I live in Albufeira, in the Algarve region of Portugal. This region is a very popular area for holidaymakers all year round, especially in the summer. During my travels around the region and elsewhere, out comes the camera.
I hope you like the results.
The boring stuff:
Age 63 (forgot to update that bit!), retired, interests travel, football, cricket and beer.
Tom's Place - a sort of blog by a British resident of Albufeira 
Hello Tom,
We, my wife and I, live in The Netherlands and are visiting the Algarve (mostly near Albufeira)for more than 20 year now. Of course you do not know us but we have the feeling we do know (a little bit) of you :-). You are to say our connection to Albufeira when we are in Holland. Just want to let you know that we appreciate your work (foto’s and comments) very much! No week goes by without us checking to see if there are new foto’s. At the moment we are stayng in Pateo for a few days so we can “check” your comments ourselves :-). Maybe we meet sometime somewhere and I can spend you a beer for the good work you do.
Regards, Henk en Marry Daanen.
Hello Tom,
Just want to say thank you for wanting to share your talent, experience and interests with the rest of us.Was searching for a villa in Vale do Telha where I had stayed in on my first visit to the Algarve. My internet navigation skills being a work in progress,I was rather pleased at having located what I was looking for.It was during that browsing I discovered your website on public transport. Everything in it, the detailed information you give,your comments etc., are so clear,easy to follow, and helpful I’ve had a great time browsing. You take great photographs too!..
Great choice you have made, I think,in making such a beautiful place your home while still appreciating the good things lovely England has to offer.I hope you have many happy years doing whatever you enjoy most.
Best wishes
Ana
Informative page, and with nice supplementing pictures of the neighbourhood. Keep up the good work.
Best wishes
george
Hi Tom,
We are flying out from Exeter on 3rd of October for a week in Olhos D’agua so will take on board ur comments about the travel and use the timetables.
Regards
Stephen P. Challis
I hope you have a good trip. Dark clouds are gathering as I write but all being well any unsettled weather will be done with by the time you arrive.
Quality, well done and thankyou
Wow I’m Portuguese. I live in Holland. Am going to move back to albufeira for good by the end of March. I will live at my cousins house. I’m hoping that when I move there I can fond a job right away in service/ restaurant. I have my diplomas from Germany. I have experience and speak 5 languages. I found your website and I just live to see how beautiful my country is. I was thinking if other ppl from all over the world can live in Portugal so I can I! Well, am talking to much so I wanted to just say hi and enjoy. Beautiful pics.
Another Dutch fan of your GREAT site. Often checked. You and I already had a few mail exchanges re Algarve trains. With a daughter living in Albufeira, coming down to the Algarve every year is an added pleasure. Although I am more of a mountainbiker and trekking biker, those train journeys to the west and east are fun. Often helpful Portuguese or Brits to help load/unload my bike. Obrigado! The best is yet to come: later this month my bike tour from Lisbon into Alentejo and Algarve will start. Lots of bicas and pasteis de nata :-). At last the Costa Vicentina… Keep up the excellent work See you on a train. Regards, Michiel
Hi Tom, Just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to you for your website on Algarve transportation… honestly I am so happy I found it. As an “expat” living in Portugal, I find the company websites very confusing and in Portuguese, mostly. Having your website allowed me to make sense of so much, so thank you, and I hope you keep it up for others like me who greatly appreciate it (and use it almost on a daily basis)! Best wishes,
Rebecca
Hi Tom
Just returned from a week’s walking holiday in the Algarve. Your http://www.algarvebus.info website was invaluable.We used it extensively and all the times were accurate and there were loads of other useful tips about how the buses and trains were organised. If you ever fancy moving to somewhere with appalling public transport information, Sicily is crying out for you!
I have a couple of, hopefully, constructive comments. Your descriptions of where buses stop were very helpful but Silves and Portimao were slightly ambiguous. For Silves it might be better to say that inward buses stop outside the bar opposite the tourist office and go beyond the roundabout before turning round and stopping outward directly outside the tourist office. And for Portimao, the petrol station cafe appears to be a burger bar but there are loads of other cafes just beyond it (and the train station in Portimao is some distance away from the bus station so need to be clear to allow plenty of time if changing)
Once again, many thanks
Bob
PS I would have emailed feedback to you directly on the bus website but there was no email address and it appeared to require using Microsoft to send email so I’m doing it this way instead. Not that I’ve got anything against Microsoft but I couldn’t be bothered to create a whole new account just to send one email!
Hi Tom (if I might be so bold as to call you by your first name) – I have been poking around your site for a while now in preparation for our up coming trip to Albufeira, and wanted to say Thanks! Love the stories and the pictures. I really appreciate your efforts.
Hi Tom, a huge thank you for your most helpful site. I’m trying to work out for a client, which is the best way to go by train from Fuzeta, to Zoomarine in Guia, Albufeira. It is frustratingly difficult to find any clear information to plan this trip, and your site is a light beacon! Thank you sincerely.
I hope you and they realised it’s not an easy trip! Thanks for the compliment.
Hi Tom
Have been visiting Santa Luzia for the past 2 years and have found your info extremely useful would have been lost without it. Last year we even planned a 2 night break to Saville from Tavira on the bus! ! it was great and hassle free. Thanks for all your hard work, I have only just found your
blog!! Looking forward to another super holiday in Santa Luzia in September
Thanks for your informative web site – you seem to be the only place I can get up to date info on the aftermath of the floods. We are coming to Albuferia in Jan – looks like all will be sorted by then ! My brother goes on Nov 20th hopefully all will be mich better then too
Thank you so much for all your work. We are planning our first trip to the Algarve and you make a new location seem manageable. I know this takes a LOT of work but thank you. Carol from Ireland
Thank you so much for your site and your pictures. They give me a little bit of sunshine here in the grey UK.. we love Albufeira and have been visiting for thirty years off and on. And especially thanks for your bus timetables, which my daughter and I made good use of in 2012 and 2013 to get from Cerro Grande (thereabouts) to Brisa Sol/Model0 area, and also Galé. Hoping to do the same this year – expect there will be some changes – must check.
Thank you. Bring some sun with you, it’s looking rather wet and windy for the rest of this week. Book soon, everywhere is reporting very high occupancy this year.
There have been changes to the GIRO buses and they now run only once an hour on Saturday afternoons and all day Sundays. Also, they stop two hours earlier in the evenings. Good news is that the fares haven’t gone up, still €1,40 cash or 80 cents with the pre paid card.
Hello there Tom:
My wife and I have been relying on your site for the past 5 years since coming to Albufeira . The info you provide is excellent & the info (Maps/stops) you provide on the GIRO buses is priceless!!. Keep up the great work. We are heading back to Albufeira in early January.. We are so looking forward to enjoying the warm weather.The temperature of 16/17c, you posted today are excellent . Here in Atlantic Canada we have been getting extreme cold weather with lows of -35( with windchill factor).Can’t wait to sit in the square in Old Town
. Brad &Rho
yes 16C again today and nice bright sunshine! -35 is defintely not my thing. Thanks for the compliments; I have just added a few more pictures of the lights.
Have a good Christmas and New Year, in the cold…
Hello Tom, ive been coming to Albufeira for many years and the info you provide on various sites has often saved me time and money, two very important componants whilst on holiday. Im over at the end of May and would very much like to buy you a thank you beer and talk all things Ryman leauge, where hopefully my team will be champions and Tonbridge will be play off winners.
Darren – given Tonbridge’s recent form I think that’s optimistic. I will be away 25th to 31st May hoping to watch Kent play cricket at Tunbridge Wells (also very optimistic) but if you are around before or after that email me beforehand at thomasallen@sapo.pt and I am sure we can take a beer or two in a suitable location!
Hi Tom, can you tell me if the Rock Cafe in the old town has a regular winter closing time? We visited in November and had a great time but when we visited in January it was closed, we would like to return in January but would like to know if the Rock cafe will be open, thanks.
Where is the bus stop exactly in Armação de Pêra buses Linha Litoral and TRANSRAPIDO bus to Lagos and Portimao ?
I did not understand if the buses that go to Lagos and Portimao stop only at Via Dorsal (bus station) or just at the bus stop 400 meters away and at the bus station they do not stop because it is on the left side of the road
This map shows the two places in Armação de Pêra where the buses now stop – http://www.algarvebus.info/images/adepera.jpg
At the teroinal the bus stops are only on one side of the road. The buses towards Portimão pass by several hundred metres then turn to come back to those stops. At the other stops (marked A and B) the bus will only halt if you signal the driver.
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the many shots of the Algarve region that you post, it always makes us look forward to our next visit. Do you use a ‘drone’ for some of the offshore shots? I recall you had the use of a drone a while back on the unused road behind the Marina phase 2 project.
Regards,
Jeff.
Just about to travel from Germany to Spain and Portugal by train. We are very happy to find some information about the Giro bus service in Albufeira. A splendid initiative, thanks heartily!
Hallo Tom
Ik heb een vraag over de taxi prijzen op uw site zijn die recent.
De prijzen staan die ook bij de taxi standplaatsen op een bord.
Dus voor 4 personen van Albufeira naar Portmao kost 40 euro klopt dat.
Uw site is erg handig ook voor het busvervoer word alles goed uitgelegd.
Wij komen in juni naar Albufeira toe en willen wel wat plaatsen bezichtigen.
Met vriendelijke groet Yvonne
My knowledge of Dutch is very little. I hope you can translate this. The typical prices for a taxi are no longer shown at the taxi company website. The notice on my website is a photo of the price list at a taxi stand near me. This is not I think seen at all places. Also, prices are 20% more after 2200hrs and at all times at weekends. The page is http://www.taxis-albufeira.pt/index.ing.html
Hi Tom
Met you in The Cavern last Saturday night (15th September) and was nice to put a face to the name that provides all the incredible and useful information on the Albufeira forum. Unfortunately we are back home now and even worse back at work. Missing Albufeira already, however maybe bump in to you next time we are over and buy you a pint
Hope the rest of your current stay back in England goes well and good luck to Kent in the final league game up in Birmingham.
Cheers
John and Wendy
Thanks John, good to meet you too. That final game was a bit of a disaster, but we finished second in the League and were promoted anyway.
Great pics. Makes us homesick for Portugal !
Thanks
Request for Algarve bus assistance
Hi Thomas, I originally sent this message to you via your Algarve bus info site, but the message was rejected.
My friend and I will l be visiting Portugal in March 2020, and we’ll be spending three nights in Salema, where we intend to take two or three relatively short hikes.
Although we’re experienced travelers, we must admit that navigating the bus situation in the Algarve seems rather confusing. Hence, your website and interpretation of the bus schedules is very much appreciated.
Despite your very helpful website, the bus situation seems a bit complicated. Therefore, we thought we’d ask, if it’s not too much of an imposition, whether you might be available to assist us with determining if there are buses available for travel to and from our hike departure and end points?
We certainly understand if you’re not available to provide this sort of assistance, but thanks in advance for your consideration!
If you are available to help us identify some bus options, then I’ll get back in touch with the details of our proposed hikes 😊.
Lee, I will be pleased to help. You will already have found that there only the one very infrequent bus at Salema and that runs along the N125 road turning off here and there to serve various villages. There are no buses to anywhere north of the N125 west of Lagos.
Try these alternative email addre3sses :
tfga62@gmail.com
cubsur51@hotmail.com
Hi Tom
Keep up the good work mate. I may visit in November and will contact you to meet for a pint and a chat.
Kind Regards
Karl
I expect to be here! By all means…