After reading the reviews on these apartments I am totally speechless how anyone could have one iota of praise for the Choro Mar Apartments.

We booked with Thomsons and never again will I use this travel agent, their customer service is a disgrace and how they could be marketing such a place as the Choro Mar beggers belief.
As soon as we pulled up outside the apartments my face dropped, it was like something you would see in a war zone, I did however hold back from moaning as I assumed the inside would be better. It was not.

We requested an apartment away from the bar, we where put directly above the bar, all be it 2 floors up. The kitchen was dirty, the stench coming from the bathroom was one of absolute disgust, I could only assume that they had a problem with their drainage, the same aroma was seeping through the plug hole in the kitchen sink, it was enough to make you go blind!

We ventured down to the ‘bar’ for a beer, the staff where extremely rude, dirty and only seemed to want to serve you if you had on a baseball cap or was sporting tattoos, eventually got a drink, sat down at dirty tables and left extremely swiftly.

For 2 nights we had loud music booming into our apartment, because of the smell we had to keep the doors and windows open, by this time I was reduced to tears and went to the reception and asked if we could change room, our request was met with a blunt we will see what we can do, we even phoned the 24 hour help line provided by Thomsons to be told that there was no one available!

We eventually moved apartments, again to one that smelt of raw sewerage! We ate there one night and was given pizza’s with green mould on their base. The crazy golf looks like it has not been used or cleaned for a decade, the swimming pool is a disgrace, the showers have stagnant green slime in them and the sun beds are all taken over by loud mouth beer swigging chavs, young and old! The staff have no concept of customer service and the night time entertainment is a joke, unless you like to see people wrecked out of their heads screaming down the microphone at karaoke and also at each other.

All in all the place is a dump and I would rather eat glass that ever ever go back to the Choro Mar Apartments.

Our family have been going to the Choromar now for 5 years and have had our best holidays there. The apartments are very spacious and clean (even the one bedroomed apartments are massive!). We heard about the Choromar from friends who have been going there for 14 years, yes 14 YEARS! and I think that says it all. I always said that I would not like to go back to the same place on holiday as it is never the same but my holidays to the Choromar have just got better and better. There is a 20 minute walk to all the bars and restaurants at the "strip" and a short taxi ride along to the Old Town where there is a large square where they lay on entertainment at the weekends.

Carlos, Saija, Graca and Manuel make you feel extremely welcome and have become good friends over the last 5 years. The bar has entertainment every night which includes karaoke about 3 times a week which goes down well the first and even the second time but can become a little tedious by the second week. There are two beaches nearby, one down at Praia da Oura and the other along at the Old Town (daily transport from reception).
My best holiday has to be 2004 spent at the Choromar where I had a "special" birthday. A few of us there on holiday (40 in total!) spent the day on a sailing boat which took us round the coast to a small bay. After going ashore we had sardines cooked by the crew all washed down with some bubbly and played beach games on the sand organised by Carlos. What a day! and what a 40th party!

this was our first holiday with our kids then 5 and 3 and it was the cleanest and best place for kids, the people who worked there were fantastic, such nice people i just love portugal and i will come back now my kids are 16 and 18,
have been many places after that but this place has always stuck in my mind
thank you chor o mar for a wonderful stay

in september of last year my girlfriend and i went on our first holiday together. we had decided on the the algarve and choromar's prices seemed reasonable for that time of year.

when we arrived we were met by a lady who was very helpful and able to answer our questions. so far so good.

on our first night we decided to go to the bar before heading for the strip(which was a challenge in itself).

immediatley it occured that it was a very close knit business which seemed fine. trying to get a drink or any service at all was very difficult when people who the owner(i think) knew were in the bar.

with exception to a small fellow, the bar staff seemed arrogant and reluctant. that kind of set the tone for the holiday.
during the day my girlfriend felt uncomfortable in the bar and at night it was hard to sleep for the screeching sorry karaoke.

as for location we were told a five minute walk to the strip, closer to fifteen by my watch. the roads are full of pot holes and very dangerous at night. i dont think the algarve have a standard driving test either. it must be a case of if you can hold the wheel you can drive a car.

it wasn't all bad i must admit, we stayed in the block around the corner and it was almost like having our own pool. the apartment was a decent size but we were overrun with ant's in the kitchenette, very off putting indeed.

the free bus to the old town was a nice touch and the driver was polite aswell. the driver and his wife(who works in the mini-market) must stay over there for a few months of the year. both from manchester once again were very helpful indeed.

as for the strip itself there is a pub/restaurant called the anchor (or something to that effect) which was probably the best restaurant we ate in.

every day without fail i was asked if wanted to buy a watch, wallet etc. if you show any interest you are immediatley confronted with a block of cannabis, my advice ignore all street sellers but you probably knew that already.

if you're looking for variety in shops think again. each shop owner must go to the same cash and carry, and buy the same tat.
we were lucky enough to find a newcastle united bar(my football team) but you couldn't swing a cat once in side.

if you decide to go i would recommend the zoomarine animal park around 20 euro's each for the full day.

the weather wasn't great but it was certainly better than what we had here at that time of year.
deffinately a holiday to forget