Campgronds in Portugal and Spain. Pictures

[John___Angela]

Hi Folks. I promised a few pictures of the camping facilities in Portugal and Spain. We were not camping there this time but we took the time to walk thru a few of the parks that were on our route. Sort of a reci for future trips. For those planning on an Iberian snowbird trip they may be helpful or just maybe interesting.

Couple things. The highway and rest stop infrastructure is generally Superior to anything we are used to on this side of the pond and yes you can overnight in them although there are no hookups. There are always restaurants, water, air, quite often electric vehicle charging etc. Good fall backs if you don't make your campground. Security is not an issue on most of the peninsula including Portugal and Spain.

In the south a lot of the RV parks have a lot of snowbirds set up for the winter. They use those add on tent rooms a lot. Many leave during the summer but sometimes have a seasonal rate so they leave their rigs for the summer.

There are a ton of RVers on the road in the winter and summer. Snowbirds in the winter and tourists in the summer. A lot of the winter snowbirds are Brits, Germans, French, Dutch etc. Many of the campground staff are Multilingual. In Portugal many of the Tourist areas will have English speaking staff to cater to the brits. If you can't get the message across try Spanish then french. French is reasonably common in Lisbon especially. Its kind of becoming Paris south. In Spain English is less common but still reasonably common in high tourist areas. In many areas German will get you further in the Andalusia snowbird communities...especially on Mayorca.

We are not experts in the area but are reasonably well travelled thru the region. Ask away. It is an absolutely super interesting part of the world and I highly recommend it to those who enjoy history and culture. Here are some Pics. Some are overnight spots and some are snowburd sites. There are probably representations of 3 or 4 campgrounds here in portugal. Having difficulty finding the pics from the Spanish campgrounds so I used some from our last years trip. Enjoy





240 volts of course.











KOA type cabins.



Multilingual signage.



and menus. This is indicative of the 5 predominant languages we find in Portugal. Take away the portuguese and the rest are indicative of handy languages to know in Europe. I don't speak Portuguese but speak the rest. Handy but not necessary to enjoy touring in Europe.





Motorhomes out number trailers about 3 to 1



Some campgrounds have power for each site but common water and sewer facilities. Especially in the smaller mountain towns.



This was a smaller but very interesting town. This is typical and is more a semi serviced RV parking facility. Individual site power though.





EVERYTHING is recycled EVERYWHERE no matter how small the town.



Get used to driving on streets like this...or MUCH MUCH NARROWER.





Common Toad.



Hope you enjoyed the pics. We will answer any questions we can. Again, not experts, just travelers who enjoy interesting places.

[John___Angela]

I’m glad people are enjoying the pics and good to hear from others who have had some European camping and travelling experience. Some of the snowbird type sites we visited were quite large and comfortable looking. I’ll put up a few pics later. The smaller sites or even just parking lot type sites are meant for travelling type tourism. They are not there for the campground but rather the city or town it is located in. Some of these towns and cities date back to the Phonecians. I’m talking pre Roman. Very interesting stuff for those who have an interest in this kind of stuff.

Cheers.

John and Angela.

[dedmiston]

Tripalot wrote:
Thank you for sharing this. We always enjoy watching the Tour de France, not only for the cycling aspect, but seeing all the various RV's parked along the roads.
We are always amazed at how large some are as we typically associate smaller vehicles with Europe. The RV's are manufactured differently than in US/Can.
Holding tanks with a sewer dumping system are not common - a box (called a cassette) that slides out and is carried to a dump is quite common. European units are much lighter in weight as well.

The city where I live has been the host of many starts and finishes for the Tour of California. Every year that we participate, I contact my city and ask them about allowing us to tailgate somewhere along the course or at the start/finish of the stage, and every year they are as bewildered as the year before. Every year I use the Tour de France as the example of hour a grand tour should be viewed, and then they blow me off again.

[Tripalot]

Thank you for sharing this. We always enjoy watching the Tour de France, not only for the cycling aspect, but seeing all the various RV's parked along the roads.
We are always amazed at how large some are as we typically associate smaller vehicles with Europe. The RV's are manufactured differently than in US/Can.
Holding tanks with a sewer dumping system are not common - a box (called a cassette) that slides out and is carried to a dump is quite common. European units are much lighter in weight as well.

[RGar974417]

Thanks for the pics. I spent time in Spain and other parts of Europe when in the Navy. I prefer our state and federal campgrounds more so then commercial campgrounds so I probably wouldn't like to stay in those European campgrounds but that's me.I do find some of their campers to be very interesting.

[bukhrn]

How the heck do they put them in there? Sideways? :h

[valhalla360]

John & Angela wrote:

azdryheat wrote:
Seeing those teeny campsites and teeny RV's makes me really glad to RV in America.

Yah. RVing is different there. But we have learned that different is not necessarily better or worse. Just different. There is so much to see and experience in Europe. Dozens of cultures and languages. History that makes your head spin. Everything has pros and cons and of course not everyone has the same interests.

We found the campgrounds cheaper there but other things like restaurants were more expensive. We spend quite a bit of time off the beaten track and things are cheaper away from the touristy stuff. Groceries are comparable.

Agreed. We've found on the whole pretty much anywhere is similar cost for a similar lifestyle. For each thing that is more expensive, there is usually something less expensive that balances it out.

It's only if you have specific needs that are expensive or cheap that your cost of living goes up or down.

Also, throwing off estimates is a lot of people do a 2week trip stay in the heart of the most expensive cities eating out, taking taxis etc...Do the same thing in Chicago or NY and you will see big $$$$ but if you have time to travel slow, it's a whole different ballgame.

Where you can save money is taking advantage of what's cheap. In Spain going to a sit down ala-cart restaurant in the evening can be expensive but many restaurants had a preset 3 course lunch special including drinks and desert (ie: beer or wine) for 8-12 euro. We've found similar in many areas around Europe. There's a place we like in Barcelona that is actually a Chinese buffet but there isn't much Chinese food. Most people would stick their nose up going to a Chinese place when you are in Spain but it's mostly fresh seafood...easily 2 dozen types of seafood (muscles, shrimp, fish, snails, many we had never seen)...with a bottle of wine and a small tip, we are out the door for 30euro.

[valhalla360]

RICK-ards Red wrote:
Very nice, thanks. I am surprised at seeing the size of the MH's and some larger trailers. I would have thought that they would be smaller due to higher cost of gas.

We've rented in Germany and Spent a lot of time in Spain on our boat where we've seen and talked to a lot of RV'ers.

These pictures seem to show the larger end of the RV market compared to what we've seen. A 25' class C would be a pretty big unit and people doing it in 20' units is probably more common. Trailers seem to be mostly stationary on seasonal sites.

We rented a smaller class C and averaged just shy of 30mpg...too small for us on a longer term basis but even if you got 20-25mpg with a slightly larger unit, that blows your average American RV MPG away. Downside on the Autoban downhill flat out, I could only get it up to 90mph.

Plus the distances really are lower. If I had to put a number on it, probably 20-30% lower in general (of course specific destinations need to be accounted for).

In Spain, you can often park on or near a beach for free (little or no services). Lots of cities have RV parking typically with connections to transit, so no need to skip the big cities.

[John___Angela]

azdryheat wrote:
Seeing those teeny campsites and teeny RV's makes me really glad to RV in America.

Yah. RVing is different there. But we have learned that different is not necessarily better or worse. Just different. There is so much to see and experience in Europe. Dozens of cultures and languages. History that makes your head spin. Everything has pros and cons and of course not everyone has the same interests.

We found the campgrounds cheaper there but other things like restaurants were more expensive. We spend quite a bit of time off the beaten track and things are cheaper away from the touristy stuff. Groceries are comparable.

[azdryheat]

Seeing those teeny campsites and teeny RV's makes me really glad to RV in America.

[John___Angela]

RICK-ards Red wrote:
Very nice, thanks. I am surprised at seeing the size of the MH's and some larger trailers. I would have thought that they would be smaller due to higher cost of gas.

Yah I suppose. Many are diesel and maybe a little more fuel efficient. Not sure. Distances are still pretty long if you look at a map. Its not like the southern part of the Iberian peninsula is that close to Germany, Norway etc. It was interesting to see the Brit motorhomes with the steering wheels on the "wrong side".

[RICK-ards_Red]

Very nice, thanks. I am surprised at seeing the size of the MH's and some larger trailers. I would have thought that they would be smaller due to higher cost of gas.

[John___Angela]

Found a few more. This is another small interesting historical town. They have set up unserviced and free motorhome parking near the graveyard. This kind of thing is common in the small towns. There are regs posted and there are quite often bathrooms.







Some tourist areas just let you hang out in the parking lot. Again there is usually recylcing and washrooms available.