Vale Do Garrao, Casa Fermar

I couldn't believe it when I started reading this review. I thought my husband had written it, because exactly the same thing had happened to us on holiday at Casa Fermar. However, when I said to him "I didn't realise you had written a review", he said "I didn't". It was only then that I looked at it more closely. "Leisaj" wrote that they had been burgled 5 days into their holiday in June 2007. We had been burgled 5 days into our holiday in July 2006. We felt at the time that someone had obviously been watching the villa and our movements, but this would seem to prove that burgling this villa is a regular occurence. Like "Leisaj", we found the police to be totally disinterested, the officer to whom we reported it was watching "Power Rangers" behind and above our heads....Again the Thomson rep was very unhelpful, with no command of the language, and we had to go back to the police station at least five times before we could get the official document from them to send to the insurance company. With nine days to go, the burglary really ruined our holiday. A huge villa, but our two young daughters insisted on sleeping in our bedroom for the rest of the holiday since they were terrified.....we didn't feel secure either. I felt very insecure when my husband and the girls went out for the afternoon and I couldn't go because of a stomache bug. We have been to Portugal many times, always staying in lovely villas, but for the first and only time, we were glad to get home.

We stayed in this villa in June of 2007. At first it was a fantastic holiday but then we were burgled on the 5th day of our holiday. The Thomson rep was very unhelpful. We were made to feel as if our story was untrue, though they did take us to the Police station to report it but that was all the help the rep would give. The incident was reported to Thomson on our return, whose reply was simply "Appreciate this can happen to you at home and so expect this can happen on your holiday!"