Albufeira, Algarve, Portugal - a place for tourists?

Welcome to MyAlbufeira.com. On this site you will find mainly information about my personal experiences when living in Albufeira, Algarve, Portugal for a month during off-season from February 23, 2011 to March 23, 2011. Because it was off-season, some things might be and definitely are different touring the high season.

My personal reason for going to Albufeira was rather simple - I wanted warmer weather. And during my stay there the temperatures were usually anywhere between 15 and 20 C. Not really hot, but good enough compared to -21 C, right? I even managed to sort of swim in the ocean during my trip, even though the alleged average water temperature during March is supposed to be 16 C. Then again, I guess the claim that I swam in the ocean could be compared to saying hi to a girl and calling it a relationship. Never mind. I just went into water and waited for the wave to make me wet (if you have a dirty mind, so do I, but I didn't mean it this way).

Albufeira definitely is meant for tourists. When I went there I was hoping to learn some Portuguese, but by the end of my trip I knew the world Bolas, Porra (you can find the translations yourself or check out the Learn Portuguese section on this site), I also know how to order coffee and beer. I could give you the sentences, but in most cases, the correct sentences are "One beer please", "Give me a pint" or "An espresso please". The reason for that is simple - there's a great number of bars that are owned by either English (well, English, welsh, Irish or Scottish) or Dutch. Or even if that's not the case, a lot of the touts and bartenders and waitresses still are not locals, but rather from United Kingdom. Bolas!

During off-season, at least during my stay, the average age in the town seamed to be something like 60. High season in definitely different, but I would think there are still a lot of old tourists as well.

The size of the town? It's actually really small, just 13 646 inhabitants.

Enough of the general information, if you want some more specific information about Albufeira, read the other a bit more specific posts and if you still haven't found what you're looking for, get in touch and I'll see if I can help.

Albufeira, Algarve, Portugal - a place for tourists?

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