Car Hire Vilamoura

Vilamoura Mini Guide

What can you Tell me About Vilamoura?
Many people think of Vilamoura as a city or town when it is actually an area of the Algarve. More accurately for the tourist it is a huge holiday resort with all the facilities but little of the charm one hopes for on holiday. Imagine being in a massive four star resort and you’ll be somewhere close. The resort centres around the marina with huge motorboats moored there belonging to the sickeningly rich. Either side of the marina are two sandy beaches. The brochures have them as white sandy beaches; they’re closer to yellow but still attractive. Behind the beaches are row upon row of hotels keen to attract the tourist euro with all inclusive deals, lightweight amusements and average food.



How do I get to Vilamoura?
The nearest airport is Faro International, about ten miles away. The airport is busy with routes across Europe and North Africa and accepts flights from several UK destinations with charter and budget scheduled airlines. Getting to Vilamoura will require a taxi ride or hire car or you could chance the timetables and reliability of the local bus.

What Should I do Whilst in Vilamoura?
Most of the attractions of the resort could be obtained in any one of thousands of resorts worldwide, namely; sun, sand and sea. There are six golf courses there so the golfer in the family is going to be really keen to get to Vilamoura. For partners, there’s a spa, several clubs at which you can relax with a drink and a tennis academy for budding Andy Murrays. If all this gets a bit claustrophobic, you should go to the rear of the centre of Vilamoura to find the Roman and Moorish ruins there. The remains of Cerra da Vila include a Roman bath house, a ruined villa and plenty of beautiful mosaics. The Moorish ruins include grain silos used for storing the harvest to feed the inhabitants.



What Should I buy in Vilamoura?
There is very little worthwhile buying as souvenirs in Vilamoura as most of the souvenir shops try to pass off tacky mementos or calendars of the area. You are better off saving your money for souvenirs until you get to the airport and then browse the gift shop there for more authentic items.

What Should I eat in Vilamoura?
You are going to be hard pressed to find anything traditional in the resort apart from the ubiquitous fish on the menu and even then, there’s a good chance it’ll be fish and chips. The restaurants are generally of a good quality but as with everything, you get what you pay for.



What is the Entertainment Like in Vilamoura?
The entertainment is great as the resort tries to be self-contained. There are numerous bars and clubs so you’ll never be stuck for somewhere to go. As with the entire resort, there is little of the true Portugal but if you’ve chosen to visit Vilamoura then that may not be important to you.