How much does it cost for us to stay for a month in the winter in The Algarve - That is a really good
question Tina but before we get into that we are Tina and Norm and we talk all things retirement
and a little bit of travel - Yes we do - And if you haven't already subscribed we would appreciate
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- We'd really appreciate it wouldn't we - We would indeed - And we would like to say thanks to Martin
Mendes for this question because he asked us this and that is why we're doing this video
today - Yep thanks Martin so we are going to break down how much it costs us
to stay in The Algarve for at least a month so first up Tina - So of course we have to get there
so the first thing we're going to talk about is the flights now in our case we go from
Toronto to Faro and we have 2 options that we can do we can fly with TAP airlines now when we
do this we actually have to fly into Lisbon and then we have to wait normally about 4 or 5 hours
and then we get another flight down to Faro the other option is and we really quite like this
one is that we can fly with Air Transat direct to Faro now they are both very similar in price and
when we last went it cost us a total of $1388 for the 2 of us or $694 Canadian dollars each
so that's what gets us to The Algarve - The only trouble with Air Transat is that up until 2020
they didn't start flying into Faro until March but the last time we went there we were on their
first flight that arrived in January so that is a big big advantage so you're getting there
5 hours quicker than with TAP airlines but they're both basically the same price (yeah)
so once we're in Faro Tina the one thing that we really want to do is get a car rental -Absolutely
so maybe you can tell everybody Norm a little bit about the car rental - Okay Tina so we pick up a car
at Faro airport it's not in the terminal building it's actually in the car park in car park 4 it's
like a mobile building and there's a whole bunch of different companies rent a desk space in there
basically for their reps so we meet our contact there because we e-mail him before we arrive
tell him what flight we're on and he brings a car because there are no cars
parked there ready to rent they're brought from offsite so he brings in a car for us
and we do a minimum rental of 30 days and he charges us just €12 a day for the month we
decline the collision damage waiver because we use our credit card insurance from Mastercard
and that's one of the things they tell us to do decline CDW so that's what we do and it works
extremely well so this last time with our Air Transat it was perfect we got off the flight
it's just a short walk to this car park our car was there we just signed a few pieces of paper
and away we went and we've had a relationship with this gentleman for 3 years now -Which is
very convenient isn't it - Now just one thing that price gets you a manual transmission car
the cars are about 4 to 5 years old and they're small economy cars the advantage with that is
it doesn't take much gas - No it's great isn't it - Once we have the car Tina we need somewhere
to lay our head at night - Absolutely we do and so for us we generally will look for
a 1 bedroom apartment we found that this suits us better so we get the bedroom we get a kitchen and
we get a lounge area and hopefully a balcony with a nice view what is really important for us is
to get a place that includes the utilities by that we mean we look for a place that includes the heat
the air conditioning and also the internet now you need the heat because it can get chilly
yes you do need to put the heat on and it can get really hot so we've used the air conditioning too
but one thing that we really like is the internet isn't it because we can use it in our apartment
or in the whole of the rest of the area - How can we do YouTube without the internet Tina
- So the one that we have stayed at for this example we stayed at the Hotel Luna Solaqua
this is part of a chain hotel in The Algarve and it cost us $1800 Canadian inclusive of all the
utilities it was a great deal -It was and that was for 30 days - Yes was great that was very
good - The one thing you have to be careful about Portugal is it's very expensive for hydro for
electricity (yeah) so what you'll find is if you go to some of the independent AirBnb type renters
they're not going to give you the hydro in wintertime included because it is expensive
or if they do they might cap it at a hundred dollars and then anything over that you may
well be paying for - So it can add up can't it - It really can so you do want to wherever possible
and that's why we went to the hotel in the end (yeah) because it was all included there was no
no extras at all - We did look at a few other places didn't we they included heat and the air
but they didn't include internet which for us is no good is it so it worked out really well - So then
we need to look at food and the one thing we found with Portugal is the variety of food is absolutely
tremendous the fresh produce seafood the amount of fish that you can buy so we pretty much
budget the same as we do back home in Canada we're just living as though we are in Canada in
many instances shopping locally either going to the local markets or the local supermarkets and
very competitive in price so that shouldn't be a surprise then sorry Tina - I was going to say we
do a lot of our own cooking don't we we do - We prefer that than eating out to be honest with
you but every now and then we like to have lunch out that we haven't made ourselves so
there are a lot of individually owned cafes that will make homemade food sandwiches or one of
our favourites was the grilled cheese to be honest with you - Oh we loved that didn't we - And it's so
cheap like a €1.50 for a grilled cheese sandwich (yeah) or we found another place in Albufeira
that's a traditional Portuguese restaurant had a dish of the day it was around €6.00
so we shared it - Yeah that was beautiful wasn't it - It really was so don't be afraid of eating out the
only proviso we would say is if you're looking at that fresh fish and you go to a fish restaurant
an upscale fish restaurant where you're gonna have fine dining and you may be down by the waterfront
when they have displays of fish you can go and look and say I'll have that one they are dead
and then they take them out to a charcoal grill outside and cook them for you to order
it's absolutely beautiful they put herbs and oil on it but those fish are priced by the kilo so if you
see a nice big one that you like - You might get a big price on the cost of the bill when it comes
- You may well - Be careful whereas you could buy a very similar one say in a grocery store that has a
restaurant area also has fish dishes (yeah) like Pingo Doce Norm you can pick your fish there at
lunch time and it would be a lot less in value but you would still get a nice experience wouldn't you
- Yeah if you just wanted to try a dish and the supermarkets these restaurants at Pingo Doce is
we think it's a very good restaurant and then once you've tried the dish you can go
to a nicer restaurant and possibly have a better experience - Remember Norm that you can always
get those either €1 beer or those carafes of wine with your dinner and lunch - You can
obtaining alcohol in Portugal is not difficult at all
in fact Mcdonald's sell beer - You can get your burger and beer - So yeah we do like having a little
glass of wine every now and then if we aren't driving so the other expensive thing
- Is gas yeah - Or should we say petrol yeah gas to go in the car isn't it now on this
last trip we really didn't do lots of driving we were just tootling up and down The Algarve
on some of our other trips that we've done we have been away for weekends to Seville
and Lisbon but this time we stayed quite near to Albufeira and a lot of days we didn't drive at all
- No we didn't we just had the car there for the convenience of it and to go to the grocery store
and pick up your groceries or go to maybe a more remote beach area or a little town that we
haven't been to but we didn't go all the way to Sagres or Cape St Vincent - Not this time because
we'd already done those hadn't we - We had so that resulted in a petrol gas bill in our rental car of
$85 Canadian because it is a little car and it's very gas efficient - It is although
gas can be expensive there can't it Norm - It is - And if you do lots of driving and if you have
a bigger car it will cost you a lot more money so you've just got to allocate your costs for
that and remember you have to return your car to the airport with the same amount of gas that was
in there when you picked it up so we usually just stop on the way to the airport and just top her up
- So it is important when you get your rental car at the airport to photograph it
we photograph each side of it (yeah) maybe the the roof the front the wheels and
we also photograph the instrument panel so it shows us where the gas gauge was
just just saying be prepared I was a boy scout - And basically that is kind of what a month
costs us doesn't it - So I know we haven't added it up Tina but any idea what the cost was - I'm
gonna say roughly it's around $4,200 Canadian for it all - For a month and if you stayed
for 2 months (yeah) if you stayed for 2 months obviously you don't pay anymore for the flights so
it would become more cost effective in that respect but we do encourage you if you're thinking
about Portugal it's a good option English widely spoken in The Algarve and safe we always keep
saying that because you know if you haven't been to a country before you have no idea we didn't
- Yeah it's something we take care security and feeling safe where we travel very seriously don't
we - We do - And we definitely feel safe when we visit Portugal we would thoroughly recommend
it - So that's our take on spending winter in The Algarve and how much it costs and thank you to
Martin Mendes for that question that gave us the inspiration to do this video so if you have any
ideas for future videos leave them in the comments section below - Thank you so much for watching
- Yeah and we hope everybody's staying safe - And keeping well - And until the next time bye bye, bye