HOW MUCH!?!

[Adrian]

Some friends have just returned from a holiday in Carvoeiro and were surprised at the apparent increase in the cost of eating and drinking out.

They have been to the Algarve many times and love the place. On this occasion they came home feeling "ripped off" having paid prices they felt were even more expensive than here in the UK.

Traditionally people travel to places like the Algarve, Spain, Etc. for a holiday for a number of reasons. They being the weather, a little bit of culture and the chance to eat and drink at prices that are cheaper than here in the UK.

My question is has the cost of eating and drinking out (in the Algarve) increased significantly over the last few years? If so by how much?

Maybe someone could post the average cost of meals, wine and beer?

[resident]

Things have gone up in portugal buy around 20%
But the main reason the brits think portugal is expensive is because the pound is very very weak 137 euros to the pound

[Gambrinus]

Good thing you mentioned that, this was on my mind for a couple of days as I got ripped off the other night while out in one well known Carvoeiro establishment.
I was very dissapionted, as this was always a place where the price/quality relationship was good.

A piece of advice: Ask for the price of the beverages before you purchase them.

1 Vodka/ Red Bull and 1 Smirnoff Ice = € 11,--
(As a reference, a meal at Escondidinho costs € 7,50 and includes couvert, soup, salad, a main dish, a bottle of wine/water or pint of beer, coffee and aguardente).

As I always pay for what I order, this was my mistake and I paid for it. Rest assured it will not happen again, as I will not be going back anytime soon. As a result I will also not only stop recommending it to my friends, I will warn them not to go there.
I feel this is the only way a consumer can defend himself/herself against this type of attitude shown more frequently by commercial establisments.

[guest Ezra]

I have found this to be true as well. But to blame the restaurant owners
entirely can be a bit unfair. Taking the increasing value of the euro
over other currencies and then factoring in the increase cost of doing
business can contribute to the high cost of dining out.
For those of us on a limited budget I think the only solution is to
preparing our own meals at home and keeping our dining out to a
minimum.

[Ranger]

Unfortunately, prices everywhere are always on the increase, as are the salaries of the people who come here on holiday. Every restaurant I have seen in the town have a menu outside, showing a selection of what they have to offer. The prices, including IVA, are clearly detailed, and from what I have seen, it is only after several establishments have been studied carefully, that a decision is made. I am sorry to hear that Adrian's friends felt they had been "ripped off," but they chose to eat out, and if the price quoted was a "rip off," go elsewhere, or take the advice of Ezra, and eat in their villa or apartment.

[Guest]

Unfortunately, prices everywhere are always on the increase, as are the salaries of the people who come here on holiday. Every restaurant I have seen in the town have a menu outside, showing a selection of what they have to offer. The prices, including IVA, are clearly detailed, and from what I have seen, it is only after several establishments have been studied carefully, that a decision is made. I am sorry to hear that Adrian's friends felt they had been "ripped off," but they chose to eat out, and if the price quoted was a "rip off," go elsewhere, or take the advice of Ezra, and eat in their villa or apartment.

Ranger,

Maybe the term "rip off" was the wrong one to use. All they were trying to say was that the relative price had increased significantly since the last visit. I agree that the reasons are a combination of poor exchange rate and local inflation. However, the overall message was that they probably wont be visiting again in the near future (because they cant afford it at those prices). Now, my prediction is that there will be a fall in the number of Brit tourists (not such a bad thing I hear some of you say ) over the next few years.

As for Ezra's advice, a sensible suggestion, but many people go on vacation to get away from having too cook and enjoy eating out.

[martin]

well as a resident for many years..we too cannot afford to eat in carvoeiro which is now another tourist town.- with orices to match..try going further afield like portimao or silves or armacao de pera..i think you will get better value.

ps i too got charged last week 2 euros 5o cent s for two beers in a new uk owned resturant in carvoeiro...this has to be about twice the going rate for anywhere else

[inflation]

My friends came back recently from another resort and noticed exactly the same thing but they have noticed large increases since introduction of the Euro.

The one thing they have noticed though is that their Portuguese friends salaries who work in the bars and restaurants wages havent increased though.

We hope to make a regular visit in September but as previous replies have said I might think of cooking in the apartment one night - better quality meat and veg at local market and certainly not tasteless like UK rubbish we get pumped full of water and God knows what other chemicals. At least if we get 'ripped off' the Portuguese give us better food and service to start with so I wont be complaining.

By the way Michael Crane and his Diet - does anyone know if Michael means the Rosemary Conley Diet? or should it be Clooney. Have heard of George but not Rosemary. Keep up the diary Michael if you are reading this you have inspired my sister so much - she choked on her breakfast laughing at your updates and lets just say the breakfast ended up in the sink so less calories consumed that morning!

[gerrit]

Indeed, holliday in Carvoeiro is actually more expensive than years ago.
I remember 10 years ago, grilled sardines in Portimao was about 200 Esc.
(= 1 euro) and almost every year it increased by 10%. (I'm curious what the new prices will be when the dockside restaurants will re-open in august at their new location). Eating out was cheaper than making your own dinner.
I also had the feeling last summer that in general prices increased by 20%, but they stay sensibly lower than here in Belgium. The usd/euro exchange-rate increased in 1 year by more than 25% , this means that for non-euro tourists it results in approx. 45% higher prices. But you will be confronted with the similar problem in all euro-countries.

Moreover, at home I'm not going out for dinner every day. All this make holliday's expensive, but I don't have the feeling that Carvoeiro should be more expensive than Spain. I know for sure that Portugal, and Carvoeiro in particular is much more nicer.

Gerrit

[pinkiebluesky]

Being a wage earner I can tell you that my wages went up at the begining of this year from 473 euros and 86 centimos to 488 euros and 86 centimos. as you can see a raise of 15 euros!! Things have become too expensive and I think a lot of that is to do with the famous "rounding up" if something comes to 1,46 it is more likley to be rounded up to 1,50 which most people think of as only 4 centimos but 4 centimos is 8 escudos

[Gambrinus]

rounding up is one thing, obviously people don´t want to have to fill a till with tons of small change. But rounding to the nearest Euro (which is the most common practice) means that a product could potentially increse by an equivalent of 99 escudos....

Given that we are talking about relativley low costs for the individual product (a beer, or even a meal) this is quite a slap in the face.

One thing has to be taken into consideration when one looks at the prices in Carvoeiro - prices of bread, water or even wine have not actually shot up all around the country - it has simply become common practice in tourist regions to say "if everyone else doubles their prices, I might as well do it". That attitude, combined with a reduced number of tourists seems pretty suicidal to me.

--> I for one will be counting the dead "lemmings" at the end of the season.