Erasmus Experience in Vilamoura, Portugal by Iris

Why did you choose to go to Vilamoura, Portugal?

Vilamoura wasn't my first choice, but I've got the opportunity to do my Erasmus practice there

What is the student lifestyle like in Vilamoura?

Vilamoura isn't such a good city for students, it is beautiful city, especially for older people or families but in my opinion, too expensive for young people

Would you recommend the city and the University of Vilamoura to other students?

There is not the Univerity in Vilamoura, but yes I would recommend the city although as I already wrote, it is not the best city for students

What is the food like?

The food is quite good

Did it cost you to find your accommodation in Vilamoura?

It is very very hard to find accommodation in Vilamoura during the summer time, even the worst kind of accommodation will cost you a lot of money. So my advice would be (if you are planing to go during the summer) to look for some apartment or some other kind of accommodation at least 2 months before you are supposed to go and try to find something near to the center because they really have the worst transport I've ever seen before

How much does it cost to live in Vilamoura?

My colleague and me were paying accommodation 800eur per month (each of us was paying half of it, monthly bus ticket was around 35eur, and the rest of the money we spent on food which is quite expensive if you want to eat in restaurants of course, but if you want to buy food in markets and prepare it at home it can cost you between 250 and 400eur I think

Is the language easy to get to grips with? Are there language courses available at the University?

Portuguese is a beautiful language. There are a lot of foreigners in Vilamoura so most of the people speak english very well

What's the easiest or most economical way to travel to Vilamoura from your city?

Vilamoura is very far away from my city so the best way was to travel by plane. If you look for a plane ticket enough time before your travel, you can find some cheap flight

Where would you recommend to go on a night out in Vilamoura?

The irish pub, definitely

And for eating? Can you recommend some good restaurants in Vilamoura?

Most of the restaurants in marina are good, I liked the italian restaurants but I really don't remember their names

What good cultural sites are there to visit?

In Vilamoura not many, I actually don't know any of them. Vilamoura is beautiful because of the ocean, sandy beach, marina, nice restaurants and bars, things like that. But if you travel around you can see a lot of beautiful small cities, a lot of them are historic cities with many cultural things to see. I would definitely recommend you to visit Loule, Faro, Silves and of course, Lisbon although Lisbon is 3 hours by bus from Vilamora, but if you will have a chance, you should definitely go there, it was one of the best cities I've ever seen, just amazing.

Is there any other advice that you could give to students going to Vilamoura in the future?

For veterinary students looking for a place to do their Erasmus practice, just avoid Clinica Veterinaria Dr.Bruno Silva. It is the worst guy ever, a tyrant that will treat you as you are his slaves with no respect. He won't teach you anything and while he is in the clinic, the only job you will do is cleaning and eventually, if you are lucky, holding agressive dogs (without any normal protection, as muzzle is). If you ask him something kindly hoping that he can help you to learn things you are not good at, he will insult you. Of course, if you are not a foreigner, he will treat you well. After all, we needed to beg him to fill out the final documents for us. So in the end, I really don't know is this guy just sick, crazy, frustrated, nationalist or something else, but my colleague and me had a very bad experiance with him and I think we both were doing our best during the time spent at his clinic. Luckily, he has such a good and amazing employees that teached us so much and helped us to enjoy our time. Because of them, we both can still say that we had such a good time there.