24 Sep 2025
This was a fun and comfortable ride. A lot of the boas travelling to the caves are open deck with no shade - even in September it is quite warm in the Algarve so I appreciated the shade on this boat. it has a bar, but I didn't take advantage of that on a 9:30 AM departure. 2 toilets. Guide was good and funny. Short opportunity to swim (about 15 minutes - and the Med in September is quite cold, I would guess about 65 degrees so I didn't partake but a few did). The caves were quite spectacular and even though it was low tide, we were able to get in pretty close.
The only thing that could be improved are the check-in instructions and process. The address given is on a road with large apartment/office buildings. There is no obvious place to checkin. Fortunately, I arrived early and scouted out the place and eventually realized I needed to descend a set of stairs to the Marina level where all the boats are and the check in office is - see the picture below. This could be better described in the Trip Advisor "Getting Here" information provided. Also, there was one guy who didn't check in until about 9:25 for a 9:30 departure and the check-in office was MOBBED. There are apparently several different experiences leaving around that time. OK, that jerk was me. I was escorted down to the dock by an agent who vaguely pointed at a boat and said "It's the covered one." So I patiently waited for about 5 minutes, wondering why I didn't see anyone else until she frantically returned and said, "No, No - THAT ONE!" pointing at a different boat about 100 meters from where she left me. I quickly moved over there, handed in my ticket and they pulled up the boarding plank and we separated. Apologies to the other 40 or 50 people on that boat who apparently did find it and did get there early enough.