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Hearing only bad news - Albufeira

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Jayjan View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jayjan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04/July/2019 at 22:28
Andrew the photo Chloe is on about was taken on The Strip in the daytime , next door to Hot Shots Bar. Absolutely disgraceful, as she said one guy was completely naked. Luckily he was  only showing his backside to the world. One wonders if he walked down the strip like that before he reached the bar or he took his shorts off afterwards. If the bar staff of the bar had any moral standards they wouldn't have served them. But hey ho they don't seem to care as long as money is going in the till.The other photo posted was  a guy with a G string type thing on walking down the strip near Hotel Aldeia. Not a nice thing for folks walking about  to see, especially if they have young kids with them.
Polli the dancing cat strikes again.
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Algarveaddick View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Algarveaddick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05/July/2019 at 11:44
Like I have said before, if the families start spending money instead of going AI, I am sure the bars would prefer them to stags and hens.  
Go away Duchatalet
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Chloe View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Chloe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05/July/2019 at 13:00
Until someone does something about the number of AI then families are always going to use them. Greece restricted the number of AI accommodations there could be because of the impact they have on local trade and businesses. The bar owners are the only ones benefitting from the lewd behaviour of the stags and hens. They are quite happy to continue to pour drink down their throats even when they have had more than enough. Personally, I think that Albufeira hasn't gone into the gutter, it has gone down the sewer and until the crap is removed from the sewer it will continue to fester and the bad behaviour will escalate.

Why don't the police do something about the way the stags in particular behave and dress ( or not). If this was in the UK they would be charged with indecent exposure and hauled up in court. How would people feel if persons from other countries walked about their seaside towns (un)dressed like they were in the recently posted photos? I bet you they would complain bitterly and something would be done.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Algarveaddick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05/July/2019 at 13:40
Don't disagree with your first four sentences Chloe, or the final paragraph. But this:  "... think that Albufeira hasn't gone into the gutter, it has gone down the sewer and until the crap is removed from the sewer it will continue to fester and the bad behaviour will escalate." Is a vast exaggeration and the escalate part is without foundation - why would a couple of stags in mankinis lead to every male group holidaymaker waring the same? 

Nobody forces families to go AI - and some of the reports we hear of the behaviour of people on AI (albeit mostly contained within the hotels) are not too clever either. Including that of people with their children in tow.   
Go away Duchatalet
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Andrew Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05/July/2019 at 15:32
Thanks for the info Polly, I haven’t seen those photos but agree nudity in such a place is totally out of order, on a known nudist beach is different, but a Main Street in a main stream holiday resort is totally out of order. What I find equally abhorrent is that people will serve them, yes they want money in tills but the presence of someone flashing his tackle would surely turn more away than that single group are going to pay in.
Equally astounding, where are the Police? People behaving and dressing like that should be straight down the nick and in the cell overnight, can’t believe the usually over zealous authorities aren’t all over this.
And one final one, I’d have thought any right minded person seeing it would give them a piece of their mind, even if they’ve all been on the lash there is surely somebody in the group who would have the sense to see it’s upsetting folks and they’ve gone too far and address (no pun intended) the situation.
Andrew
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tonisdad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06/July/2019 at 14:23
It is quite amusing how AI seems to be getting the blame for gangs of drunks in Albufeira.
Are all the hotels now AI?
If so where do the stags/hens/Birthday gangs stay.
Ok we stop the all inclusive in Albuferia who are the bar owners going to prefer 40 off their face lads or lasses drinking themselves senseless who the bar staff can rip off....Don`t say that does not happen. Or half a dozen Mr.& Mrs Average & 2 kids spending about 25 Euro per family.
Sorry the place is cheap to get to now the drink no more expensive than your average resort in UK Netherlands Germany France or Sweden and it it warmer enabling idiots to walk around with their bits out......Mind some you see I would be keeping it covered up myself.
Chloe will the police do a lot I would think not because the GNR will no doubt be in the pocket of the people who own most of the bigger bars.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote peteknopp Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06/July/2019 at 14:32
The police and council are so out of touch with tourism as to be unable to imlement a few local by laws to stamp out bad behaviour. Big hunting, fishing, tourism fair at marina - got a rave review from a tourist for the horse show, dancing, food and live music - but in one marquee are racks of shotguns, stuffed wildlife etc prmoting hunting. I mean WTF kind of impression are they trying to show the tourists - for once an event as far away from streets closed lycra clad cycling events as to be a real positve but the whole scenario needs to be thought through a bit better.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Algarveaddick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07/July/2019 at 09:22
Originally posted by tonisdad tonisdad wrote:

It is quite amusing how AI seems to be getting the blame for gangs of drunks in Albufeira.
Are all the hotels now AI?
If so where do the stags/hens/Birthday gangs stay.
Ok we stop the all inclusive in Albuferia who are the bar owners going to prefer 40 off their face lads or lasses drinking themselves senseless who the bar staff can rip off....Don`t say that does not happen. Or half a dozen Mr.& Mrs Average & 2 kids spending about 25 Euro per family.
Sorry the place is cheap to get to now the drink no more expensive than your average resort in UK Netherlands Germany France or Sweden and it it warmer enabling idiots to walk around with their bits out......Mind some you see I would be keeping it covered up myself.
Chloe will the police do a lot I would think not because the GNR will no doubt be in the pocket of the people who own most of the bigger bars.
 

As I am the only one suggesting that AI is a factor (not "[to] blame"), I will take that as aimed at me Paul. 

If I have not expressed myself properly, then that is my fault, although I thought agreeing with everything Chloe posted on July 5th except one sentence would have made clear that I am not "blaming" AI. It is a factor. 

You say "Are all the hotels now AI? If so where do the stags/hens/Birthday gangs stay." Well, actually I expect a lot of them do stay at AI hotels - there is nothing preventing them from doing so, is there? They quite possibly get blathered at the hotel and then, once tanked up, hit the streets. The two are not mutually exclusive, are they?

But in answer to your question, no they are not all AI, but those that are, are often where families end up, and then stay. It is the UK travel agents that push the hotels into AI, as they themselves try to respond to people doing DIY holidays and their subsequent loss of commission.  

I will try and explain what I am trying to put across as simply as I can.

Thousands of families used to come to Albufeira and spend €500 a week in bars and restaurants. 80% of them now spend an extra €200 (or whatever) to go AI, and then spend €100 in bars and restaurants (Bs and Rs). 

That leaves Bs and Rs with a shortfall of about €320 per family - I am factoring in that 20% of families still spend €500.

How do 600 to 800 Bs and Rs stay open with such a large shortfall, which is absolutely no fault of theirs? 

Naturally they look elsewhere for business. 

The non-UK/Ireland market is no good, most of them self cater. 

The restaurants offer very good value tourist menus, but there is only so low you can go, and Mr & Mrs Average and their 2.4 children still stay in their hotel and eat the dinner they have already paid for.

The answer seems to be stags and hens. I am sure if anyone has another suggestion as to where that shortfall can be made up, most places would lap it up?

If they did not cater for these groups, then many places would have to close, many people would be out of work, and on the one night the AI guests decide to venture out they would come across a ghost town, rather than one in 5000 people wearing a thong...

Also - as has been suggested by others - once the school holidays start, the price is too high for the single sex parties, so over the next couple of weeks as families arrive the numbers of stags and hens dives. As do bar profits. 

And finally, as someone who has worked in and around bars in Albufeira for 15 years, I can assure you that, whilst some absent owners might like the groups more than families, the staff and most owners most certainly do not. Drunks are a total pain in the 'arris - be they in groups or, as I came across last night, a drunken female pensioner bothering other customers (a group of lads as it happened). No one wants to deal with them, Paul, no one wants to clean up the loo after they have been in, or clean up their puke outside the bar, or tell them you are not going to serve them when they turn up drunk, having been asked to leave somewhere else.

The "blame" is with the people themselves. But other factors do come into play, including the impossibility of competing with AI.                     

                  
Go away Duchatalet
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote tonisdad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07/July/2019 at 14:40
No AA not aimed at you regards all inclusive it is other places that also blame all inclusive when they have a quiet night. I don`t think when you see the strip Friday Saturday morning/afternoon they are all inclusive stayers.
At the end of the day it is the bar owners GNR local Government whoever who has let Albufeira end up in the situation it is in now....That is taken over by drunken idiots for a quick buck.When they have moved on to the next hot spot and familes have given upon the place then where will they be?
I agree thousands of families used to come to Albufeira....I think many of them thousands come see what it is like now and never come again. I have said before I would hate to think I was coming to Albufeira with young kids now for a holiday I had worked and saved all year for.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (3) Thanks(3)   Quote Jock Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07/July/2019 at 20:43
Taken over by drunken idiots? really? That hasn't been my experience in the main although I do visit outwith July & August.  Certainly I have seen some but where will you not?  The strip I can't speak of as in the evening I stick to the old town.  I did see one clown wearing a mankini and, as has been said, that was too much.  For me Albufeira is still a pleasant and safe place to visit.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Super__Ally Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07/July/2019 at 22:51
Originally posted by Jock Jock wrote:

Taken over by drunken idiots? really? That hasn't been my experience in the main although I do visit outwith July & August.  Certainly I have seen some but where will you not?  The strip I can't speak of as in the evening I stick to the old town.  I did see one clown wearing a mankini and, as has been said, that was too much.  For me Albufeira is still a pleasant and safe place to visit.

 
Yes I agree Jock, Albufeira is as you say pleasant and safe most of the time
The problem is when you eventually bump into the stags and hens it becomes the opposite. 
Our worst experience was a few years ago when we stayed in the Forte do Vale. There were 12 blokes all dressed as women, which they did all day every day. Dresses, high heels and make up. How they thought it was amusing or funny I will never know. 
We have never tried AI and never will. We prefer to eat out at our favourite restaurants. 
Roll on October when we will be back for visit number 4 for 2019.     
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pyrman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/July/2019 at 12:31
There is absolutely no evidence of any substantial numbers `never coming again` ... the city is growing ... there are more and more people here now .. and will be in future. For some people the glass is always half empty ..
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chloe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/July/2019 at 15:26
Originally posted by pyrman pyrman wrote:

There is absolutely no evidence of any substantial numbers `never coming again` ... the city is growing ... there are more and more people here now .. and will be in future. For some people the glass is always half empty ..

No evidence of people not coming back? Portugal News reported in the last few months that Brits visiting were down 250,000. Where are they if there is no evidence of none-returners?? Why are there still vacancies for accommodation for July and August?. Lots of posts on Facebook asking for accommodation for these months an replies galore saying where they are. I know of property managers who have had their season start a month later than other years. Corcovada is nowhere near as packed as it has been in previous years.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Algarveaddick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/July/2019 at 09:52
While once again I agree with Chloe, the reason for the decline in the number of Brits isn't just the stags and hens. 
Go away Duchatalet
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jock Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/July/2019 at 10:47
Every now and again I see reports in the UK press that Brits are booking fewer holidays in the EU this year. Many say it's because of brexit. I don't know what their evidence is for this. Why would Brexit make us stay away? So long as we have a valid passport and adequate insurance (and money) then any decision or none in October wont stop us having a good holiday.
It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an Airport' appear. Douglas Adams
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