FULL MARKS ALL ROUND
The whole family will agree that this chic new Algarve resort is top of the class
THERE are many ways to arrive at the beach — but being driven in a banana yellow tuk-tuk comes with a certain aplomb. The electric rickshaw is just one of the treats on offer at the new Anantara Vilamoura Algarve Resort in Portugal, a sprawling 280-room complex 20 minutes from Faro airport. I’m here with my wife, Montserrat, and our daughters, Marina, 12, and Sofia, nine. And we are four fortunate campers.
The beach is only four miles away, but it takes the quirky charms of the tuk-tuk to tempt the girls away from the hotel’s five swimming pools.
They agree it’s worth the trip just to see Portugal’s largest marina, where floating palaces jostle for attention.
Earlier, the girls had looked horrified when we asked if they wanted to join the free Anantara Adventurers’ Kids Club, clearly considering themselves far too grown-up.
Then along came one of the club’s kindly British helpers who asked if they would like to join in a game of water polo, thereby abandoning their sun loungers and smartphones.
They barely leave the pool after this, striking up friendships with several children, leaving my wife and I to dive into our Kindles.
The service here is excellent, with charming touches such as custard tarts on your bedside table when you return to your room in the evening. But the five-star treatment means little to the girls so long as there’s water in the pool.
Montserrat is Spanish and bristles when a barman tells us one evening that the Portuguese serve the tastiest tapas. However, the petiscos, as they are known here, give her food for thought, especially when our nibbling is accompanied by a trio performing fado, traditional Portuguese music.
ABAldIng, elderly man with a bushy moustache, who looks more than a little like Manuel from Fawlty Towers, croons passionately. Fado is known for its mournful tone, but the effect here is strangely uplifting.
The Algarve has more than 30 golf courses and Anantara has its own ‘golf guru’, Tomas Carlota, an amiable, aspiring pro. Fluent in English, he gives the girls, who have only ever played crazy golf, a taste of the real thing. ‘ What is a hole in one?’ Sofia asks as we peruse the plaques on the wall of the nearby laguna golf club, where all those who have achieved the feat have their names engraved.
When we collect the girls two hours later, Sofia assures us, ‘it’s all about the swing.’
Food is a major attraction at Anantara. While some hotels have a snack bar by the pool dishing out burgers and chips, Anantara has Ria, a restaurant aiming to offer the region’s best seafood.
Waiters parade the catch of the day in baskets to sunbathing guests in a bid to entice them in.
The children’s menu offers sea bass and club sandwiches. We are enticed easily.
Food tastes better when you’ve helped prepare it, I was always taught, so one morning we sign up for the Spice Spoons cookery class. It involves going to the charming nearby town of loule to buy ingredients with one of the hotel’s chefs, deolindo.
Marina and Sofia are instructed to choose the juiciest nectarines at the covered market for a flambe dessert, while deolindo shows them how to select the firmest sea bass and clams, so fresh that they still spout water. When we return, the girls use a
cataplana (copper-covered pan) to bake the seafood with boiled potatoes, prawns, tomatoes and onions. I feel a touch guilty as we sit down to be served the delicious fruits of our labours while deolindo returns to the blazing kitchen for another hard day’s work. But the guilt soon subsides — and the unadulterated pleasures of this Algarve holiday resume.
TRAVEL FACTS
THE INSPIRING Travel Company ( inspiringtravelcompany.co.uk, 01244 355527) offers seven nights B&B at the Anantara Vilamoura Algarve Resort from £2,389 per family (two adults and two under 12s), including flights and transfers. Valid until March 31, 2018.