Today I am sharing our experience all about our villa itself, as I have decided to share another all about what we got up to whilst in Portugal with the kids. As we were asked to be James Villas ambassadors this year we were given the option of where to stay and we settled on the child friendly country of Portugal. With lots of Villas in the Algarve to choose from, we were booked into the 4 bedroom Villa Judite which is based in Gale, Portugal. It is near to the larger town of Albufeira, which is about a 15 minute drive away by car or taxi.

Gale is a great spot as there are so many beaches to choose from all within a ten minute radius. Our favourite was Gale beach itself as the sand was just gorgeous, plus there were toilets and restaurants and places to buy snacks on the beach. The smaller beaches are utterly stunning but do not offer these facilities; and with three kids you need to be able to get an ice cream fix, and, along with the numerous toilet stops you have to make – you need these facilities to hand!

Villa Judite is a 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom villa with a private pool set in Gale Portugal. You can find out the floorplan of Villa Judite on the James Villas website along with availability and prices to stay in this gorgeous villa.

Access to the property on arrival day is really easy. You are given a code via email with your booking. To access to the keys you go via the key box situated at the front of the property. The villa is set off the road behind your own key only accessible gate, which you open and lock as you come and go. I felt incredibly safe and staying in a gated property added to this, along with the lockable shutter windows on every window throughout the property. I never gave a second thought to leaving our belongings in the villas as we were out and about as it is so secure.

James Villas have everything covered; there was a travel cot and highchair in the villa long with plastic cups for smaller children. I would advise that there are no stairgates in the property but there is a gate to access the pool, which was a weight off my mind.

Three of the four bedrooms are upstairs (two twin rooms with two single beds) and also the main room with the double bed, en suite and a balcony which looked out onto the pool. All of the bedrooms have built in wardrobes for hanging your clothes up and a good number of coathangers too, which is my bugbear in places where they give you about three!

Downstairs has the other bedroom with a double bed and ensuite, a separate toilet with a shower, the pool room with a full sized table, kitchen with a dining table, utility which has an iron and ironing board and a washing machine. The lounge has a sofa, TV with a DVD player and another dining table.

Outside, there is another marble dining table which is adjacent to the covered built in BBQ which was complete with its own working sink making it perfect for al fresco dining.

There is also a ping pong table and a washing line with pegs. There are steps next to the BBQ which take you up to the pool which had eight sun-loungers and it’s own shower. There were also umbrellas and stands provided to keep the kids out of the sun and provide some shade around the pool to cool off – they literally have everything you need!

The kitchen is well equipped for a self catering holiday and along with the BBQ you really are set up for care free dining. There is a fridge with a small freezer compartment too for storing your food and loads of cupboard space. It also has a kettle, microwave and toaster along with the cooker and hob for cooking and finally – a dishwasher! Little tip – take a few tablets as these aren’t supplied and as you’re on holiday, who wants to wash up!

Our highlight was without a doubt having our own pool. I have never ever seen my kids more in their element and their confidence in the water is at an all time high. Having our Konfidence swim jackets has honestly been an absolute game changer. Before when we went swimming they’d struggle with armbands restricting their movements, or more annoyingly slipping down their owns. We would always end up having to be right next to them as they couldn’t move far, but they’ve got their own freedom and are indpendently “swimming”. The first thing all three wanted to do as soon as they woke up was jump straight into the pool. The pool was the perfect depth as it was 0.80m in the shallow end which was accessed via steps and the deep end was 2m deep so we could jump in safely.

It was small touches such as the leaflets about the local area, the comprehensive information all about the fixtures and fittings (explaining how to use everything) and also they had a small book library and stash of magazines which came in handy when I unexpectedly had time on my hands when the kids were playing for hours on end in the pool!

My only slight criticism was the maid service came on the Tuesday (we only arrived on Sunday afternoon – perhaps Wednesday or Thursday would have been better) and whilst the towels, bedding and bins were all changed for us, I would perhaps liked to have been left a replacement bin bag and maybe a few toilet rolls replenished. I completely get that it is a self catering villa and I understand the concept entirely but it seemed silly having to buy a roll of bin bags when we only really needed an extra one. I know it sounds really pedantic, but hey if that’s all you have to worry about, then I would say everything else is pretty damn good.

My suggestion for the future would possibly to have a small welcome pack in the villa on arrival with the basics (washing up liquid, a scourer, maybe a loaf of bread?) It’s usually small things like this that make the real difference not to mention help tired and weary travellers after a long day of travelling.

Our villa was at the end of a small cul de sac and was so incredibly peaceful. I absolutely loved having so much space to ourselves, but also the fact that I wasn’t worrying about them running about inside and disturbing someone or vice versa having noisy guests slamming doors at all hours, which often happens in a hotel. I really enjoyed the laid back nature of a villa holiday. We had so much space to ourselves and we all left very relaxed. It was about a ten-fifteen minute walk to the nearest bars/restaurants but as we had car hire included in our package, it didn’t matter too much. We did get a taxi into Albufeira on the last evening so we could have a couple of drinks and this cost around 10 Euros for a six seater from the villa.

I absolutely loved staying with James Villas and cannot fault their customer service whatsoever. They made everything incredibly easy and our flights were all on time and no issues at all. The car hire office was really well signposted inside Faro airport and we were only in there around 10 minutes before we were on our way. We also had a visit from a James Villa rep on the first day, Amanda who was lovely and a great source of knowledge. It is nice to put a face to a name and we had her contact number, in case we needed her for anything during our stay (which fortunately we didn’t!) I would highly recommend James Villas to friends and family as we had nothing but brilliant service throughout.

I will be sharing more about what we got up to in Portugal in the next week, along with a little YouTube vlog from our stay. Keep your eyes peeled for those!

B xx

Disclosure: This year we were asked to be James Villas ambassadors; our flights, villa itself and car hire were all paid for by James Villas for the purpose of this review. I have not received extra payment for this review. All words, opinions and images are my own