Great beaches (Praia da Rocha)

Member Name: gpollock

Product:	Praia da Rocha
Date:	12/02/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great beaches and weather

Disadvantages: Limited choice of restaurants

Praia da Rocha is a lively tourist resort situated in the popular Algarve area of southern Portugal. The area is very popular with British and Irish tourists due to it's excellent beaches and fantastic weather and only being a short flight away. Faro is the nearest airport and it takes about 40 minutes to get to the resort. The currency is the Euro and it is in the same time zone as the UK.

The resort, typical of most has a large number of hotels and apartments to choose from and plenty of restaurants and bars catering for all tastes! The hotels and apartments spread out into the surrounding area but the main resort itself is quite small with only a couple of streets filled with the usual touristy shops, bars and restaurants. The best thing Praia da Rocha has to offer in my opinion is the amazing beach which stretches for miles. It is very clean, with plenty of space for everyone and a wide choice of water activities available such as jet skis, banana boating and para-sailing. The beach restaurants serve excellent seafood dishes which are a must - especially the local speciality, sardines. If you get tired with your water sports or lying in the sun, it's worth taking a walk down to the marina where they have built a new complex of restaurants and a few shops and you can check out some of the amazing yachts!

In terms of nightlife, the resort comes alive fairly early in the evening with many young families out for dinner and strolling about. Slightly later on around midnight the bars fill up with the younger crowds and there are the usual karaoke and disco type bars. There's also a very high number of Irish bars all in the one area which have live music and plenty of Guinness! There are a couple of good night clubs (one called Bablyon and one called Katedral) which go on until about 6am. The only problem is, with the resort being quite small you end up in the same places each night and you bump into a lot of the same people!

The good thing about the resort is that everything is in walking distance and it is a very safe resort. There's maybe not a lot to do besides sunbathing and partying at night time unless you go on one of the daytime excursions somewhere or take a trip into one of the other nearby resorts or the nearby town of Portimao.

Last time I stayed in the Club Praia da Rocha hotel which was very convenient and suitable for those with families or groups of friends. The hotel is basic enough but has everything you need with a decent enough pool. The food in the hotel is average enough.

For a fairly relaxing beach holiday this is a good enough resort. The nightlife s not wild like Ibiza or Aya Napa but there's enough to keep you going each night until the early hours!

Summary: Great place for a beach holiday