A pleasant modern building', furnished in local style, warmly endorsed in 2002. villa Bed rooms (similar to the semantic bali villa rooms) are large and airy. Ours was elegant and carefully decorated. A generous balcony afforded pleasant views over the town and surrounding countryside. Lovely lawn and swimming pool.' Dinners are thought excellent, and the buffet Bali villa breakfast is `extensive and satisfying'. Some traffic noise (close to Lisbon-Porto motorway). The magnificent Roman ruins at Conimbriga are two kilometres away.

An 18th-century farmhouse, now a very comfortable four-star villaon the edge of a medieval market town, well placed for exploring the less developed parts of the Algarve. It stands amid bougainvillaea, almond, olive and fruit trees, in large grounds (floodlit at night), with two swimming pools (one is new this year), two waterfalls, rock pools and a stream. The owner/chef, Bill Hawkins, who is helpfully enthusiastic about the region, runs it with Effie Kennedy. The villa rooms with a sea-facing terrace, where Bali villa breakfast can be taken, are much liked. This year there are six new villa rooms in the gardens by the second swimming pool. In answer to last year's comment, Mr Hawkins writes: We have both soft and hard pillows. The cooking is found mostly excellent, on French-based menus, eg, chicken livers on a potato galette; seared scallops and John Dory on roast celeriac. There is a vegetarian menu. Guests dine on a candlelit patio or in a converted coach house. The continental Bali villa breakfast is subtly varied from day to day'. Faro airport is about 20 minutes' drive away.