Free camping in Portugal
 

Going to have a wee holiday in the sun - what is the situation in Portugal regarding free camping. I'm guessing it's frowned upon? (i will be in a landy etc)

The advice we were given was there was lots of gypsies, and because of this it was frowned upon. We didn't free camp, but found a few campsites for 5-10 euros a night. We didn't see any gypsies either.

My favourite was Entre Ambos os Rios in the Portugeuse lake district. This was set in a pine forest with some nice walks and canoeing near by, plenty of basic facilities and cheap. Depends what you looking for though. Also it wasn't high season, so might change with a crowd.

Thanks Ollie - yes, not sure how I will cope with holiday crowds. It will be my first ever European summer holiday. But at least it will be sunny ;-)

As the Portugal book I ordered has not turned up, any other advice you can offer would be great. We are thinking of hugging the northern Spainish coast line and then doing a north to south trip in Portugal, zigg zagging as we see fit, but we have no real idea about the country other than the very south.

So any other campsites in nice settings would be welcomed (and is there anything good near Lisbon?) but obviously they don't have to mind a scruffy landy turning up ;-)

Well we went out to Portugal for a wedding, and so stayed in a Villa for a week, which was lovely, but I'm guessing that you aren't after a 10 person villa.

What I did really enjoy was letting the GPS route me, and then follow the 'random' routes ,which took us through some fairly crazy small villages, that looked like they had never seen cars before! We drove down through Biarritz, and stayed in an OK campsite, but was nothing special. I think that was 7 euros for the night.

I really liked the lake district, pretty quiet, lovely scenery and plenty of activities.

Good luck anyhow. Sorry I can't be more help.

Hi Darrin

Are you passing Malaga on your travels? The hubby has been following your escapades for years. There will be no worries in our village if they see a scruffy (well travelled) Landy - this is the only place where we've managed to photograph 5 Landy's together - 4 Santana's and our 110!! There's one parked on every street corner here.

We've got your site as a link on ours (Moto Andalucia) so if you're passing through, feel free to drop in.

Cheers Dakota - not likely on this trip I'm afraid, but maybe if I get to Africa in the winter I'll swing by as an alternative to getting stuck in the horrid campsite in Torrex ;-)

I usually go Malaga/Melilla.

Hi there,
If you need some help here in Portugal you can PM me. Free camping is not permited but there are several camping sites over Portugal.

Best Regards