Relaxing Retreat | Parchal

We stayed at The Riverside Hotel, aptly named as it’s situated alongside the River Arade. We were lucky enough to have a suite, which was well-appointed with a double balcony, as well as kitchen and dining area. We didn’t take advantage of this too much, as we were in all-inclusive. We had the loveliest view of the river, which looked even better at night, when the sun was setting.

We spent a morning in Portimão and even though I’d been before, it was lovely to return and walk around the port. We didn’t have time to go to the Museum of Portimão, which was a shame as I really enjoyed it the last time. We just sauntered up and down the quayside, before going to get a drink, some lunch and watch the football *hands over eyes*. The weather really wasn’t as bad as it looked.

The following day we went to Ferragudo, another fishing town. It was market day, being Sunday and so, was incredibly busy. We walked through the town, to the quayside, before walking back and stopping for a drink – I had a weird mojito. We also went for a lovely leisurely lunch at a restaurant I’d been to with family before and some gorgeous fresh fish. We were also hoping to ride the boat taxi, which looked loads of fun – unfortunately it was no longer running to Riverside.

On Monday, we took a taxi to Lagoa and went to Slide & Splash aqua park. It was so much fun and one of the excursions I had previously looked in to doing. We received a leaflet at the airport about it and so, got a 5€ discount which was pretty good. I’m so glad we managed to go and it made for a good day – I think we went down every slide! My favourite was the Blue Hole (a blue tube you went down on a rubber ring), or Tornado (the chutes led to a whirlpool which sucked you in before going down another chute into the pool). I also loved Banzai, where you went down on a body board head first. Even though it was busy, we never had to queue long – and I had the lushest Carte D’Or ice cream (marshmallow but it tasted like bubblegum).