I
will with Lisa's agreement write an article each month about a resort in RCI
that I would recommend you consider visiting. In the article last
month I wrote about Lehigh Resort Club in Florida( RCI ID
0101) I mentioned that Lehigh Resort Club was a great place to make
friends in part because of the superb organised activities programme. I also
mentioned that the apartments at that resort do not have the wow factor of some
resorts I have visited.
The contrast between Lehigh Resort club and Elliott at
Vale Do Lobo( RCI ID 0332) could not be more striking as the villa's at Vale Do
Lobo do have the wow factor due to their size as they have thirty six three
bedroom villas and just six two bedroom villas. All but four of them have their
own small swimming pool and those that don't have a covered hot tub. The
villa's have a maid service six days of the week which is appreciated by all
who stay there.
What you probably will not find at Vale Do Lobo is the
opportunity to make many friendships in the way that is quite common at other
timeshare resorts this is because there is no organised activities programme
and the villa's are very private due to their location. This is quite an
unusual timeshare resort in the sense that the forty two villas are located in
various parts of a much larger development.
The Vale Do Lobo resort has won
awards as the best tourist development in Europe and if you are lucky enough to
get an exchange here with RCI you will soon understand why. The resort has
everything in my opinion superb villas, two eighteen hole golf courses on site
and its proximity to a beautiful beach that runs for miles. Depending on the
villa you are occupying you could be half a mile or more from the beach so
please don't think that the villa's are located within yards of the beach as
they are not in part because of the size of the Vale Do Lobo development. Most
people would say that a car is necessary to fully enjoy a vacation at this
resort and if you are wanting to go sight seeing in the Algarve region of
Portugal that is probably true. However there is a grocery store on site
although it is probably a mile or more from the timeshare villa's. There
is also a resort circuit bus for which it costs twenty four pounds ie
around thirty seven dollars for a weekly pass.
There is also a Vale
Do Lobo club card for thirty nine pounds ie around sixty dollars that
allows use on the bus and discount for golf etc. Unlike Lehigh resort club
this is not a timeshare development where you will see lots of availability
with RCI as the owners tend to come back year after year to what we as owners
consider our own slice of paradise. Due to the shortage of spacebanks from this
resort with RCI my advice would be to put on an on going search rather than
hope to see availability by checking periodically as such is the demand
for this resort especially from April to October that you are very
unlikely to see availability as any weeks deposited will be allocated to RCI
members who already have an on going search for this resort.
In view of the
fact that there is limited availability at Elliott at Vale Do Lobo and
because I will probably not write a further review involving a timeshare resort
in Portugal. I think I should add some other resorts in Portugal that I would
recommend to readers of Timeshare Insights. These resorts are the Alto Golf and
Country club(RCI ID 1966) Quinta do Lago country club(RCI ID 1605) and to
perhaps a lesser extent I would recommend Balaia Park(RCI ID 2731) and Balaia
Village(RCI ID 2395) These resorts are well worth considering visiting on exchange
with RCI but in my view there is no timeshare resort quite like Elliott at Vale
Do Lobo and if you are lucky enough to get an exchange there you will soon
understand why I believe this to be true.
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