Looking to head over for a week with Mrs J and a couple of others. Preliminary plan at present is to head for Lagos and do some surf trips with The Surf Experierience. Just want to get a few days surfing during the week that I am there. Don't really want to have hassle of renting a car then searching for spots.

Anyone have any experience of these guys, or surfing in that area. Will probably bring a log if I can, don't fancy being at the mercy of what they might have on offer.

You'll have a ball but my advise is to get a car.

Just means you can sight see as well a search for breaks

PUT ARRIFANA ON YOUR MUST DO LIST

went 2 portugal there 3 years ago was going to go with surf experience, but was told that if there are any beginers in the group they only go to 1/2 beachbreaks!

so i hired a car will worth it only 40 mins to arrifana from lagos (main roads are real good) though to get to alot of breaks you have to go down dirt roads and ask in the surfshops they will tell you where to go for good waves there was a english couple who had a shop in lagos when i was there they were very helpful.

cars are cheap to hire but take out the full cover as your car will get hit by someone!

I hired a car for €90 for a week and brought my soft racks and off i went down dirt tracks and all was fine, surfed a few places that were well beyond my capacity (castelejo) and got pummelled but learnt loads from it!! There are some great places to surf there but i got the impression it was more a short boarders place...Sagres and Beliche were lovely spots, Tonel, Mareta & Praia da Rocha are all good to surf too!!
It is actually really easy to navigate your way around there and i have no sense of direction and never once got lost!!!

Cheers for the replies so far. Trying to work out which board to bring, may just go back ot my trusty 7'6" travel board, well beaten by now. Certainly would be over the weight allowance with the G&S, what do ya reckon Vega, not exactly a travelling board!

Aaaaaah.... I dunno Dave, I wouldn't take it as a travel board myself. I know Aer Lingus only seem to worry about size (110") I haven't heard of anybody having to get their board weighed though.
I can't help you Dathν regarding info on Portugal, I got skunked out there last year if you remember between Cadiz & Portugal.

Ja get any nice aul noserides since you got her ?

can be a fickle enough oul area though,

**The flat charge is based on a maximum permitted weight of 15 kilos. If the sports item weighs in excess of this 15 kilos, then a charge of €9/£6 or equivalent per kilo will apply to this additional weight

Guess the trick is to give the wetsuit fins and leash to the misses Only have the board in the bag and rest the heaviest part of the board on your foot as they place it on the wieghing machine

I've had my board...'s weighed on all of my last few trips

Myself and Beaner got stung on boards after the b*stards weighed them.

I also got stung for excess baggage in Agadir when flying with Aer Lingus. They initially wanted to charge me €120 but for no apparent reason graciously reduced it to €30 in the blink of an eye. I got the impression that the charges were going straight into the pocket of the guy on the desk as the money was handed straight to him without a receipt of the charges in return.

Yeah they weighed my board bag too, it cam in at about 7kgs including wettie, lb and towels.

As regards Agadir airport i got stung there too for excell baggage. 270 dirhams for being 2kgs over the 20 while the guy in front of me paid 130 dirhams for an extra bag potentially containing an additional 20kgs. Its a scam all right.

It was Agadir that we got caught, we argued and then they put us onto a petit pregnant lady behind a counter. Kind of took the edge of it for us, its hard to be having a go at a lady in a delicate state, ended up paying the full whack

Got surf around Algarve 4 years ago this June stayed in Lagos itself in Villa Branca Apartments very nice. Surf was okay it wasn't that big. There are alot of surf spots around the southern Algarve (refer to storm rider)and they are not that long a drive from Lagos. I brought my travel board 7'6"(as far as I remember it was in the days before Aer Lingus used to charge for boards) and rented a car reasonable prices(beware the Portugeese drivers they are pretty mad) - not into the surf package thing myself.

Lagos itself is not really a nightclub spot more a mix of lively and mellow bars.
Portugeese are cool. I've been there many times. Having some of the language(even a few words) makes a big difference in restaurants and pubs. Avoid the places that have English/French/German menus, they are usually not as good food wise and more expensive..compared to other eateries.

Respect the locals

Good brief account on Portugal there brian, to LBI.

Brian,

Thanks for that, still mulling over options re surf trips vs renting car. Biggest decision is what board to bring, don't want to risk bringing one of the longboards, so will probably bring the trusty battered travel board.