Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
1of6
Community
We visit local restaurants, specially selected that offer typical Portuguese cuisine, or have typical Portuguese features. We visit locally owned supermarkets when possible, rather than the big chains. We visit Portuguese owned surf shops with guests and have good relationships with local surfers and fisherman.
We have a children's surf club for local Algarve children. During school holidays they might attend a day at the beach together with our guests. The children join this surf club at a symbolic fee or do little jobs at the camp. Most of them surf very well and learn basic life skills by spending time in the ocean with adults. We organise an annual surf safari for the local children at a symbolic rate.
Environment
Surfing and camping are two low impact activities. Carbon foot prints are minimal and the environment does not suffer as a consequence. Our own facilities are solar and wind powered. It is interesting for our guests to see this actually works fine and could be the future in how we find power for our needs. No fossil fuels, no CO2, no taxes.
We organise annual beach cleaning events with the local children's surf club. This is to symbolically give something back to the ocean. After every beach visit we dispose of all rubbish in containers and try to collect some more scattered beach rubbish left by others. When grocery shopping we try to select products with minimal packaging, we do not accept plastic shopping bags but load all groceries in large bins.
Our surf camp grounds are in the middle of the National Park. Water comes from our own well. Electricity comes from solar panels and a wind generator, and is stored in batteries for overnight use. Toilets flush into our own closed circuit septic tanks, without using harsh chemicals.
Guests that choose to travel by train to the airport are offered a free transfer to the train station. We have a few mountain bikes available for our guest to explore the National Park and nearby beaches.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
