A WEEKEND IN THE ALGARVE

ALL INCLUSIVE £99 BUDGET : DID WE SUCCEED?

Travelling, whilst worthwhile - can be a really expensive hobby that adds up really quickly. The £99 Weekend Challenge aims to take advantage of cheap flights and getting to amazing destinations for a refreshing weekend whilst still being able to get back to work on Monday morning - perhaps a little tired but definitely spiritually rejuvenated! Here’s how the challenge went for us.

THE DESTINATION

Where is The Algarve? The Algarve is the 200km southern coastline of Portugal, and includes some 25 different resort towns and small villages. There’s a lot of variety here for a beach getaway - we flew into Faro Airport and based ourselves in Carvoeiro, a perfectly scaled town for a weekend getaway. It takes about an hour to get from Faro to Carvoeiro by car - we think a car is a must have when exploring this coastal region.

How to keep costs down? I find that because I live in a big city (London) - any excuse to hike to be within nature replenishes my soul. One of the bonuses of going hiking is that it is free! Although the idea of wandering into nature in an unknown environment and country may be daunting - it is important to be prepared. I always make sure I always account for the possibility that I may need to order a taxi back, or that phone reception may just disappear, or that the heavens may open up with no shelter to be found. Komoot is a great app that allows you to download hikes and uses GPS to track your location - so you can have your phone on Airplane mode to conserve battery whilst on the go.

The itinerary? As there’s not much time to waste on a weekend trip, it’s a good idea to have a strong base for what you want to do, have alternate options in case the weather goes wrong or if things are closed, but most importantly accept that you aren’t able to do every single thing on your list. Two days will absolutely fly by and for me, I’d rather have an amazing time doing one or two things, than trying to see everything and then getting flustered or stressed out fitting everything in. It’s meant to be a relaxing time after all. After flying in and checking into our hotel on Friday night, we decided on a Saturday lunchtime hike starting at Praia da Marinha, then watching the sunset at Ponta da Piendade, then dinner in Lagos Old Town. The following day, we had lunch in Carvoeiro, followed by afternoon tea in Albufeira, before dropping back the car and heading back to the Airport.

The cost breakdown

Return flights: £26 - Using Skyscanner, we found flights from London Stanstead to Faro were £13 one way. This was the major factor in our decision to flying to Faro for the weekend - and although the Algarve is hardly a secret destination - I had never been before and so was a perfect place to go. We booked some three weeks ahead, flying out at 8:30pm on Friday night and returning to Stanstead at 11:00pm on Sunday evening. Luckily for me the National Express (the airport bus service, which stops 5 minutes from my apartment) runs all night!

Accomodation: £31 - We stayed at Rocha Brava Village Resort, a 4 star resort for £15.50 per person per night. The place we stayed in was amazing! We visited in December, so the place was extremely quiet, but that just worked in our favour. The resort features swimming pools, a restaurants, tennis courts, an on site supermarket, and is a short walk to the beach. Concierge runs 24 hours of the day, and if we really wanted to push our budget, we could have stayed for 1 night.

Car hire, tolls & petrol: £32 - The car hire itself was £40 in total, so for a group of 2 it ended up being £20 per person, for 48 hours. With petrol & tollways added, we ended up spending £32 per person. If you want a cheaper car rental price in Europe, then remember to book a manual car! We got our car rental with Sixt, opting for the Lucky Dip - which ranges from top quality economy cars and hatchbacks to the Full-Size group of premium saloons. We were given a Renault Koleos - great for the Portuguese highways.

Food & Drink: £37 - Okay this is where we could have pushed our budget a bit harder, but couldn’t help ourselves. Our hotel came with a fully stocked kitchen, so if we really wanted to, we could have bought sardines and bread and cooked some veggies, but dinner on Saturday night and lunch on Sunday was too good to pass up. We had grilled fish, starters, and wine in Lagos which was £16 pp, and then on the Sunday we opted for an All You Can Eat sushi/sashimi restaurant for £21pp. Whoops.

Takeaway Coffee & Hiking Snacks: £9 - As alluded to above, to really save money, you can pack your lunch, and wander through the supermarkets for some local delicacies. For breakfasts, we had some really cheap and delicious pastel de natas, as well as some canned sardines which are a speciality of Portugal. You can also get some really cheap bottles of wine - we bought a bottle for £2.50! (Maybe we bought 2 actually….)

THE VERDICT

Did we succeed in keeping to our budget? Unfortunately no, we didn’t, the weekend coming in at £135. However we did manage to do an amazing trip with some amazing sights and scenery, ate some wonderful food for not a lot of money - without taking time off work. It was definitely a great challenge and we will be trying to succeed in this challenge for the next destination! See you then!