EASY PEASY ALGARVE
Portugal’s lush, laid-back coast is a breeze for family breaks with little ones
TRAVELLING with a toddler is trying at the best of times. But holidaying with a demanding infant gourmand who likes to dine on sea bass, black olives and bulgur wheat and insists on changing her outfit the moment a speck sullies it, is another matter.
Could we possibly pack enough sundresses to keep fastidious Grace, almost two, satisfied? Would taking all of the books needed to keep her entertained for a week tip our suitcases over the weight limit?
For all other parents who have a young diva in the making, let me give the following advice: visit Quinta do Lago, one of the most delightful corners of Portugal’s Algarve.
Long, sandy beaches, fabulous food and cloudless skies combine to make this the perfect location for our first foreign family holiday.
We are staying at the Martinhal Quinta resort, an exclusive collection of townhouses and villas, which gives us the flexibility we need for a trip with a little one.
As well as enjoying a large, airy, traditional Portuguese townhouse with a pretty garden and our own private pool, we also take advantage of the resort’s well-catered restaurant and endless shuttle services to the nearby beach, lake and beyond.
Our stay is made even more restful by Tots To Travel, the specialist company we book through. They do all the hard work for you, checking that each property meets your child’s needs and providing everything from bottle sterilisers to potties and bathtime toys.
The lovely welcome pack even has thoughtfully selected books for bedtime and a CBeebies DVD.
As for the wider resort of Quinta do Lago, it’s easy to see why it’s favoured by everyone from Chris Evans to the Beckhams. Pretty walkways wind their way through endless greenery, stone pines soar, purple bougainvillea brighten every bed and rosemary and lavender bushes exude a sweet scent.
And this, I suppose, is part of the surprise of the Algarve. Yes, golf is certainly the order of the day, and you could happily lose your husband on one of the many nearby courses for an afternoon, but the area is so much more than a golfing ghetto.
It’s full of natural wonders. The Ria Formosa Natural Park, just minutes from our hotel, is astonishing. A coastal lagoon, unique thanks to the continual changes caused by the currents and tides, it is home to countless species, as we discover on our afternoon expeditions along the nature trail. Grace marvels at the ‘pinchy crabs’, as we nickname the tiddlers that tiptoe their way through the mudflats, and she screams with excitement at the thought of them nibbling her feet. Endless birds fly overhead. The area is an important stop-over point on the migration routes between Europe and Africa, and the park hosts more than 20,000 birds over the winter. It’s a true twitcher’s paradise. And to those who complain that resorts along the Algarve create a manicured fantasy, one can point to the signs of ‘real’ Portugal that we see every day — such as the fishermen bent double, laboriously picking clams and other shellfish by hand, a reminder of how some things remain steadfastly constant, despite the boom in tourism.
Our days easily settle into a contented routine. Breakfasts feasting on fresh breads, cheese and grilled tomatoes, followed by trips to the white, sandy beach just two minutes from the Martinhal resort.
Grace had only previously experienced splashing in waves off the Northumberland and Devon coasts. You can imagine her joy when she realised that the sea can be blissfully warm, as well as bracing.
And the culinary adventures continue after the shell-collecting and construction of many sand castles is complete.
You don’t have to travel far to find fabulous restaurants in this part of the world. We enjoy tasty lunches at The Shack, a wooden hut with a deck stretching out onto the shore of the lake that gives Quinta do Lago its name.
And Maria’s restaurant, perched on the sands at nearby Dunas Douradas, becomes a dinnertime favourite. In a seaside-chic setting, we feast like kings on fresh tiger prawns, succulent turbot, delicate bream and moreish fish pates — not to mention huge plates of black olives for Grace.
There’s so much more to the Algarve than a mere 18 holes.