CHRISTMAS Casa do Natal

Especially for Christmas

Casa Caravela's Christmas shop in Vila Real de Santo António is your one stop shop to deck your halls and bring the Christmas spirit home

Christmas comes but once a year... as does this wonderful shop, brought to you by Casa Caravela. Each year, on the first Saturday in October, this enchanting store opens its doors and stays open until the first week of January. Full of everything Christmas, the first ever 'Casa do Natal' opened in 2008 and at the time was the only store of its kind. Casa Caravela is a family run business, started fifty five years ago and has been run by three generations of family. For the rest of the year Casa Caravela sell kitchenware and home decor. Currently the company employs 30 people and have a total of twelve stores; five in VRSA including a warehouse dedicated to Hotels, one in Monte Gordo, Tavira, Faro, Vilamoura, Lisbon and two in Lagos (one a Casa do Natal). Coming next year will be their latest shop in Loulé. You can also buy their products online at www.casacaravela.pt

You can find Casa do Natal in the centre of VRSA on Rua Candido dos Reis, No.73. Email: casacaravela@gmail.com

THEN OLHÃO FOUND US...

... and we weren't even looking! Hank and Corina's story of how they came to live in and love Olhão

Welcome to our monthly column celebrating Olhão. After exploring Portugal top to bottom from Braga to Tavira enjoying so many coastal and inland locations in our RV, we decided Olhão was the place to buy our home to celebrate our “golden years”. Honestly, we almost lost that chance. Both Carina and I received news in our 50’s that “The Big C” had arrived. After doctors and treatments and a year of fear and gratefully recovery, we both decided waiting “till next year” to do the traveling we always talked about was no longer our plan! So we cut short our careers in both California and Sweden, and for the last decade, we’ve traveled every winter, backpacking to Asia, South and Central America and Europe, staying a month in each country and, usually, spending less than at home! We knew we liked good food and warm winters and hoped we could settle where our families could enjoy being with us. Olhão was not on our radar at first. In fact, the discovery of Eastern Algarve was a pleasant surprise with the scale of development so much less than areas to the west. A chance winter rental introduced us to Olhao, a place we quickly found attractive for many reasons. “Walkability” is, above all, a main highlight and each month I will introduce you to places only steps away from our front door. We hope you will enjoy our column!

El Torito

One thing we miss about living in California is Mexican food. We’ve tried places in other countries, but almost always we are disappointed. El Torito faces the Ria Formosa esplanade just west of the Olhão Mercado and on our first visit, I knew we would be back. Sometimes it is the little details that indicate a place is doing things right. Both the salsa and guacamole are first rate and the chips are made in house. During the covid lockdowns last winter, take out was mostly the only option. El Torito kept us happy with great prices on their to go menu. I mostly favored the vegetarian combo and Carina ordered her usual, chicken quesadillas. This fall with our family visiting, we together went whole hog and ordered almost everything on the menu. That included dessert (all made in-house!), and boy I was impressed with an indulgence I never usually allow myself. (With all the great restaurants here in Olhão, that is happening a lot!). In the space of that six day visit, our folks chose El Torito again for their last “dinner out” night before returning to Sweden. That should tell you something!

VIP Real Estate

We really did not plan on buying our apartment here. The goal last January 9th stepping off the plane was to spend a month not freezing in the dark. Our one month rental here in Marina Village offered a location we knew would allow us to walk to most places. That was enough to keep us happy. With the Mercado offering fresh fish. meat and veggies close by together with three large markets all just a level stroll away, bells started going off. The esplanade along the Ria Formosa with views of the marina promised to be special although in early 2021, improvements were still under construction. We couldn’t help but to peer into the various real estate window displays wondering if our new home might be looking back at us. After only five days of exploring Olhão on foot, we entered the office at VIP Properties, located on the street facing the esplanade just in front of the Mercado. Carol and Carlos greeted us and we simply said, “Here is our budget. Can you find us something?” That they did. Within an hour, we visited what would be our new ground floor apartment all of 42 steps from the Ria Formosa waterfront. After seeing the view out onto the water from the living room, we were hooked. Visiting the rooftop pool with an even better lookout to the beautiful tidal flats sealed the deal. Buying property in a foreign country is not for the fainthearted. Portugal is famous for rolling out the red tape with plenty of administrative hoops to jump through. At every step along the way beginning with offering an innovative negotiation strategy that met our budget, VIP kept us moving forward. Carol probably was never asked so many questions and Carlos went above and beyond securing our power and water accounts without us having to lift a finger. Now we are, finally, home!

We choose to focus on businesses here in Olhao where we have actually been customers first. Any future advertising from these businesses that supports Eastern Algarve Magazine is purely coincidental :-)

HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT YOUR FUTURE HERE IN THE ALGARVE?

Is it time we addressed the ageing elephant in the room? Consider your options for the future, in time you may not be as independant as you are now

Perhaps we try not to think about it too much, or maybe you have a home somewhere you plan to return to, should the time come when you or your partner need a little extra care or a helping hand. But let's face it, the time will come, and we will all have to deal with it eventually. So what are your options? Of course going 'home' is one of them, but where do you consider home now? How would you feel returning to a place you haven't lived for years, leaving your friends, lifestyle and the wonderful climate you probably moved here for in the first place. What would the place you left years ago be like for you now, at this age and stage in your life? After all, the world and you have seen drastic changes over the last few years alone. Of course many of us have family who would love to take care of us, but is that really an option today? Do we want to become a burden to our children? They have their busy lives to get on with and do they really have time or space to take care of granny and grandad? An alternative is homecare. Perfect if you know when you'll need assistance and are able to plan ahead for help. This, however, can become expensive, should you need care more often. The other concern is, would the limited number of companies offering this type of service have enough staff to look after you when that time comes? Maybe this is a risk people are willing to take, however, now is the time to ask ourselves, is it a viable, safe, reliable option? The most drastic option would be a care home facility. Currently in the Algarve we only have one international (English speaking) care home, which is fully occupied at the moment, and with a waiting list. Apart from buying a property on the complex (also very limited availability), full care would be the only option, but again, there are no current places available, and if there was, it comes at a hefty price, especially if you don't require the full speciality care on offer. A much cheaper option would be a Portuguese facility. Although ideal for native speakers, many of us struggle with the language. How would we feel surrounded by people speaking Portuguese 24/7? I'm not so sure that would work for me. So what are we left with? A care home back home? Well, if you're from the UK, I can assure you (from experience) this is a very expensive option, and with laws changing on a regular basis, what will our rights be in the future? Is selling our homes and assets to pay for care a sensible option? I'm not so sure. Up to now, it appears our options are limited.

Here's where we think we have a solution.

Our idea is to offer a place that has care facilities available should you need it... whatever level of care, whenever you require it. The idea is to rent a suite on a monthly basis. This suite will be yours and yours only, and available for you to use, as and when you wish, even as full time accommodation. Facilities available include an outdoor pool, indoor pool, gym, sauna and turkish bath. Residents will have a private restaurant and BBQ area, only available to them and their guests. On the premises would also be a Restaurant, Croquet lawn and Padel tennis courts, which would all be open to the general public. Most importantly we will have medical facilities available. This will include a doctor's surgery and nurses at hand 24 hours a day.

So how would you benefit by renting one of our suites?

Well, all of the concerns mentioned before are taken care of. Should you or your partner require help, even for a short period of time, you simply stay at your suite for as long as you need to. Help will be there should you need it, at the press of a button. If you decided one of you needed care on a more permanent basis, you have the option to move into your suite. This would even allow you to release equity on any property you may have, should you wish to.

Where's the catch?

Honestly, there isn't one. You will have no long term contract, you may vacate your suite after giving a short notice period. There will be a nominal fee for upkeep of the property and of course utility bills. The monthly cost for a suite is the same as you can currently rent an apartment for in a typical town in the East Algarve.

Where's the location?

We are located only 15km from Tavira, Fuzeta and Olhão. If you would like further information, or would like to visit the complex please email us on info@eastalgarvemag.com