My boyfriend and I stayed at the vila Gale nautico for a week in the middle of June and had a fantastic time.

The hotel is on the outskirts of the small town but is only 5 mins walk from a host of restaurants and bars. You can walk the length of the town in under 30mins so its not that big and the nightlife isn't up to much if you want that sort of thing.

The hotel itself is lovely, the rooms are spacious and very clean. All with A.C and balconies, no tea and coffee making faclities in the room though which I missed.

All the staff are lovely and very accommodating - our flight wasn't until 8 and they gave us a complimentary late check out until 4 which was great.

The beach is just accross a couple of roads and down some steps and is lovely and clean - a lot of sand flies though!

If you love seafood then there are plenty of restuarants - we loved Porters which served lovely Prawn and Monkfish Skewered Kebabs. Busiri's Patisserie just along from the hotel also do great desserts and the staff there are all lovely too.

All in all a great holiday. Wouldn't recommend this for groups of young people as I think there is only 1 club and a taxi to Albufeira costs about £20, but for couples and families this is a great place.

HOTEL

Smashing hotel me and my wife stayed on a Bed and breakfast basis
good sized room cleaned on a daily basis and towels also changed every day
room also had a small fridge with drinks but thought they were a bit pricey
Tv in room has Sky news BBC World VH1music and cartoon network as well as a number of local channels

FACILITIES
hotel has a large adults only pool (very deep) and a small kiddie pool an inside pool jacuzzi and gym small shop at reception which sells daily papers

video games room also near the restaurant

2 bars one at the pool and the other opens at night with entertainment

FOOD
very good choice of breakfast items though if you are looking for traditional fry up you are out of luck but hey your are on holiday.

we didnt go to the restaurant at night but heard it was very good but a bit pricey for a buffet think I think it was 20 Euros per person

STAFF
found staff very nice and helpful ask for a map of the village at the reception and they will advise you were the best restaurants are.

BEACH

massive sandy beach 5-mins from hotel 5 euro for a lounger and 2 for a parasol there are a couple of good restauraunts on the beach

RESORT

Hotel is right at the end of the resort which is very quite so if you like to party all night dont go here as there is not much to do we went here at the start of May for a quite relaxing break and that is what we got but were advised by locals in June july August this is a portugese resort and people from the big city Lisbon come here and it is absolutely packed

Just got back from a week long stay at the Nautico and to be honest it was a whole lot more than I expected.

The rooms were clean and spacious with en suite WC. The rooms were cleaned daily and everything felt nice and fresh. It can be a bit of a trek to get to your room depending on where you are though.

We stayed on a B&B basis and breakfast was always good, both the hot and cold buffets were consistently stocked and lots of pastries and drinks too. Didnt have dinner on site so can't comment on that.

The one bar they have, Mayflower, is quite well stocked, I never had anything less that speedy service but others were complaining of how long it took the bar staff to approach them and take their order. The barman was great though, took about 3 days to make him crack a little smile! Cheer up Francisco! :)

The pool area was kept clean and there was always a lounger to be found however I'm sure that wouldn't be the case during peak season.

The beach was absolutely fantastic, it took all of 5 minutes to get to and there was again always plenty of space to lay your towel and relax.

The surrounding area is quite quiet so if you are looking for a good nightlife then its best to choose somewhere else. Lots of restaurants around so lots of variety and as you'd expect, the seafood is top notch. Within a 10 minute walk down the street you will pass around 3 cafes, 2 pizza places, an English pub and several restaurants. The prices vary depending on each establishment, some nights we paid over 30 euros for dinner, other nights under 10.

All in all, this resort is perfect if you need some time away from home to chill out and relax and I wouldn't hesitate in returning... off season of course!

Needing a last minute holiday (2 days before!!) we chose the Vila Gale, and were not disappointed. The whole hotel was clean, and rooms were tidied everyday. The pool is superb (nice and deep for adults) and there is also a seperate childs play pool. The buffet breakfasts were simply excellent, with a large hot selection, together with all the croissants, pastries, yoghurst, fruits etc you could wish for. We were on a b&b basis and would highly recommend this as there are plenty of places to eat, in Armacao de Pera (1km away). Its only a short stroll but if you cant walk that far, you'll find a Chinese restaurant about 200 yards away and various other places very close. The fish restaurants are excellent in Armacao, and there are plenty.
Nevertheless, there is one big point to be made. Although Armacao de Pera used to be a small fishing port in the Algarve - it is no longer so. The authorites have allowed huge amounts of building in recent years, particularly high-rise apartment blocks which are ugly and not in keeping with the Algarve architecture. It is such a shame that this has been allowed to happen, and the once pretty fishing village now has the feel of a small city. We were told that in the off season there are 6000 people, however in the high season there are some 120,000!!! Certainly no fishing village!! If you are going in the off-season then this is not necessarily a problem and we had a fantastic holiday, however during summer holidays beware that you will be queuing for everything (the beach, the restaurants, the bars etc). Having said all that - we had a wonderful time, and met some extremely nice locals - we are just thankfully that we went in Oct (and had superb weather!!).