Tavira, Pedras Del Rei Complex

Great staff and beautiful gardens. Try the delicious "Tostas Mistas" at Caf Nora, then stroll down to the beach - on your way, you will be overtaken (but only just!!) by the charming little train put-putting across to the Blue Flag Barril beach. For a change from the excellent on-site resturant, you could walk a kilometre along the coast road to Santa Luzia, and dine there looking out on the Ria Formosa. It is a lovely place.

Fantastic grounds, relaxed feel, tucked away, you wouldn't even know it was there!

The mix of accommodation offered was great, B&B/Self catering/Condo/Villa.

The fact that our Condo was serviced was ideal. We could eat breakfast in our apartment, then go to the pool and/or beach and come back to a nice clean and tidy flat, having eaten lunch at the cafe!

It has the best of both worlds, pool and beach, a good mix of nationalities and a great choice of aspects within the complex.

The free train to the beach was a real winner with our 3 year old daughter!

A very charming touch.

Tavira, the nearby town has a great pizzeria and a really lovely chilled out vibe, whilst still feeling authentic.

All in all, Pedras Del Rei was a very special complex and area with a real sense of place.

Been to Pedras Del Rei Complex resort a few years back (about 1995) and decided to come back again last year (2003). Ideal for young families looking to get away from the hustle and bustle. The complex is miles away from the main road and there's acre upon acre of grass/garden space for the kids to safely run about in while we lazed by the decent sized pool. The staff were incredibly friendly and helpful. Accomodation for s/c was basic but more than met our needs as we wern't planning on spending too much time in it. The resort has a couple of bars, a restaurant, large cafe, ice cream shop, tourist shop and a mini-market. all was very reasonably priced. There's also a tennis court. The kids club was well run (and well used by our 3yr old). The resort is a bit away from the nearest decent sized town, Tavira, but was still less than a tenner for the taxi. There's a little fishing village, Santa Luzia, about 20 mins walk from the complex that offers what you would expect:- quite a few restaurants, bars and shops, guys along the waterfront playing chess and boules, the odd hotel. not too much though, quite a peacefull little village - very nice. We hired a car to get a bit further afield (although there were plenty of tours/excursions on offer at the resort). the other side of faro to get to the splash parks and the dolphin/animal park (both well worth a visit)

Onto the beach: stunning!!! It's actually an island seperated from the complex by mud flats when the tide's out and it fills up when tide's in. to the sand is about 15 mins walk from the complex. Theres a lovely half-sized steam (deisel) train along every 10 mins or so to take people to the beach if you dont fancy the walk. The train chuggs along at a leisurely pace for about 3 or 4 minutes to the beach front. The beach itself is stunning and stretches as far as I could see in either direction. Again, theres a couple of cafe's, bars and a shop and restaurant on the beach and again, all seemed well run at good prices.

Ideal place for young family and those seeking a bit more of a quiet holiday. wouldn't recomend for clubbers and those wanting to "live-it-up". it's a bit isolated and not really "geared-up" for that kind of thing. All in all, a superb time was again had by me and my family. the only gripe was for a couple of days a swarm of mosquitos plagued the area. they came and went though and I look forward to returning.