Zoomarine in the Algarve or the Waterpark

liney

We are heading to the algarve in August and staying at the somewhat remote Adriana Beach Club, which is situated between Vilamoura and Albufeira.

We are debating on whether to hire a car; this will cost around £120 for the week. We know there will be excursions for sale to the above places via Thomas Cook so we are basically trying to work out how much we would save by just buying the tickets and going ourselves versus the excusion price, so effectively how much the car hire will cost in real terms. Has anyone bought these excursions, or suggest better car hire?

Thanks

MentalMinnie

I went to the Aquapark last year (I forget the name) We booked via a booking office in Albufeira. Cost us £18 each roughly for 2 adults, which included the coach there and back.

**Edit. We went to Slide & Splash. Just remembered. The coach also dropped off at the Zoomarine place.

mchale

If your thinking of going to zoomarine google: the cove.

http://www.slidesplash.com/


http://www.aqualand.pt

liney

MentalMinnie wrote: »

I went to the Aquapark last year (I forget the name) We booked via a booking office in Albufeira. Cost us £18 each roughly for 2 adults, which included the coach there and back.

**Edit. We went to Slide & Splash. Just remembered. The coach also dropped off at the Zoomarine place.

The tickets on the the waterpark website are comming up at 25 euros each plus 18 euros for DS so 68 euros for the water park alone, much more than you seem to have paid.

Zoomarine is 27 euros each plus 18 for DS, so 72 euros, 140 euros total unless the excursions get better rates. :eek:

MentalMinnie

Ah,,,,,maybe I ment 28 euros then. I had a great time though. Went with my OH, i'm not a massive fan of water etc. but i went on most of the slides and just enjoyed sunbathing as well. We went in Late September, so it wasn't too busy. Zoomarine was HEAVING though! We dropped off about half the coach at ZM, and they were massive queues.

knewbold

I went to albufaira in april and paid 30 euros for the bus to aquamarine and the tickets, this was from the booking office over the road from the rock line bar.

ZM is ok,. everything is timed well so you can go from 1 show to another, although there wasnt much else to do, and the 2 bird shows were pretty poor, the parrot one especially so

the dolphin one was good, and the lady was hot :-)

andygb

liney wrote: »

We are heading to the algarve in August and staying at the somewhat remote Adriana Beach Club, which is situated between Vilamoura and Albufeira.

We are debating on whether to hire a car; this will cost around £120 for the week. We know there will be excursions for sale to the above places via Thomas Cook so we are basically trying to work out how much we would save by just buying the tickets and going ourselves versus the excusion price, so effectively how much the car hire will cost in real terms. Has anyone bought these excursions, or suggest better car hire?



Thanks

If you do hire a car, then please take out the maximum insurance cover (which is not a lot extra), because the standard of driving over there is the worst I have seen anywhere in the World. The day before we came home, we parked our car in a large car park by the beach in Portimao, in the middle of the day. There were plenty of people around, but when we came back from lunch, the car had been hit quite badly - front wing destroyed, passenger door wouldn't open, glass and metal on the floor - not your typical car park nudge. Nobody had seen anything, no notes had been left, the guilty party had just smashed the car and then driven off.
Luckily we were covered, and when the guy at the hire place asked what "I had done" to the car, I just smiled and said that maybe the Portuguese should take either driving lessons or honesty lessons or maybe both.

sillygoose

I hated Aquapark, the slides scared the wits out of me, came away with bad friction burns on my elbows from trying to 'brake'... and when I was at the bottom of a deep landing pool and looking up through the water as I made for the surface and seeing a relieved lifeguard peering down at me...never again!

I love Zoomarine though, so much to do there and the dolphin and high diver shows are extraordinary.

I know which one I would be heading for.

MentalMinnie

sillygoose wrote: »

I hated Aquapark, the slides scared the wits out of me, came away with bad friction burns on my elbows from trying to 'brake'... and when I was at the bottom of a deep landing pool and looking up through the water as I made for the surface and seeing a relieved lifeguard peering down at me...never again!

I love Zoomarine though, so much to do there and the dolphin and high diver shows are extraordinary.

I know which one I would be heading for.

I don't think it was that bad! And i don't remember any of the pools being more than waist height?! Are you talking about Slide & Splash?

toffee'n'tom

I've been to the Algarve three times staying just outside Albufeira and have always hired a car for ease of getting round/shopping/ choice of restaurants/ visiting different beaches/ convenience. I'm a single mother and travelled with two children and never had a problem with the roads in Portugal. One of the easiest places I've driven. It's hard to go wrong.

If you have to choose between Splash and Slide and Zoomarine then it's a no brainer for me. We're a lot more active and love the waterparks. I thought Zoomarine was a bit tacky, dull and little to do except watch basically the same shows with different animals - and don't ask me about the synchonised swimmers!!!!!

So go for the car, go to Splash and Slide and visit loads of fantastic places in the Algarve.