The apartment we stayed in was called The Old Town House, not very far from the centre. The hosts were excellent and couldn't fault our stay in the apartment. There was the old town to explore, at first you will think there is nothing much to look at but then you see houses as if it was in a film set, church, restaurants and cafes. There are many places to eat our favourite was O Coreto near the harbour, food was delicious. Al Ria - seafood cataplana was nice.. Train and coach station are nearby to the harbour. Faro to Albuferia costs Euro 3.40 per person way and catch taxi Euro 10.00. You can go to Seville (Spain)by coach -3hours costs 55 Euros each, they do not take card payment and make sure to take your passport with you. Watching dolphins swimming in its natural habitat was wonderful, even saw the mother teaching the baby to swim. However, was informed that the dolphin excursion was about to close due to the cold weather. Faro beach was bliss, no noisy boats or crowd it was better than Albuferia beach. Make sure you visit Chelsea gelato , they have some nice ice cream and its not expensive- recommend the cheesecake one. Halal food not easy to find but there was kebab place near McDonalds and an Iranian restaurant called Shiraz. Food was okay in Shiraz but portions were small. The warm weather actually made our trip worth exploring much easier. Unfortunately, didn't get the chance to visit Lisbon :( Negative parts of the trip I realised in all the restaurants , they do not take care of cleaning fish or prawns at all. Albuferia restaurant we went to giving tuna (out of a can) even though they were just near the sea yet the food was expensive. .

We had always wanted to wander the streets of the old town but summertime trips were dedicated to us and sea so we decided on a winter city break. We really enjoyed it. The old town is easy to navigate and full of quirky corners and unexpected sights. We were there as the storks began to return to their nests perched precariously on the roof scape around us. Plenty of places to stop and have a coffee, a drink a back or a full meal and in January there was no problem getting a table or a seat. The local folk may have had on scarves and coats during the day but we visitors from northern climes were content in T shirts and light jackets. It was great to see blue skies and spectacular sunsets with a G and T in hand.

This is a place of contradictions. There are no 'must see' buildings here but the distract has a great historical feel. However there are a lot of derelict or severely run down buildings and the streets are blighted with tagging and graffiti almost everywhere. They are clean though and we didn't feel unsafe at any point but there is a lot of wasted potential here. There is a reasonably long stretch of town wall with a few towers but it is utterly ignored and unkempt. The train runs just in front of it and there is also the terminal for the island tours and ferries where people also gather to watch the sunset.