Anyone any advice as to whether a dehumidifier is need if your villa is locked up for say two or three months at a time. We are in the Eastern Algarve.Heard its a must to avoid messing belongings up.

Yes.
Particularly for wardrobes...leather is badly affected usually too,my bags and shoes used to get 'mould'....some clothes too.
Some peeps have fitted those 'wafer heaters' to walls in the wardrobes.
Any unused bedding should be put in plastic sealed boxes.
The humidity is a big problem,and worse if you live near the coast.

We have small plastic humidifiers in all of our wardrobes and change the crystals every couple of months, you can buy them in any of the supermarkets and you will be amazed at the amount of water they collect.

if you dont want to leave a dehumdifier running maybe just let some air in, perhaps leave a few windows open as long as they are not ones that someone could climb in through of course.

We do the same as CHOPPER. Little perforated bags with crystals in them. You can also find them for sale in tool shops etc. Perhaps chemists also?

When I lived here years ago we never had a problem with damp when we were in our apartment. However, we came back to the UK for 2 weeks over Christmas with supposedly my brother in law going to our apt to open doors and windows while we were away. He didn't, and when we got back EVERYTHING was covered in mould! All my clothes, the bedding on the bed, shoes, windows, doors, you name it! I couldn't believe it and it's so hard to get the smell out.

G

This is interesting, as we haven't encountered this problem in Ourique, and our house is closed up for upto three months at a time.

When we had a place in Menorca, it was a problem there as we were close to the sea. Humidity along with corrosion of metals wasa real pain.

The crystals are useful, but ventilation and air flow it the best solution.

My villa in Algarve had metal fencing,metal post box and wooden (varnished) gates...all were knackered within 2 years...5 minutes from the sea mind you.

By car?

5 minutes by car?

....no

I now live 9km from the nearest beach in a 6-year old house. There's no sign of any corrosion. I also inspected some metal fences in a nearby village that is located 5 minutes away from the beach by car and didn't find any clear signs of corrosion either.

There's more fog though compared with where I lived before. That one was 12 km from the beach.

Mine was obviously shite...good job I got the hell out