Charming Vale Do Lobo Villa 4 Bedrooms Villa Quadradinhos 22 Private Pool

Villa accommodation was fine and the location is good – The plot is slightly elevated offering a wider view of surrounding trees, villas and glimpses of the golf course, whilst also being slightly more exposed to wind and noise drifting in from the surrounding area. We enjoyed late afternoons and evenings watching swallows and jays circle the property and drink from the pool. From a practical aspect, I particularly liked the window / patio door shutters that can only be unlocked from the inside as they offered shade, airflow and security whilst the patio doors remained open.

A couple of things let the accommodation down for our stay, which I detail below in a constructive manner in hope that the owner / operator makes improvements for subsequent guests: The pool was cloudy on our arrival (23/May), instantly removing some of the sparkle built up in the weeks leading up to our stay. The water was so cloudy we couldn’t see the bottom of the pool, or our hands and feet as we swam, with any movement in the water creating a ‘scum’ of lingering bubbles on the surface. Given the hot weather we swam and showered immediately after, but it wasn’t pleasant for the best part of our week’s stay – The issue was raised to the attention of OceanVillas on Monday morning but didn’t become clearer until Thursday / Friday. QR code providing a link to the villa’s online manual did not work making it difficult for us to use several features in the villa, including [i] Hot tub instructions to raise the water temperature from barely lukewarm, [ii] Complicated Bose speaker system providing sound to lounge and outdoors, [iii] Lighting to garden as well as underwater lights for that all-important late night swim the kids were very much looking forward to, but sadly missed and [iv] Small oven comprising one shelf and tray, which in my opinion isn’t enough to cook for the number of people this villa could potentially accommodate. Finally, to anyone considering booking the villa over the next couple of months (June and July, at least) – The next door villa (23) is being completely gutted, and our stay was interrupted by pneumatic drilling and banging on several days from 8am to 5pm. Peering over the fence, it looks like all internal fittings (kitchen, bathrooms, patio doors and windows) have been removed and they were starting to remove the roofing tiles, throwing them into the algae-filled pool, on the Friday before we left.