Old Village

Absolute gem of a place! I’m totally envious of anyone who owns an apar**ent in this beautiful complex. The restaurants, bars, bakery and supermarket are fantastic, pools are lovely and the whole place is so pretty and peaceful. We will definitely be coming back

Great location, walking distance to the beach, great restaurants and swimming pools at the old village and friendly staff, especially Carlos. The Phyllis are all very nice with rooftop terraces. We also travel as a golfing group and are always well looked after.

7a Village Street, Old Village, Vilamoura; Letting agent Five Star Letting Agent: 8/10 Apar**ent: 5/10 Old Village: 5/10 Vilamoura: 4/10 Want the (very) long read? Read on . . . I stayed in The Old Village during the first week of March 2024, arriving early Sunday afternoon, before official check-in time. Pleasingly, the keys were already available from the key safe at Five Star offices, a minute’s walk away from 7a Village Street. The two-bed ground floor apar**ent is in the centre of The Old Village, hosted in this instance by Five Star, one of several onsite letting agents. The place has open plan living, cooking and dining, looking out onto its own patio - and a public space beyond. The bedrooms are at the front, with the bathroom is squeezed somewhere between the two areas. With the bedrooms at the front looking out onto the street, the blackout curtains need to be drawn at all times if one is to retain a modicum of modesty. That makes it all a bit gloomy. I like to sleep with curtains and windows open but, whilst possible, it isn’t advisable. The headline impression was of a nicely fitted out apar**ent. It was roomy and modern. But the devil is in the detail, as I would soon discover. The kitchen area had almost everything one could ask for. Except a sink plug. Or a washing up bowl. Or electricity! I looked for instructions on how to switch the apar**ent electricity on, but there were none. Information about the cleaning schedule or where to take the rubbish was also lacking. I found the electricity box: its door looked like it had seen a lot of openings and closings. The master MCB was off. I reset it, but within an hour or so it tripped out; the washing machine abruptly stopped mid-cycle, and my M&S smalls languished in lukewarm suds. The main bedroom had a built-in wardrobe, a chest of drawers and one bedside table. It lacked a chair or two to put clothes on. The chest of drawers was inexpensive – the self-assembly sort - that had become partly disassembled with use. Several drawers could open only a few inches, and others didn’t open at all. They clearly didn’t want to host my M&S smalls, once free of the washing machine. All the furniture in the place was pretty much from the same economy self-assemble range. It was bucking and bending without a straight line amongst it. The dining table had kid’s scribbles scratched into the surface, and the inexpensive plastic upholstery on one dining chair was shredded across its leading edge. Then there was a problem with the safe in the wardrobe of the twin bedroom. I couldn’t use it until Five Star opened on Monday and issued me with a key. I’d intended to travel with a couple of friends, but they pulled out at the last minute. Just as well really. Our relationship wasn’t of an intimate sort, yet the bathroom door dictated that it would certainly need to be. It was the sliding type which stood proud of the doorway to such an alarming degree that no

What a lovely apar**ent we were given thought we were staying in 5 🌟 could not fault there was every thing you could think of. Ironing board with a steam iron. Loads of room to move about. We had a very large roof top were we could see the sea a brilliant view

Had a fabulous time in the Old Village again. Rented a 3 bed apar**ent and arrived to find a huge townhouse with massive living room/dining room, large modern kitchen and downstairs toilet, 3 bedrooms one with ensuite and a full bathroom. The roof terrace had a large table and chair with 4 sunloungers and the patio had large table and chairs and 2 sunloungers. Could have quite happily lived there for a few months 😁

As a 'resort' its lovely- very pretty the little road train runs past. Excellent restaurants/bars and supermarkets etc really nice, the village bakery with fresh bread ( and cheese)! Lovely family restarant ( casa Do largo) so pretty!

We stayed in a 2 bedroom apar**ent in church Street, it had a lovely view to the small pool and sunbeds on the roof terrace. The apar**ent had plenty of room for the 4 of us, we really enjoyed the 9 nights in beautiful villamaura. Met some lovely people around the pool who have been visiting the old village year after year, I must admit I was a bit annoyed at having to pay for the sunbeds but to be honest it worked out better as you could always get a bed at 2pm when the morning session had finished. Special mention to mani that worked in the pool bar, he was such a lovely man, hardworking and very polite. The other member of staff I should mention is Christina on reception,she replies to emails very speedily and helped when we couldn't get an uber to the waterpark 1 day, she called us a cab.we had such a nice time that we want to return again next summer if we can. Only groans would be the beds we're quite hard and the showers in the room could have been more powerful,we couldn't use them both at the same time.bit tricky when we were all getting ready to go out in the evening. Was about 20 mins walk into the marina/beach but really cheap for a taxi to get back after a night out, such a beautiful part of Portugal.

Lovely relaxing place, gardens & outdoor areas are absolutely beautiful, credit to the gardeners & caretakers. Place could do with a few more bars/restaurants, beds could be a little bit more comfortable. This is the place to go to relax, parents stayed in solar de golf- the pools there are so quiet and a great area to relax so we spent most of our time there. Shout out to Sam the minibus driver, used him every night, never late and €8 to the marina for 6 ppl! Marina is expensive so we kept just up off it for food, went to rui s steak house twice during the week, beautiful food. Overall we will def be back if not for a week every year.

This is the strangest place we've ever stayed and we've stayed in a lot of places across Europe and America. Booked holiday via On the Beach and the apar**ent was advertised as 4 star and on site it had 5 stars displayed. I'm baffled by this. Although the site is beautifully cared for with colourful gardens, it lacked basic amenities. Our 2 bedroom apar**ent(advertised with air con) had 1 small AC vent in the living room, which made it unbearable to sleep in the bedrooms during August (36degrees)! We therefore had to drag the mattresses from the bedroom and sleep on the floor of the living room. I asked for fans at reception and was told there were none available. We also had no maid service, which meant no clean towels or sheets and having to find the communal bin (often overflowing) on a daily basis! Check out was 10am, but our transfer was at 4pm. I asked at the reception for a courtesy room so that we could shower before leaving and asked for us to store our luggage for the day. Neither amenity existed, which meant a quick rinse off round the pool and having our luggage around the pool with us. Paying extra to get a late check out was also not an option. The pools themselves were small for the amount of apar**ents which made queuing for a sunbed another first in this "exclusive" part of Portugal. That's not the best bit - the sunbeds which were screwed down to the floor were also charged at 4Euros per bed, per day - expensive with a family of 4!!! Not something I've experienced before or want to again! The sunbed guy was also very strict with the kids in the pool and they weren't allowed floats, lilos or balls...... no fun allowed! Unbelievable. There are a few restaurants on site, you're looking at 20Euro per person for a main course, plus drinks. Shop on site has what you need, but is expensive. There is nowhere to walk to off site and it is about 10mins by car to the Marina, which is meant to be fabulous. Again, this was a let down as the restaurants weren't authentic or original - Mexican, Thai, Indian, Chinese, Irish pubs, pizza..... and the odd one advertising TAPAS - which consisted of onion rings, garlic bread, fries, nachos - not tapas! Very disappointing holiday.