Hiya everyone and welcome to my first travel blog! if you know me personally you'll know this has been a long time coming, and if you don't let me introduce myself! Im Shevorne a travel enthusiast from England, I'd go as far as saying I've devoted my life to travelling this ticking time bomb that we call earth! But what a bloody place it is aye! I'm a 30 year old single woman, sometimes I travel alone making pals along the way and other times I travel with family and friends, just depends which ever way the wind takes me really. I've kept it PG up until now but basically if you don't like foul mouthed princesses you mays well piss off now. If you're continuing reading, this first blog is based on my recent Trip to Albufeira in the Algarve Portugal, during this shit show of a pandemic. It'll contain a few personal stories as well as some fun places to visit and my recommendations based on my trip. So without further a do lets get this fucking show on the road!!
Travel
So I think firstly lets just acknowledge this absolute car crash of a pandemic. My heart is bleeding for the travel industry, travel really does make my world keep turning. Anyway so I flew from Luton airport with easy jet due to their flights being the cheapest, I always use price comparison site sky scanner to figure this out.The airport experience with a mask wasn't the most pleasant. I had a lot of eyes on me for not wearing a mask firstly masks are bullshit (in my opinion) i'm about to sit on a big bird for two and half hours breathing in recycled oxygen *eye roll* and secondly i'm exempt due to health issues. *another eye roll*. Flights are very very strict, so if you are anti mask to the point where you'd rather shit in your hands and clap than wear a mask i'd advise you not to travel. In the airport they're a little more lenient you can explain you're exempt but as soon as you're queuing to get on that airplane its like a military operation. In all fairness Easy jet dealt with It well. They board the plane rows at a time which is pretty standard anyway. When the plane is in transit you have to have your mask on at all times, not gonna lie I felt like batman, mask on mask off mask on again. You can have your mask off if you're eating or drinking so basically the loop hole is to buy drinks the entire way and stumble off when disembarking, I mean you are on your jollies! No more wandering up and down the plane to have a stretch. I mean It was bitter sweet because at least Tracey wasn't doing the downward dog by the toilets, you know them ones haha.. sorry made myself laugh. The final rule is no more than two queuing for the toilet at any time. Stinks anyway, why anyone would wanna gather by those toilets blows my mind. On landing you're told to stay seated until the row infront has left the plane. This is all fun and games until Trevor from Chelsea is four rows behind and wants to get off. Look Trev wait your turn or buy priority next time you prick, he's probably the guy who clapped on landing as well. So that's the "new normal" when it comes to flying during a pandemic. Portugal side we kind of lived by the rule of if you don't know whether to wear a mask or not, just wear one. Respect the fact you've visited their country and wear one to avoid fines.
Transfers and Taxis
So we pre booked our transfers with a company called Yellow fish travel We thought this was our best option as there was a group of five of us and due to the Covid pandemic Ubers and taxis will only take a maximum of three per car on any journey. This worked out more price efficient being only 25euro each return from the airport. Our driver on arrival was super friendly and gave us the best advice he could and answered any questions we had. On returning back to the airport to come home the driver was right on time and friendly, and helped us load the mini van would recommend.
As for getting around when you're at your accommodation going to the strip or beaches or whatever Uber works perfectly. Exactly the same as at home and nine times out of ten it was the cheapest form of taxi. You do have to wear a mask on ALL forms of public transport whilst in Portugal.
Our Accommodation
So this was the wow factor for our trip!! I shit you not! We stayed on a chuffing boat. A luxury 6 birth sailing yacht, and didn't the whole marina know about it! HAHA. So basically me and my mate Chels were trawling the web trying to find a decent apartment or villa that could fit us all together, but we couldn't find anything with a good location. Then I stumbled across this beauty! With everything you need on board including a shower, toilets, a kitchen, living space, sun deck and Bose sound system! It was the dogs bollocks! A big shout out to our host Sam she helped us with everything. She also lives on the marina so it is easy to access her if your shit blocks the toilet, I won't embarrass you and mention any names Tash don't worry. I actually booked the boat through Air bnb but here is the direct link to the website for better imagery blue Diamond sailing. All the prices vary when booking, due to whether you want the full boat or separate rooms, so enquire to find out more. There were certain rules like no loud music or noise after 10pm due to the respect of the marina, which was more than easy enough to adhere to going out, coming back we shushed each other until below deck then you couldn't hear much at all. Especially when Jay jay was swinging around the pole below deck like Tarzan with his long locks at 2am. I mean I can't comment when I was treating it like a stripper pole and making it rain at the age of 30 which I absolutely will not be doing again. I felt like id been hit by the 126 double decker bus the next morning. But we did come up with a famous quote of "I think every establishment should come with a pole" and let me tell you where my loony bin friends are involved for health and safety reasons it's a good thing not all establishments do.
The boat was a fully functioning sailing boat. On our last night we hired a skipper and took the Blue Diamond out to sea to watch the sunset, and my goodness was it a sight for sore eyes! It Is an additional 300euros for 2.5/3 hours of private chartering but it was worth every penny. All our stuff was below deck, we could change into swimwear when we anchored near a beach cave half way through for a swim if you fancied it. However I was a bottle of Champagne deep at this point and didn't really fancying drowning that day so I gave that a miss. But Eman and Jay jay had a swim and enjoyed it. Another great thing about the boat was that it had an on board mini bar. If on arrival you didn't have drinks or snacks there Is a mini bar on board which you can take advantage of and pay at the end of the trip including soft drinks and alcohol.
The location of Albufeira marina was good. It was coastal obviously, and a 5minute taxi ride to old town or 15 minute taxi ride to new town. Im not going to lie to you I did feel like I was still on a boat a week after getting home but apart from that I had no issues. I did feel a little queasy the one day and had a sea sickness tablet and it went immediately. It is one of the most secure places I've ever stayed needing a swipe card to even enter the marina at all as well as the boat locking and then each individual room locking too. The boat has all glasses, cups, coffee machine, plates and cutlery that you need as well as toilet roll. I honestly don't have anything bad to say about it. I mean if you was hiring a room and didn't know other people you was staying with, it could be a little bit too cosy to be entirely honest. But if you all know each other like we did it would be perfect. It was an amazing experience. I don't know how i'll ever stay on land again!
Albufeira Marina
The marina is full of bars and restaurants. We found ourself at Jacks Irish pub regularly. They had live music which was fun as well as a banging cocktail menu! It was reasonably priced for food and drinks. There was also a bar near the bottom of the marina next to the sushi place and that was fun. Tash decided she was going to try and samba with Eman there, then wanted to try the dirty dancing lift. Instead she just ran into Eman as if he was the wall at platform 9 3/4 and she ended up falling backwards and bumping her head (no one got hurt don't worry) if you'd like to see the comedy of it all you'll find it in my Portugal highlights on my Instagram- shevorne1, you won't be disappointed she looked like a right twit haha I love ya really Tash! There's also a spa supermarket for everything you need for the boat. As well as LOADS of tour operators for boat trips etc.
Albufeira Old town
The old town is a beautiful little town full of cobbled streets and cute little souvenir shops. I mean I wish I could say the cobbled streets were "cute" but I nearly broke my fucking neck every night in my heels. So basically just wear a block heel ladies don't do it to yourself its stupid. Here we ate at a restaurant called Bank Prime Beef. As a vegetarian my food was actually really good, none of us had steak as some of us don't eat meat at all, and the others aren't massive meat eaters either. But there was no complaints meal wise we all enjoyed our food. The side of the restaurant is Bank bar and we went directly from the meal to the bar to sink some tequilas OBVIOUSLY! You couldn't dance at all in this bar it was strict and everyone had to be sat on a high table with enough stools for each individual with table service only. It was no issue we just danced on our stools and resulted to drinking games instead. Drink and food was a little more pricey in this place but still was reasonable. The rest of the old town is full of quaint restaurants, little gift shops and pretty brick work. I'd recommend both going on in the day and on a night as it looks so different with the twinkly lights on a night.
Albufeira New town
The new town was an experience to say the least. Firstly lets just address the picture on the right. It was Eman's 29th birthday, that was the reason for the trip, he wanted to do cheetah girls theme dress up. So as we do that's what we did. We was then mistaken for a band on the whole of the strip, promotors were trying to give us free shots to go into a bar, money off food to eat at their restaurants the list goes on. Not to mention the whole strip singing beautiful girls by Sean Kingston to all of us because they thought Eman was him, it's all a lot. We went in various bars and we had a great time in them all. We just listened out for the type of music we liked and went into them based on who was playing R&B so we could have a dance. As long as you had your mask on you could dance. I also had a shisha on the strip in new town and that was only 25 euros so a fair price for a prime located holiday strip, move over Thomas the tank suitcase Shev is coming through big man! The strip is very hectic, busy and rowdy I'm not sure I'd cope sober but after we'd all drank our body weight in tequila we fit right in. We had such a fun night on the strip. It was wilder than our outfits but then we are a pretty wild bunch so who cares!
The Beaches
The beaches In the Algarve are up there with some of the best in the world. The picture on the left was captured at Benagil beach. It's very much used by the locals so if you do visit and you need shade you need to take your own umbrella. After around 2pm in the peak of summer, there is not one single spot of shade on the beach. Before this there's a cave which is where this picture was taken which is in the shade up until around 2pm when the sun moves over. We accessed the Beach via Uber. You can take a boat tour from the Marina if you wish, to take you directly into the caves (the mast on our boat, the Blue Diamond was too high to enter the caves but it can visit around them). Or you can enter the caves via a speed boat taken directly from the beach, there are kayaks you can rent also If you're brave enough to to paddle or just not hung over like the majority of our group was. The caves are stunning and an absolute must see. The algarve is full of beautiful beach coves, there was too many for us to visit them all. I think the easiest and best way to access them would be via car hire.
So there you have it!! PORTUGYALDEM was nothing but a success. We took this short trip for Eman's birthday. We planned everything and he had absolutely no idea what he was letting himself in for. Please do feel free to watch my instagram Portugal highlights to see the blog turn into a vlog. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to drop me a message.
Thank you for your support on my first ever blog.
Im outta fucks to give
love always
shev x
.... next blog will be Croatia :)