Mini holiday series: Portugal - Faro, Day 1

For the next few posts I'll be showing you where I stayed and what I got up to on my holiday...

To get away from London for a week, you have to plan way in advance to get the cheapest deals and flights. So Miss Pinky decided we should go to Faro, Portugal where her brother was working (he came back to London when we went!). So I booked the cheapest flights from easyJet and the cheapest apartments (self-catering) that I could find from laterooms.com via the easyJet website in December.

So on day 1 of the holiday we got to Faro Airport just before 6pm. The airport is a bit chaotic. It seemed to be all over the place. You just didn't know where to turn to get out! We just followed the people in front of us who seemed to know where they were going.

I didn't book a transfer online but we managed to get a cheap transfer to our apartments in time for €28 (return transfer) using this company besttransfers4u, and we met a nice old Irish lady Olivia who kept us company. She's travelled to Portugal for 30 years! She even invited us for dinner but it's too bad we couldn't meet up with her - she was staying at a hotel that is very far from where we stayed!

The driver didn't know how to get to our villa - apparently it's a private area in Pêra but as soon as the driver found his way to our apartments we said our goodbyes to Olivia and on we went... 

We booked in at reception and we got our key, then got to our apartment door and we couldn't open it! A nice English gentleman said hello to us (and I thought he worked there - because he wore a hat bearing the villa's name!). Thankfully Miss Pinky asked about where there are food places around the area... not many unfortunately (I picked the cheapest apartments - but I didn't realise it was very far from everywhere!). The gentleman named John invited us to his next door for dinner. I was astounded! I couldn't believe we had met 2 lovely people within moments of each other after arriving! Amazing! That's what Portugal does to people I guess. :)

We had our dinner and John offered to drop us off to the cheapest supermarket the next morning - so grateful!

I didn't take many pictures on day 1, but here's my lunch at Gatwick airport...

Steak, chips and an omelette at Armadillo, Gatwick North Terminal