Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Oiur Guest Blogger Returns From Portugal-Welcome Steve Burton


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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