Spain & Portugal

[mwheatley]

Hi All,

Planning the summer trip & wondered if anyone had any experiences with Spain & Portugal? We dipped into Spain last year but found it difficult for overnight stops (aires etc), and the campsites were not cheap either (Costa Blanca!!). The experiences we had with the Spain version of France Passion book in the area we were in were not too good, you tended to find yourself on the car park of a wine warehouse next to a main road, not the picturesque vinyard of the French experience.

Anyway, Portugal I know nothing about, so any info there would be good. We are looking at 5 day campsite stops with two days travel inbetween for about 5 weeks in August.

Thanks

Matt

[Ralf85]

I am a campsite person. My experience has been that away from the coast, Spain has some camp sites but these are few and far between. Away from the coast sites are virtually non-existent in Portugal. That is because these countries have no history of camping unlike the enthusiastic French where there are masses of camping facilites. My advice is check camping books and plan well ahead.


Patrick

[Ralf85]

Also avoid Barcelona and San Sebastien if you want to try and avoid having your van broken into and stuff stolen.

Patrick

[mwheatley]

Thanks for the advice Patrick, I will have to do some heavy reasearch by the sounds of it.

Matt

[andisnewsyncro]

During August the Spanish campsites will be VERY full... There's a mass exodus of people from Germany & Italy as well as a lot of Spaniards leaving the cities for summer holidays. It really depends on what you're looking for in a campsite though; do you want to be on the coast or inland, what do you want to see?

As for Portugal, we were told to try the "Orbiter" sites by a well meaning elderly British Gent we met in Spain. We lasted one night, purely because there was no where else to go! Horrible, messy, dirty and enormous - my advice would be to avoid them like the plague... Portugal does have some Municipal Sites but as already mentioned they are mainly along the coast and also very full of full timers. It's a long way behind Spain in terms of facilities and the economy makes Britian look Great again, but everyone is friendly and the cost of living is quite cheap. There's more acceptance of wild camping by beaches, but be aware and don't pick somewhere that you're the only van - security in numbers - and get to know your neighbours when you park up.

Best adice I can give is to pick a route and a rough timetable of where you want to be when, then be prepared to adjust it considerably when you find somewhere really nice to stay or there's a local fiesta on that you didin't know about etc... etc..

If you let us all know where you're going I'm sure there will be a few 1st hand recommendations, enjoy the planning and dreams of warm weather

[mwheatley]

Hi Andi,

Thanks so much for the advice. I have to say that Portugal seems to be getting further & further from my mind as more replies come in! Not sure about where to go yet, but we had planned on 4-5 day stops every time with a travel overnight in between. The chances are we may stick to the Pyrenees & northern Spain (so we can hope back to France to get camping luxury in needs be!). We went to Cadaques & Parafrugell last August (Costa Blanca), and yes campsites were pretty full, pitches were small & prices were high (50euros per night with no electric!), but we did have a great time and the Med was cool for swimming.

I will keep this thread going as I do more research.

Thanks again.

Matt

[Ian Hulley]

pitches were small & prices were high (50euros per night with no electric!),

Italian Riviera last August was E15/night + E2 for leccy, still the Med

[BOXY]

I spent a week in a villa in Sagres a couple of years ago on a body-boarding trip. Its a beautiful, unspoiled corner of the country but I don't recall seeing any official campsites. There were a lot of "vans" parked up near beaches and in some places it looked like they were taking root. It might be worth googling a few surf websites to get an idea of the experiences of the traveling surf community if you plan going that far South.

[mwheatley]

Thanks again guys.

Ian, we were thinking of Italy as an alternative, do you have any tips, reccomendations etc for there?

[horns]

Handy guide to wild camping spots, aires and campsites in the area - http://www.furgovw.org/mapa_furgoperfecto.php
Some use of Google Translate my be needed, though.

[Ian Hulley]

Ian, we were thinking of Italy as an alternative, do you have any tips, reccomendations etc for there?

We stayed at Diano Marina on the Oasi Park site http://www.oasipark.it/index.php?lang=2 it's not far into Italy but you definately get the feel for the place. There's an excellent public transport system in Italy and round the coast is Cinque Terra and Porto Fino, all beautiful but HYPER expensive to stay.

Learn some Italian, especially 'please', 'thank you', numbers, food stuffs, times etc as very few locals speak English ... those that do though you can't get rid of them . There's free wifi in the reception at the campsite but no bar or restaruant although there's a good selection in town which is 500 mtrs away. Prices are sensible, similar to at home.

Hope this helps, Ian.

[jed the spread]

We drove some of the north coast of Spain last year (I guess you will be too if your heading to Portugal) and it was chap as. Much cheaper than France for just about everything inc fuel, food, campsites etc. The people were much nicer than the French too

Some video of it can be seen here, http://cgi.ebay.de/VW-T3-Heckleiter-LLE ... =Autozubeh" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;ör&hash=item336535e996#ht_684wt_1141

jed

[orcecaveman]

One word.................Andalucia!
Camp wherever you want for free in the most beautiful part of Spain. Stay away from the comercialised areas like the costas. Inland youll find the cost of living half the price.

[mwheatley]

Thanks for all the replies. I agree that the Spanish are nicer than the French, we experienced the same briefly in Northern Spain last year.

It's the toss up between Spain/Portugal or Italy at the moment.......suppose we could always to do a bit of both, we've got 5 weeks in which to try

[orcecaveman]

Just remembered, this may be of interest to you http://www.furgovw.org/mapa_furgoperfecto.php