutes walk away (just head towards Carvoeiro and follow the signs to the mini market, it is just past that). We went dolphin watching from Lagos with seafaris and for the third time in a row had an amazing experience surrounded by dolphins, the sand sculptures in Porches are worth a look, we went twice, day and night ( your ticket lets you in for free in the evening once you pay for the day), despite the intense heat in the sand bowl that the sculptures are in we all preferred the day, you don't see the detail at night.

The only reason I have given four stars not five was that after the agent had showed us to the house he asked for 620 euros that we knew nothing about. 500 was for a deposit and 120 for the cleaners. I have looked again on the Home and Away site and if there is mention of it it is so buried I cannot find it. As we did not have that kind of money on us we had to make an extra trip back to the supermarket to use the cash machine. We do not mind the deposit in itself, but would like to have been told in advance. We got the full 500 back when the agent came to get the keys on the morning we left, however if like us you come from a non Euro using country it is annoying to end the holiday with 500 euros you need to either save until a future trip or change back at an exorbitant cost. So four stars for that not the house itself, that we cannot fault.