Algarve Destination magazine March 2003.

SPREAD YOUR WINGS

Holiday amongst the king of the butterflies

Beautiful gardens, stocked with gorgeous flowers and shrubs such as bougainvillea and hibiscus provide the setting for Villa Borboleta. This peaceful villa, built in typical Portuguese style, truly lives up to its name since the gardens attract the King of the Borboletas – the Monarch Butterfly. Although not originally native to Portugal, Monarch Butterflies breed here abundantly and can be admired all year round. In the quiet residential area of quinta do Sol, close to the choice of restaurants and bars, beautiful white sandy beaches surrounded by spectacular cliffs and three outstanding golf courses – Gramacho, Pinta and Vale de Milho. The Algarve stretches from Vila Real de Santo António, on the Spanish border, to the most westerly point of Europe – Cabo St Vincente - with its impressive lighthouse. Along the 150km coastal road (EN125) or the recently completed motorway (A22) there are lots of small towns and interesting places. With its wonderful climate (3,200 sunny hours per heart of the popular old fishermen’s village of Carvoeiro , Villa Borboleta has recently been transformed to offer large comfortable bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms. The villa offers a splendid ocean view, nice pool and satellite TV. Carvoeiro is more or less central on the Algarve’s southern coast and boasts a wide year), the ocean, fine beaches, unspoiled nature, breathtaking cliffs, friendly locals, a multitude of typical restaurants and excellent golf courses and other sport and leisure facilities, the Algarve can truly be described as next to ‘paradise on earth’ in all seasons. Doctors send patients with respiratory problems to the Algarve because the air is so pure. Even Sir Cliff Richard cannot resist the Algarve’s charms; he has become one of the region’s wine makers; his ‘Vida Nova’ wines are already very well-known in the UK.

Inside magazine June 2009.

KING AND QUEEN FOR A WEEK

QUALITY AND SERVICE

The Algarve is indeed a paradise for holidaymakers who can be split into four main groups in terms of their accommodation requirements – hotel andbed & breakfast, apartment or villa rentals and others such as campers or those who rent private rooms. All tourists have their own specific reasons for choosing the type of accommodation they prefer in relation to price, privacy, dates and availability, their social status and the kind of holiday they desire. With thousands of nice villas available in the Algarve the region attracts more and more people are opting for a selfcatering holiday in a private villa and the demand is increasing in this sector in the last couple of years.

The Sacred Privacy
The main reason why tourists prefer to rent a villa instead of staying in a hotel is the privacy they can enjoy. They have their own living space, their own swimming pool etc and nobody can interfere with their peace and privacy while they enjoy the good life under the Algarvian sun. Furthermore, when they want to entertain friends or family it is far more pleasant to be together in one villa than spread among hotel rooms, not to forget the pleasure of organizing a barbecue in a picturesque garden setting. The majority of villas are T2 (for four guests) and T3 (for six guests) but far bigger villas are also available.

Big Parties
More and more families or groups of friends like to spend their holidays together, especially the English, Germans, Spanish, Dutch, Americans, and Scandinavians who are in favour of this type of holiday as opposed to the French, Belgians and Italians. There are many good reasons for group holidays: an anniversary, a birthday, annual reunion, marriage celebration, golfing holidays. An example which illustrates this point was a mother who decided to gather together all her children and grandchildren “maybe for the last time” for her 85th birthday. A second example is a large family scattered in different places throughout the world who decided to meet once every five years so they rent a villa for a week of fun and celebrations. Golf clubs also have the option to rent a villa and bring their wives with them. While they are on the course the ladies can enjoy the good life around the pool, sightseeing or shopping. Parties of between 14 and 18 are nowadays the rule rather than the exception.

Quality Tourism
Most of the villas offer a high level of luxury so you can live like prices and princesses for your stay. Of course they need to tend to their daily chores such as shopping, cooking and some cleaning and then be free to tour the region and enjoy the regional cuisine at Algarvian restaurants. As most of the villas are under a management contract the villas are cleaned once a week, sheets and towels changed, the garden maintained and the pool cleaned. One could conclude that this type of holiday is the closest you can get to “living in paradise” and in that context some villas are appropriately named – Vila 7 Ceu, Vila Paraiso and Vila Cloud Nine.

Flexibility – The Magic Word
As guests become more and more demanding in recent years a brand new product has been developed in the villa rental sector – the self-catering large villa with hotel style service. Clients of various nationalities are willing to pay for the luxury of extra services to make life easier and their holiday more enjoyable. In other words they live like King and Queen in their own kingdom for a week or more. These extra services include a daily maid service, daily towel change and bathroom cleaning, poolside cleaning, regular changing of bed linen, garden and pool maintenance, practical and technical help from villa management to organize transport, sightseeing, watersports, horseriding, restaurant visits, choice of fine Portuguese wines and, last bit not least, co-ordinating banquets and buffets with the region’s top chefs. And this is not forgetting the birthday cake with candles and the chilled champagne! The logical outcome of increased services offered and the higher degree of flexibility the higher is the occupancy rate of the villa. For most of the villas offering these types of services bookings are normally between one and two years in advance and the demand is increasing every years. Unfortunately there is not a glut of top luxury villas in the Algarve. A few dozen are concentrated in the “Golden Tri-angle” and a few others elsewhere. You can, of course, find all this on the internet and it is worth remembering that all villas for rental in Portugal must be licensed under new laws.

Vila Borboleta in Carvoeiro
Vila Borboleta is a splendid villa offering breathtaking sea views. The villa is situated in a pleasant residential area only an 8-minute walk from the beaches of Praia Paraiso and Praia Carvoeiro. The villa has six large double rooms with en-suite bathroom. Two of the rooms have an adjacent bedroom which is ideal for families with children. The villa, which is fully licensed, sleeps a maximum of 15 people.