Vista das ondas in Olhos da Agua (Portugal) Review

Hey guys,
I have been wanting to do this post for the longest time,  and yet I have had no time.. That seems to be the problem with me at the moment, I am struggling trying to find the balance between working full time and having a social life with friends and then you mix in blogging and its just becoming a little overwhelming for me. I need to get better at this multitasking malarkey.

So over the summer holiday I went back home to Portugal and I spent two weeks there with my little sisters and I wanted to write two posts on it and still haven't even written one, and we are now into autumn. The first post was a review of where we stayed, and the second was a little about what we got up to while out there.
So I thought I would jump into this one and start my review. We went to the Algarve, for the second year running as the first time we went last year we just had such a magical time I knew it was where I wanted to spend my summer. We went to Albufeira and then more precisely into Olhos da Agua and we also rented out from the same complex as last time, Vista Das Ondas but this time it was a little different. Last time we rented an apartment from a woman whose apartment it belonged to and she rented it out during the summer months, this time we rented from a company called Luso Living located local to the complex and its a company that has a few apartments from within the complex in its books so there was quiet a good selection to choose from. This is the one we ended up staying in

Image Credit

From the very beginning, there was lots of communication between myself and the ladies who worked for the company, they asked for a deposit upfront that I would get back at the end of the holiday baring in mind if nothing was completely ruined in the apartment and then you paid the rest  two months before you flew out there. Both the girls Joana and the other one who never gave me her name, were amazing, they were so flexible with the payments and they were always on hand if I needed anything or had any questions. They even arranged for a car to pick us up from the airport so I felt more relaxed. They aso arranged for a car to drop us back to the airport for a small fee.

We arrived at the airport, got collected and taken to the company to pick up the keys and sign the last bits of paper work. Then we walked the 5 minutes to the apartment complex, we asked for a third floor room as we wanted the view and boy were we spoilt with the view. The apartment was just like the one we had last year, it was a one bedroom that could sleep 4. There was a double bed in the bedroom and then a pull out sofa, although I will say the sofa is more for one than two and the mattress is far too thin for two people to be sleeping on, for me it was fine and it didn't bother me or mess up my back but I can imagine the damage it could do to someone. My sisters shared the double bed which was also the only room in the whole apartment that had air con, which isn't great as Portugal obviously gets very hot and I desperately wanted some in the front room throughout the night.

Within 10 minutes of being in the apartment I saw a couple of ants on the floor near the bathroom, so I killed them and thought nothing of it, after all, we are in a hot country, we have a balcony that had the door open and even though we are on the third floor there is a pool with grass under us. We carried on, and it was fine. The apartment was very open plan, had a kitchen, a dining area which was with the living room, it had a big flat screen TV and had free wifi with the password near by, there was a washing machine, oven and dishwasher included in the kitchen. The living room opened up onto the balcony which was a little narrow but was long, and the balcony also lead on to the double bedroom. The bathroom, had a bath, and a bidet like most typical Portuguese apartments, and we had a nice hallway which lead us to all these different rooms. All in all, it was a lovely little place to stay. As soon as we arrived, we wanted to go out and explore so we did, when I returned I found more ants, I was a little skeptic about them now and getting a little annoyed, I killed them and told myself I would call the office in the morning for them to come and have a look around. I had a shower to get ready to head to the restaurant for dinner and I realised the shower head was not powerful at all. I understand that in a complex like that, everyone will be roughly having showers at around the same time to head out for the evening, but I still couldn't quite believe how little water was coming out and how long a 20 minute shower actually took me, I added that to the list of things to tell them in the morning.

The next day when I rang them up, I first got a lady saying, "Oh I'm sorry I only hand over the keys I don't actually deal with anything else to do with the apartments", which I thought was a little rubbish, considering who do I go to now if something goes wrong?! I rang again at a different time of the day and they were able to help me a little more, they sent a man over when we were out about the shower head to come and see the pressure, and I'm not too sure what he did as we were out but by that evening the shower head was faster and much better. Showers didn't have to take me an hour anymore!! Thank god. No one came for the ants though. That night I woke up in the middle of a deep sleep, and went to the bathroom, my eyes hadn't focused on everything around me yet as I was still quiet sleepy, and I rested my head on my hand.. I started to focus my eyes and I kid you not, in the sink in my bathroom were over 40 ants! It was the most disgusting thing I think I have ever seen. Have you ever seen what its like when ants are all together in a cluster, Urgh it made me want to throw up and I did feel sick, I washed them down the drain but then got scared in case they would come back up so I put the lid on the sink, the bathtub, the bidet and even the sink in the kitchen. I felt sick, and when morning came I didn't call to complain I marched straight round there to complain.

They said they would send someone round, I said I had found the ants near my toothbrush etc, which was a slight exaggeration, but I did find them walking near my hairbrush and near the toilet roll. I rang my dad who told me ants don't like citrus stuff, then he asked if we had left out anything sugary, I said no.. because they were here when we first arrived and we didn't have any food in the apartment then, and after the night when I saw them in the bathroom sink, I had locked everything food wise out of sight as I was scared. I went to the local shop and bought some disinfectant lemon style and spritzed that around the apartment in the areas I had seen them crawling, like around the bathtub, and on the sides etc, and then I blocked them off with tissue paper too. I decided to leave it there so when the person who was going to came round to have a look, they could see the areas in which I had found them. I was worried that I was gonna get ants crawling on my bed as I slept, and it left me a little uneasy and on a holiday that is NOT what you want.

The next day, while tidying away the kitchen after breakfast I went to go put some dishes in the dishwasher, and I saw them crawling in there and over the freshly washed mugs and plates, I took all the dishes that were in there out and re washed them using disinfectant, and I then spritzed the disinfectant in the dishwasher too and put it on without dishes. Of course the expected happened, the dishwasher foamed and bubbled and nearly flooded the place, and by then I was actually fuming, I was pissed! I had come on holiday to relax and instead here I am trying to clear ants out of an apartment that I paid a grand for!! Not good enough. The cluster of ants in my bathroom sink was disgusting but the ants in the dishwasher is worse, I assumed they had gone through the pipes and into there since I had blocked all their other exits with tissue paper. We cleaned up the dishwasher but never used it again throughout the holiday and we kept it shut in case anymore came from there, from time to time I would check if there was any in there but I think the huge bubble bath finally killed them off.

After two days a lady came round to have a look around and we were home so I was able to show her all the areas, she asked the same questions as my dad "did you leave sugar out? or sugary food and drink" I explained how they had been there from day one and how they were in the dishwasher which she was completely shocked about, and sickened at! I also told her how I didn't appreciate coming on holiday and having to go out and buy disinfectant. She was very kind and totally understood and sympathised with me and my sisters and the "Trauma" we had gone through, she cleaned up around the areas and removed some of the tissue and then sprayed some stronger product meant to kill any types of creepy crawly bugs, I left her to it and had a feeling that when I returned the whole house would be swamped with them as she had removed the tissue paper that acted like a barrier for them. I am happy to report I never saw them again, not that evening when I returned and not throughout the duration of the stay, but that first week put me off so much!

Other then that BIG drama, the rest of the holiday was spent quiet nicely in our apartment. We had two pools which were open from like 6am til 10pm, and people were respectful of those times which is nice, we had a small baby type pool and a larger adult sized one. The pool was complete with lots of different blow up toys, from dolphins, to dinghies to beds to laze on. There was loads of space to spread ourselves and there was even a grassy bit for you to place your own umbrellas if you needed to. The complex provided about 10 umbrellas and lots of beds, I will say this though, It was a complex known for having British holidaymakers and they love to go down at 7am and place their towels on the beds and then not return till around 10am, so by the time you get down there, there are no beds left. Which I don't agree with, and there are signs placed all around asking people NOT to do that, but yet people did. We also had a tennis court where you could rent rackets and balls for an hour or two and play games, that again was open from like 6am till like 10pm.

The apartment is located a 5 minute walk to the beach, and near lots of shops, cafes, and even a market open daily selling fresh fruit, veg, meat, fish and bread. There is also a tourist shop where you can book lots of different excursions and fun days out for the family. The nearest bus stop and taxi stop is right outside, although be aware that buses and taxis don't run like they do in London.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at this apartment but I could have done without the ant infestation. That was probably the only downfall I have about it, because other than that, it was a big, spacious, light, open planned place and we had lots of lovely evening dinners on the balcony, although I will say that I found the balcony to be a tad small for these dinners, there were 3 of us and at times we found it hard to sit all around a small circular table and eat some food, but we had lovely days spent by the pool and we were quiet local to everything we needed but we were also far enough away from the trouble that seems to happen when lots of people get together and get totally wasted. We had our own little strip right next to our local beach, which offered, amazing food and drinks, did great nights of Karaoke, and music and there was always lots of activity and buzz around, and it's right by the beach for a cheeky midnight swim or some drinking on the sand. If of course you did ever fancy a trip down to the more known strip we weren't far from it which is why I think destination wise, we had the best of both worlds.

I would consider staying there again but the ants still do play on my mind a lot and it freaks me out to think about that whole situation of being scared ants may be on my food or my toothbrush! Urgh.

Have you ever been to the Algarve? Where did you stay?
Ana
..xo