what happens in Carvoeiro in January?

[wilnogirl]

Hello: Still trying to get a fix on what your town/village is like in the dead of winter. How chilly? How much sun? does everything close down? Is there a cinema in town? Can you find English reading material...books, magazines, newspapers? How rainy is it likely to be? How far away is the nearest bigger place...and just how big is Carvoeiro?????? Helllppppp us decide where to stay!!!!! The choices are: Lagos, Carvoeiro, Cascais or Tavira. thanks Joanne

[april]

Hi joanne-- i'll reply to you since no-one else has yet_but i dont know too much. What i do know is that quite a few places close down and take their holiday then. However its such a lovely village for going for cliff walks etc. Plus you'll probably have a hire car so you can move all over for days out like Portemao, Ferragudo, Silves, Lagoa. Shopping in Algarve shopping centre- you have Zara and all the big names. The days should be bright and sunny (less rain than in Nov i think) and the nights will be quite chilly, but nothing like England! If you have a villa you'll have a supply of logs anyway for the fire (check) and there'll be a video player so you can hire a video for a night in with maybe and indian or chinese take-away for a change! If you want to be lazy you can go to one of the many newsagents and pick up English magazines and newspapers and sit in the sunshine in the square outside of Smilers bar or Matabixo and just watch the world go by! Hope you have a great time. April x

[SHOWWWY]

I can't speak from personal experience because our visits from Canada have been in February/March. However, we have heard that Jan is often better than Feb weatherwise. While it's generally a bit cooler, it's drier and less stormy than Feb. Mar is definitely nicer than either though. The longer your stay, the better chance of enjoying significant sunny spells and avoiding significant stormy spells. (After the past few months on both sides of the Atlantic, one wonders what the weather will be like for 2004/2005.)

As Englishspeaking Canucks, we have no trouble getting along or finding newspapers, magazines and books. They tend to be from the UK rather than from NA, of course.

The TV has left something to be desired. We have never had a villa or apt that came with a DVD or VCR. However, I guess they are out there more and more. Also, the English speaking channels tend to be news and sports. We had very poor reception of BBC and other channels with TV variety from the UK on each of our visits. If you speak German, however, there is a ton of TV for you.

As April notes, you will find lots to do, many interesting places to explore both in and outside CVO. At least, we always do.

Cheers!

[Guest]

Ah but don't forget that any film shown on a portuguese channel is in VO so you're very likely to get quite a few american films showing.

[SHOWWWY]

Not sure I understand, Guest. I assume by VO you mean "voice over". Not closed captioning.

We did not have the option on our TV's of closed captioning so I wonder how VO would have helped an English speaking person.

As I recall, one night a week, the Portuguese station runs a movie in English.

In any case, the availability of English language programming on Portuguese TV is - naturally - very much in the minority.

[bifas 1st darling!]

All films shown on Port. T.V are sub titled, there is usually one a night, quite late though. There are also english speaking series shown during the week, but don't watch telly all night! There will be several bars and restaurants open in January, several have quiz nights to try and attract customers try them. Bring warm clothes as it can get quite chilly, and damp, but bring something for warmer weather too and maye be a waterproof kagool or kispo in case of showers. This probably doesn't make much sense as it is 2.41 and I'm tired!!