Jacqui & I have lived in Almerimar for over 5 years now. I can´t really comment about Porto Fino apart from its location but I can give you my view of Almerimar.......
For most of the year Almerimar is quite a quiet town. If you play golf, sail or like to relax quite a bit it is a great place to spend long periods. If you want loads of stuff going on to entertain you all of the time all year round then it is probably not the place for you. The town gets really busy in July and August when it fills up with Spanish holidaymakers plus those spending school holidays here. The rest of the year the place runs at a relaxed pace.
If you are thinking that you can work in Almerimar you are probably wrong. Unless you have some very specific skills that are needed in the town and probably have a good grasp of Spanish. If your long periods here don´t include the need to earn money then Almerimar is very nice indeed.
If you look hard you can find lots going on out of season. However, a lot of it is "do it yourself" so you need to be willing to join in with people if you want to fill your time. A great thing about the community here is that it based around a transient population. Lots of people own property and come backwards and forwards, for days, weeks or months. The community here expects that and people greet each other when then pass in the street, just like they did in my home town when I was a kid. Even if they haven´t seen each other for ages.
I love living in Almerimar. I feel more at home here than I have even done anywhere else since I left the north east of England for the bright lights of London in the 70s.
Although people tell me that Almerimar is not as Spanish as it used to be it still feels pretty Spanish to me. Which for me is one of the attractions of the place.
The location of Porto Fino is fantastic for the port area and when the new golf clubhouse opens it will be perfect for golf as well. It is a very short walk from the hub of Almerimar. However, having spent time in the old Sol apartments (just behind Porto Fino) in the summer years ago I can tell you that it can very quite noisy around the port late into the night in July and August. So if you want to come over in those months expect to adjust your sleeping hours to fit in with everyone else.
One of the main reasons we came was the weather in the winter. It has let us down this year but hopefully next year and onwards we will be back to the average of 6 days of rain a month around Dec, Jan and Feb (the wettest part of the year). It can get windy at times but it is still great to be able to see the sun much more often than we used to do in the UK.
If you take a look at Almerimar Today you might find some more information about the place that might be useful. If you have any specific questions you would like to ask me feel free to post them here, send me a PM or contact me via Almerimar Today.
I´m sure some will agree with my views and some people won´t so perhaps this will stimulate others to post their views here.
John
This message was last edited by altoday on 23/02/2010.