Ultimate Algarve www.ultimatealgarve.com

The positives were that the actual apartment and resort were lovely and we got some good recommendations from Ultimate Algarve about places to visit and local restaurants, apart from that the rest of their service was appalling. We received absolutely no info about check in (we weren't even told the apartment name and number) so were driving around the area trying to find the apartment and reception to collect the keys ourselves - not great with a young child and after 6 hours of travelling. There was no hand over or info on anything in the apartment or the resort - we just needed to figure it out ourselves. Not helpful as the apartment is privately owned so not managed by the resort. Ultimate Algarve prides themselves on specialising in accommodation for people with young children, yet despite confirming on several occasions the baby equipment we needed (cot, high hair, changing mat) none of this was in the apartment when we arrived and we needed to wait a few hours for the agent to bring it all. We spent most of our first week chasing the Ultimate Algarve about cleaning arrangements (particularly as the apartment was not that clean when we checked in and my 1 year old had black knees after crawling around for an hour). The agent did not respond to texts and stopped taking our calls. After a while we stopped chasing as we realised having the apartment cleaned and towels/linen changed was simply not included in our 2 week stay! Not exactly 5 star service. One of criteria when we booked was wifi in the apartment, except we didn't get to use it as there was no info left in the apartment about how to log on and the agent did not get back to us with the details, despite asking! The satellite TV didn't work either - no appetite from the agent to try fix it, they suggested we watch the 7 DVDs in the apartment. Again, not 5 star service!

I stayed with my parents and two children at Fonte Verde in the Algarve. It's the first time we stayed outside a resort and will go back this year. The houses were very spacious and spotless. The place consists of large townhouses surrounding a central courtyard with two pools. The pool was great for my little guys because it was only three feet deep at the mid point and this gave them plenty of room to play. The manager there was incredibly obliging. Eating out locally was cheap and better quality than many of the resort restaurants. The location is great, but you definitely need a car if you're looking for activity