Vilamoura with a baby – 0 to 2 years

A baby does not realise whether it is lying on the Algarve or in the garden at home. What it does notice is heat, noise, an interrupted midday nap and a pushchair rattling over cobblestones. That is exactly why Vilamoura is a surprisingly good place with a child under two. The reason, though, is not what you book here but the way the place was built.

Why a resort drawn on a drawing board is easier with a pushchair

Vilamoura did not grow into what it is. In 1966 the banker Cupertino de Miranda, through the Lusotur company, began planning a holiday resort here on some 1,600 hectares of bought land; today the resort covers around 2,000 hectares and is one of the largest continuous tourism complexes in Europe. There is no old town and no fishermen’s quarter. Adults looking for atmosphere will count that as a drawback, and it should be said plainly. With a pushchair it is the strongest thing the place has going for it.

Around the harbour basin of the Marina de Vilamoura, opened in 1974 with its 825 berths, run wide, level, unbroken promenades. The distances are short. You push from the flat to the coffee, from the coffee to the beach and back, without lifting the pushchair and without hunting for a way around steps. In Loulé, barely a quarter of an hour inland, it is a different picture: old town, narrow lanes, gradients. In Quarteira, 3 km east and reachable on foot along the water, a town that actually grew begins, with a fishing harbour and a market – an outing worth making, but the exact opposite of Vilamoura.

Which of the three beaches suits which day?

Praia de Vilamoura, also called Praia da Marina, lies directly beside the harbour. This is the main beach, popular with families and hotel guests and correspondingly busy and lively in summer. The short walk is worth a great deal with a baby; the crush in July rather less.

Praia da Rocha Baixinha forms the eastern end of Praia da Falésia, right by the marina. Administratively it belongs to Albufeira, but in practice it is Vilamoura’s second beach. It has carried the Blue Flag since 2012, is less crowded than the main beach and has more room for a blanket, a parasol and distance from other towels.

Praia da Falésia stretches about 6 km west to Olhos de Água, beneath orange and white clay and sand cliffs up to 42 metres high. But a cliff beach also means this: you cannot get down everywhere. There are three main access points, at Olhos de Água, at Açoteias and at Vilamoura. How any one of them is built, how many steps it has and whether there is a ramp is something this article does not claim – go and look at the access before you head down with a pushchair and a child. Along the top runs a footpath at the cliff edge, about 3.5 km of it between Açoteias and the stretch known as Praia dos Tomates.

Where is there shade in the afternoon?

There is something useful to say about the place itself. In the morning the cliff beaches lie partly in the shadow of the wall; by the afternoon that shade has gone, and then only what you brought yourself counts. In the marina it works the other way round and is easier: in the lanes and under the awnings of the cafés there is shade even at midday, and the walk there is short enough to make on the spur of the moment.

On anything to do with skin, heat and fluids we give no recommendation here. A pharmacy on the spot or your paediatrician at home will answer that better than a travel site.

What can you book that genuinely fits at this age?

The tourist train through Vilamoura costs 6 € and is the cheapest thing on offer in the resort, with 197 reviews. It is short, you sit down, it stays on land, and if it goes badly you get off. For a child under two that is roughly the ideal format.

After that the list thins out, and that is the honest answer: of 73 things bookable around Vilamoura, almost all are aimed at older children or at adults. What does not need booking, on the other hand, is plentiful. Cerro da Vila on the western edge of the marina – Roman ruins with mosaics, a bath complex and tanks for salting fish, plus a small museum – is within walking distance and does not cost a whole day.

Why a boat trip is usually the wrong question at this age

The shortest boat trips from the marina last 2 hours: 25 € for the catamaran at sunset, 27 € for the boat party with a DJ, 40 € for the dolphin search. The most booked trip in the resort lasts 2.5 hours, costs 44.10 € and combines the Benagil cave with dolphins, on 811 reviews. The cheapest cave trip lasts 4 hours and costs 23.20 €.

Two hours is short for an adult. For a baby that has had enough it is very long, and out on the water there is no way back. That is the real point, not the question of which type of boat is best. Then there is the calendar: sunset trips follow the sun rather than the clock, and their departure times shift by more than two hours between June and October. A time that fits the evening routine in June no longer fits it in October.

If you are still considering it: operators set different limits; these are stated on the individual booking page and should be read there before you book. The same goes for everything that matters on board. Whether there is anywhere to change a nappy, whether there is a toilet, whether a pushchair can come along, whether a life jacket in the right size exists: none of that can be promised here. Ask the operator and have it confirmed before you book, rather than assuming. That applies to dolphin trips just as much as to the trips to the Benagil cave.

Jet ski and parasailing, when one of you stays behind

The water sports at the marina are unambiguously for adults: jet ski 90 € for 30 minutes, jet boat 40 € for 30 minutes, parasailing 45 € for 10 minutes in the air. With a baby that simply means one of you goes and one of you stays. A practical note: these short activities are the ones most often cancelled at short notice, because they need calm water close to the shore. Without a child that is an annoyance; with a child you have just replanned half the day.

Zoomarine, Aqualand and the length of a day

Zoomarine near Guia is about 20 minutes away by car, entry costs 28.90 €, and with 3,965 reviews it is the most booked activity in the region. Aqualand in Alcantarilha costs 23 € to enter, and the park runs free shuttle buses, among others from Vilamoura and Quarteira.

With a baby the arithmetic is different than with a five-year-old. These are long, hot days with a drive and a lot of ground, and the decisive difference lies in getting back: if you arrive on the shuttle bus, you leave on the shuttle bus timetable, not when the child has had enough. Whether there are reductions, age limits or height requirements for the smallest visitors is not stated in the information available to us – clear that up with the park before you buy.

What stays open on the hire car

Faro airport lies about 24 km and roughly 25 minutes by car to the east. That short transfer is a genuine argument for Vilamoura with a baby, particularly after a flight. On child seats this article invents nothing. Which rule applies and what a hire company actually supplies is something you settle when you book the car: seat category, price and who fits it. And if you stay entirely without a car, you are limited to Vilamoura and Quarteira, which at this age is usually enough.