Portugal, Algarve With Kids- Martinhal Sagres Family Beach Resort

Though Mohit and I had traveled adventurously before kids, our vacations for the past five years with small kids have mostly been Mexico beach resorts (easy direct flights from Boston + escape from February snow + kids clubs).  Mohit was nervous that a more adventurous trip with the kids would be anything but relaxing, but agreed when I promised to plan our Portugal trip with a grand finale at a  beach resort.

After a long drive through the Alentejano region (see blog post here!) with a cranky three year old, we were sooo in need of some pampering, and our beach destination did not disappoint:
Martinhal Sagres is lovely!

There were so many well-planned details that made vacationing here with kids relaxing and joyful (and we all know it can easily be anything but!).  In the lobby at check in, there was a kids' play table, and the concierge came out with chilled juice for the kids and a goody bag for each with Martinhal beach hats and sand toys.

We booked a 2-bedroom partial ocean view villa.  It was a townhouse style apartment, with 2 bedrooms on the ground floor, two full bathrooms (one for the kids which had a tub, a stool for tooth brushing, and a kids potty seat, and one with a spacious walk in shower for us), plus a laundry closet and a sunny patio with a private spot of lawn. Upstairs was a spacious open-concept kitchen/ dining room/ living room area with a balcony (with beanbags for lounging!) overlooking the ocean.  The furnishings were all modern and stylish.  We discovered a Disney channel on the TV in English (much needed at 6 am while mom drinks her coffee!).  Mohit says it was the nicest place we've ever stayed.  

Though we had stopped at a grocery store in town before arriving to load up on breakfast, snacks and wine for the weekend, we discovered upon arrival that the villa provided enough free groceries to get us through our first morning (water, milk, juice, cereal, pastries...even nutella!).

During our stay, the weather was more spring than summer, though after a long winter in New England, all it took was one sunny 70-degree day for our kids to be pumped for some pool time. Luckily all the pools are heated, and there's even a pool that's half indoors/ half outdoors which we found to be great on the second day when the sun was weak and the air was a bit chilly.  All the pools have buckets of water toys and piles of foam noodles for the kids.

There are playgrounds everywhere, and we especially appreciated that we could linger over drinks while our kids played at the one next to As Dunas (the airy restaurant overlooking the beach). 

The Village Square was also great, where several dining options, the resort grocery store, and the kids' club surround a play area with trampolines, a bouncy castle, and climbing equipment.  Every evening at dinner time, the Martinhal fox mascots came out for a "gummy bears" themed dance party which our 3-year old loved.  The resort also brought in rotating activities such as pedal-powered go-karts and a bungee cord trampoline which our 6-year-old loved.

We also loved the"M Bar", a surf- themed bar/ coffee shop/ ice cream parlor.  It was a good place to hang out when we had time to kill. Comfy couches, a VW bus for the kids to climb and play in, a kids' play corner with Disney movies playing, and a kids' internet cafe with iPads to fight over...ahem, I mean play with.

The food was great too, both kids and adults ate well for sure! Os Gambozinos, the restaurant in the Village Square, had a kids' buffet every night which was perfect because we could feed the kids quickly with food they loved (pizza, pasta, steamed veggies, chocolate mousse) and then let them run back outside to play in full view while we dined in peace.

I loved the beach, which was plenty sandy, but also with rocks to climb on and explore.  The waves are big, so not great for kiddo swimming, but there are plenty of neat seashells to find.  I would have loved to spend more time on the beach but had a hard time tearing my family away from all the other fun distractions...

Two of the nights we were there we fed the kids early and then dropped them off at the kids' club while we enjoyed a relaxing adult dinner.  We noticed that many of the other families had kids smaller than ours, too young for kids' club, so there weren't very many kids at the club in the evening, which was too bad because our social 6-year old would have enjoyed having more kids to play with.

So yes, we would definitely recommend Martinhal Sagres for a relaxing family vacation!

Sintra with Kids- Monserrate and Quinta da Regaleira

Today was our second day visiting the lovely town of Sintra, Portugal (yesterday we explored Pena Palace, see post here!), and let me start by saying that I am SO glad we decided to stay two nights in Sintra, even though we’re only a half hour drive away from our first stop in Lisbon! In my planning research, most itineraries recommended Sintra as a day trip from Lisbon, but we made the call to slow down a bit since we are traveling with little kids.  I'm SO glad we did because there’s so much neat stuff to explore here that there’s no way we could have done it justice in one day, even without kiddos!

This morning we woke to sunshine and beautiful blue skies.  After fueling up in the breakfast room of our adorable B&B, we walked downhill through the town and then hopped on the local bus to Monserrate.  Monserrate is a palatial villa with gardens built as a summer retreat by a succession of wealthy English merchants in the mid-1800s.  It is now owned by the Portuguese state and is being preserved as part of the Sintra Hills UNESCO World Heritage site.  While I admired the wedding-cake-like architectural details, the kids had a blast exploring the gardens: climbing trees, rolling down the sloping lawn, picking wildflowers to make crowns, playing tag, discovering waterfalls and a ruined chapel.

We rode the bus back into town.  Since the roads in Sintra are mostly narrow, winding, and one way only, our ride back to town took a little more than a half hour even though it had been a five-minute trip from town earlier.  This was fine by us as it allowed the kids to doze and refresh a bit.  Back in town we enjoyed an outdoor lunch with a view of street performers and the Sintra Palace.

Refueled for more adventure, our next stop was the Quinta da Regaleira, another 19th century mansion.  We easily walked there on the narrow sidewalk leading out of town.  This villa is unique and well known for its eccentric, almost surreal gardens which have hidden tunnels and secret passages.  The central feature of the gardens is the initiation well, a well that was drained, expanded with a downward spiral staircase into a sort of inverted tower, and is rumored to have been used for cult ceremonies.  I had planned ahead for this stop and had brought mini flashlights for the kids.  They were excited to look for fairies in this "magic garden" and to discover all the hidden surprises.  It was so much cooler than I even expected, with tunnels exiting into a mossy grotto where we escaped across stepping stones. Our six-year-old made us do that whole circuit through a fortress, into the hidden cave entrance, across a bridge, down into the initiation well, and out across the stepping stones twice and was begging for a third!

We wrapped up an awesome day with some late afternoon downtime flying paper airplanes and coloring in activity books in the plaza in town in front of the Sintra Palace (which we never did have a chance to see inside!), and then dinner in town before heading back for a well-earned night of good sleep.  I think we could have easily entertained ourselves for another full day in Sintra with all the things we didn't get a chance to see (besides the National Palace, also the Moorish Castle, Cabo da Roca and the coast, the Capuchos Convent, etc...) but tomorrow we hit to road for a drive to the Algarve (see post here!).  Maybe we'll be back again someday!