Guest Diary: Family time in Paradise

This is the “Guest Diary”, a series of guest reports and pics of their experiences through our Lodges, Services and Adventure Experiences. At our company, we love to share good times!

Check this one from a close-knit family who made their stay a little visit to paradise;

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Welcome to paradise. This is the Portugalactive Lodge — in blazing sunshine, and full tranquility, before our family descended on it….

 

 

Chapter 1: Let’s start with some family introductions:

 

This is Dr Phil. He wears bright coloured shorts and will ‘project manage’ the BBQ as long as you give him a glass of wine every 20 minutes.

 

This is Dr Helen and Dr Majid (pronounce ‘Majeeed’). They’re actually dentists, but who’s minding the details. They have ever-improving selfie skills (evidence below) and missed most of the first day of holiday because they can’t work a sat nav (evidence below).

 

 

This is Dr Eleanor and Dr Chris. It’s a good thing Eleanor has a strong #insta game, as Chris is not very ‘into’ photos. This is a surprisingly decent shot of him #Sagres&sunset

Now that’s the medical NHS professionals out of the way, we move onto the more important characters…

 

This is Kitty. She’s officially in charge of the ‘mega log’ fire, and all things related to fire-making. Luckily for all of us, it’s summer in Potugalactive Lodge and we all coped with waiting up to two hours for Kitty to light the fire.

 

This is Sima (pronounce ‘Semma’) – she will always leave holiday with the best tan, but as the most Iranian member of the family she has a headstart #Iranien4lyf

 

This is Verity. If jumping in & out of an inflatable glazed donut was an Olympic sport then Vexy would have the gold medal.

 

Yours truly (Bex). Current reigning champion of the Portugal Active backgammon and chess tournament, July 2018. More on the Portugal football shirts later…

 

And finally… This is Gerry. The Unicorn. He enjoys lounging in the pool, looking at sunsets and the occasional G&T

Chapter 2: Food & Sunsets

Let’s not pretend that anyone reads blogs for purposes other than looking at endless pictures of lavish feasts, beautiful surroundings and sunsets. With the occasional photo bomb, here’s the highlight reel:

We’ll begin with the ultimate seafood feast, followed by many good dessert choices:

 

Endless lunch platters:

 

And with cocktail hour, we move seamlessly into sunset mode:

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3: local exploring

Some people plan their holidays around must-see tourist sites. They make itineraries to explore every cultural offering of a local town or surrounding area.

…This family queues for 1 hour 20 minutes to buy pastries:

 

…and then circles the entire local town in pursuit of Ronaldo football shirts. Some nice views along the way:

 

Chapter 4: Team Ronaldo conquer the Tour De Viana

Now that the football shirts were purchased, the real adventure begins.

In the sweltering Portuguese heat and rough mountain terrain, we took on the ultimate bike challenge of 2018: Tour de Viana. Guided only by the local knowledge of many-time BMX champion Ronaldo Ricardo we crammed seven ‘Fat Bikes’ into the worlds smallest cable car. We were permitted a mere 10 minute break to admire the view & one meagre beer stop, before facing the ascent and dirt track of Mt. Viana do Castelo.

 

See below for action highlights….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phew. We made it.

Chapter 5: Lounging

After the excessive exercise of a mountain tour, we all deserve a relaxing break.

We begin with the ice cold waters of the secret swimming cove (Ricardo swore us to secrecy so don’t ask me where this is):

 

 

The only crazy Englishman brave enough to get in:

 

Oh no, wait. Majeed thought he would give it a try too. #DanielCraig

 

These are the faces of people who have no regrets about their choices.

After a full recovery from the ice baths, we begin a further six days of lounging. And maybe some pastel de natas. And ice cream. And wine:

 

 

 

 

After many agonising hours, the MEGA LOG FIRE gets successfully lit #lit:

 

Happiness at having successfully made #megafire:

 

 

 

We’ll conclude with one final sunset sequence to finish us off & bribe Ricardo to award us the blog prize: