Blue Moon Guesthouse

We visited Lagos at the end of a three location Portuguese holiday having spent our previous 8 days in Porto and Lisbon. The old town of Lagos is a busy touristy area and the Blue Moon Guest House is located on a corner in the main pedestrian drag through the centre of the town. Access is through the front door which is quite discreet at the back of a front facing restaurant. There is also another entrance just up the side street that leads into an enclosed private patio / courtyard, a nice place to sunbathe or just chill if the weather is pleasant. This is a shared facility for the hotel guests but it's a small place with only a few rooms and on the two occasions we used the patio, we were completely on our own. The hotel is owned by Jose, a really nice guy, and he runs the Blue Moon with the help of his wife, son and daughter. They aren't resident as such, but all the rooms are cleaned every morning so there's normally someone around if you have any questions or need advice on anything. All of the family are pretty fluent in English and extremely helpful and we really felt we were being looked after during our stay. In terms of facilities, the rooms are spacious, each with a mini fridge, all extremely clean and well maintained with ensuite bathrooms and excellent showers and washing facilities. Apart from the courtyard / patio, there is also a well-equipped shared kitchen with a larger fridge, cooking facilities and a dining area. This in turn leads onto a comfortable lounge area with TV and even a computer for guest use. There are Wi-Fi facilities throughout both the rooms and the communal areas. As I mentioned, we were extremely well looked after during our stay and we certainly got the impression that Jose and his family genuinely care about their guests which is quite unusual in this day and age. On the downside, and it's difficult to be at all critical, the Blue Moon is located in busy area and a lot of bars stay open until 2 in the morning so it can be a little noisy with holidaymakers milling around outside if you are trying to get an early night. Also, during the high season, there seems to be a bit of reluctance for taxi drivers to access the place due to the many tables and chairs littering the small surrounding streets, so my advice would be to take your luggage to the taxi rank on the main road parallel to the river, rather than trying to hail a door to door service. That said, a truly delightful place to spend a holiday break, particularly if you like to be in the middle of everything as you are literally surrounded by bars, restaurants and shops. As my son would say, "a pretty kicking location".