A week in Portugal

by Leyla [Thisdayilove] - 22:01

After our first visit to Portugal the girls have been desperate to return, in fact we all have. Portugal, or the Algarve to be more specific is a place we all feel at home and relaxed and so we were delighted when Martinhal Quinta invited us to visit.

I wrote a post about the resort and the family friendly facilities on site which you can read here and wanted to focus more on our holiday and the memories we created in this post.

This was the first time Little Man had been on a plane and travelled abroad. He seemed to enjoy the attention. The bond between the girls grew stronger as they spent every moment playing with each other.

We chose not to hire a car and instead opted to walk everywhere. The girls were happy to spend time at our villa playing in the pool and their daredevil antics of jumping as high as they could lasted for as long as they could withstand the cool water.

Our resort provided the perfect base to explore. The girls and I would take Little Man for a walk around the resort for his morning and afternoon naps, exploring all the paths and playing games as we went.

Our villa gave us plenty of space to be together and also space for us to do do our own things, should we have wanted to. The girls would skip happily up the cobbled street towards our villa, counting the numbers as they went until they reached the steps of ours.

When the weather was sunny we spent our day by the side of the large outdoor pool. The girls relaxing in the sun and playing in the water together.

The girls would combine splashing in the pool with playing on the Martinhal Van and trampolines. Getting out the water to bounce or take the van on a pretend trip, before jumping right back in again. Their imaginations running wild, laughing as they played.

The majority of our afternoons we would spend playing by our pool at our villa. My youngest determined to make it all the way across the pool, I didn't want to spoil her fun trying to explain to her the inability to walk on water.

The grass area surrounding our pool was perfect for lounging on, Little Man enjoyed watching his sisters splashing and playing in the water.

Escaping technology and playing bat and ball games, our afternoons were all about quality time together as a family.

With such mixed weather all week we chose to spend one of the days in Faro, to break up the holiday and so we could soak up more that Portugal had to offer. Faro had so much for families to do, even in the rain. We would like to go back and visit again as we focused mainly on the bad weather activities, but there were a lot of beautiful parks that we would love to explore.

Rain in Porutgal was simply beautiful. The way it danced across the sky and provided relief from the warm air. The atmosphere warm and humid, we would stand and watch the rain approach from the balcony. The sky changing colour before our eyes.

Whilst the weather might not have always been favourable we always made the most of our time together.

Sometimes that even meant sitting outdoors eating lunch and watching the rain fall all around us.

One of my favourite photos I have ever taken of my eldest daughter was on our holiday in Portugal. We were on one of our many walks around the resort, playing games and pushing Little Man so he would have a nap. My eldest was map reading and looking lost in thought, I just love the moment.

Time away seems to strengthen the bond between the children. They all have different relationships with each other and it is a real privilege to watch them develop as they grow older.

Our time is Portugal was a week for escaping and unwinding. Taking time just to stand back and soak in the views.

With the beach a short walk away we had to spend a day playing in the golden sand and dipping our toes in the water.

Emerging yourself in the local cuisine and cultures, eating freshly caught fish whilst sat on the beach front and watching your children enjoy every bite then asking for more.

As we sat and ate our food we watched the local wildlife and tried to see who could spot the most lizards.

Connecting the beach to Quinta is a long wooden bridge, the bridge made for the perfect space to work off some energy from lunch and to play a game of tag.

Just a short walk from Martinhal was the lake. The lake was a fabulous place for families. Everything from pedalos to boats. Soft white sand for the girls to play in, large beanbags for them to relax and play on. Space for them to run around and be free, space for them to be children. We had planned on having lunch on the beach but we had not counted on having to book in advance, and did not fancy the wait time of over an hour for a table. At least we know for the future as the food smelled amazing.

Outside of the resort one of our favourite places to eat was KoKo lane. With views overlooking the golf course, amazing food and a playground for the children it was the perfect place for the whole family. The staff went out of their way to make us all feel welcome, taking time to talk to Little Man and talking to the girls. The girls wanted to eat here every day, and of course play in the playground.

A trip to Quinta would not be complete without playing golf, given the great choice of golf facilities it would have been a shame not to. Our golf skills are however limited to mini golf, safe to say though that this was a huge amount of fun.

The golf course was incredibly family friendly with different colour artificial grass to represent water and grass areas. The girls loved the different challenges that each hole brought with everything from bridges to pretend streams to jump over.

Our time in Portugal saw us create some wonderful family memories and we had some amazing adventures together.

We were invited to Martinhal Quinta, but enjoyed our stay so much that we paid for extra nights to extend our stay. All words in this post are my own opinion.