Albufeira 2017 (Tips and Advice Part 2: How to get around the city)

Hello everyone,

One of the questions that you often ask is about the best way to get around Albufeira.

Let’s see, if we begin with the fact that I prefer to not walk because I get tired quite easily because, among other things, I am not used to walking. But I do believe Albufeira is not a great city to walk in because there are a lot of hills and it’s always long, so if you plan to go somewhere by foot, you have to walk quite far.

I would only walk if I had a house in the historical centre or in the central zone. Most people don’t use their car here, so it wouldn’t be as difficult as I imagine it, I suppose haha.

• The buses are not too bad to be fair, but there aren’t many lines and they’re quite infrequent. There is normally one every half hour, and you have to be careful because some lines have very similar names. For example, there is the line Red and the line Red 1. If you don’t notice this small detail you could end up in another part of the city a bit lost.
• By car you can get around the city without a problem, and on a day where there is no traffic you could go through the whole city, from end to end, in 15 minutes. In the summer this usually changes to 30 minutes because there are many roundabouts and the Portuguese are not friends with their indicators, which causes a lot of problems at the roundabouts.
• Taking a taxi is a good way to go out at night if you want a drink, because I assure you that they will have control no matter what, because you already know if you drink, do not drive.
• Cycling isn’t a very common way to get around because there aren’t places to rent bikes, and normally nobody brings their bike on holiday with them.

• You can rent motorbikes and they aren’t very expensive, but this is also not very common.
• This year the tuk tuk (auto rickshaw), a small car often used in India by one person with the capacity for two or four people and is often used for tourists, has been very popular. Although meant for tourism, people have definitely been using them as taxis (I have understood that the law has changed around this matter so that this does not happen next summer. That is to say, you would only be able to get out of the vehicle in the same place at where you were picked up from). But I will inform you when I know better myself. The main point is that this is a different and curious mode of transport that could be interesting.

• There are also red, double-decker tourist buses with open tops that tour through the city and take you along the beaches, but I could not tell you how much they cost. I honestly do not think they’re very useful, because it is not a city with many cultural monuments that you would normally use these buses to see.

• Last but not least, my favourite mode of transport if you don’t want to or cannot drive, Uber. Most of you might already know how Uber works, but quite a lot of people have asked me what it is this summer, which is why I will explain. It’s like a pirated taxi, but legal. You download the app on your phone, and link it to a bank account. When you want to take an Uber, you simply select one and off you go to your chosen destination. Before accepting it, you should already see how much the journey is going to cost you, and it takes it from the bank account. It’s very useful when you don’t know who to call because you’re unfamiliar with the taxi service, as you don’t have to talk to them on the app because they will already know where you want to go.

Knowing all of this, you can choose the mode of transport that seems the best to you.

See you later!

Links for the photos:

https://sp.depositphotos.com/92747956/stock-photo-marley-davidson-motor-bike-in.html

https://city-sightseeing.com/es/75/albufeira/82/bus-turistico-albufeira

http://www.tuktuklancaster.com/about.html

https://www.readwriteweb.es/estas-las-diferencias-uber-cabify/

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