Quinta dos Alamos Holidays

Quinta Dos Alamos is a picture-postcard holiday village that sticks closely to the Algarve’s winning formula. It’s oh so quiet, and effortlessly stylish, with little more than a handful of whitewashed villas lassoed around a village green. A few hundred metres away is Guia, a sleepy Portuguese village with some of the best piri-piri chicken on the planet. And all around are terraced vineyards, basking in the sun’s rays.

Praia de Gale is a long runway of powdery golden sand washed by the emerald green Atlantic, 10 minutes away by car. It has a coveted Blue Flag, and comes with a family seal of approval. There’s a sprinkling of restaurants and watersports along its five-kilometre sweep, and some impressive limestone rock formations at its eastern end. For something even more spectacular, try Praia Sao Rafael, which has been voted the best beach in Portugal.

Quinta Dos Alamos is joined at the hip with Guia, the village where piri-piri chicken was invented in the Sixties. You’ll find a mouth-watering list of restaurants serving this dish, as well as a handy selection of shops, and a daily food market. Zoomarine, a water-slash-theme park, is on one side of the village. Adega do Cantor, the winery owned by Sir Cliff Richard, lies on the other.

Pro-golfers will find a dense concentration of landscaped courses in the countryside around the village. The closest is the 18-hole Salgados Course, a 10-minute drive away. It’s a Links-style creation with flat fairways and tricky water hazards, and it’s backed by the honey-coloured sands of Praia de Gale.