Play in the sun at Portugal

The summer holidays have landed, and it won't take long before the kids get bored and the adults get frustrated. You'll all need to get away at some point to get some summer sun, and a holiday to Portugal will alleviate some of the stresses of trying to keep the kids entertained, but what can you do when you get there?

At least getting to Portugal will be easy, with hundreds of trips such as flights to faro, available from budget airlines like Jet2.com. Faro boasts a number of good hotels and has lots of fun activities for the whole family.

If you are a sun worshipper and the kids like to play in the sea and build sand castles, Faro has twenty beaches and can keep you all happy. The best beach is Ilha de Barreta or Deserta Island, which is nearly ten kilometres long and quite remote. Kids who love wildlife will also be entertained as this beach sits next to marshland with some wonderful birds such as flamingos and terns. The beach, while not on the mainland, is supervised and has toilets and a decent restaurant. This beach is just a short boat ride from Faro, and is good if you want to avoid huge crowds of holiday makers.

If you like to learn a little more about where you are staying when you go away, there are a number of historical museums such as the Faro Archaeological Museum, which has a stunning Roman mosaic. There are more Roman ruins in the surrounding countryside, at Milreu, a 1st century villa. There's the Old Town and the Cathedral to spend a day looking over, and for those of you with geeky kids, the Centro Ciencia Viva do Algarve, a local science centre which is super child friendly, with experiments to do, some beautiful spaces to explore and even workshops, birthday party activities and private astronomy sessions.

There are activities to take part in a little further afield from Faro. Just a couple of miles away, there is the  Zoomarine Algarve, an aquarium centre with seals, sea lions and dolphins, plus a bird park with tropical birds and birds of prey. This centre has activities for children of any age and will help them learn about the local marine life and more. If you want a more energetic water-based activity, the Splash and Slide Water Slide Park will keep everyone in the family occupied for hours.

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