In Portugal with a campervan
- Kiki
- May 19, 2025
- 4 min read
To escape the bad weather and the Christmas stress, we decided to fly to Portugal on December 24, 2023.
The first hurdle was finding a direct flight on Christmas Eve.
Unfortunately, there was only one airline available for day R......r.
We hadn't heard many good things about this company.
And yet, we booked anyway.
Unfortunately, we couldn't use our carry-on suitcases, which we had bought specifically for our trip around the world.
The dimensions were obviously wrong, and the second piece of luggage didn't fit either.
So, first things first: we had to buy new suitcases and backpacks.
In hindsight, none of that would have been necessary, because nobody cared what kind of suitcases we had.
(Maybe we were just lucky.)
After landing, we explored Faro and enjoyed a coffee in the sunshine.
Around midday, we were able to pick up our camper.
By the way, we rented the camper through the rental agency rentacamper.de from Hürth. Ms. Bremke responded to every one of our special requests by the next day at the latest – fantastic!
We were also more than satisfied with the actual rental company in Lisbon, Portugalbyvan.com. Teresa answered our questions very quickly via WhatsApp.
We had already considered booking directly with them next time. But we think it's better to have a jurisdiction in Germany in case of any issues, rather than in faraway Lisbon... typical German thinking... 😀
Everything went smoothly and we were able to leave quickly.
Since we had already selected some campsites at home, we arrived at the campsite after only 10 km.
A very nice and clean place.
We would book there again anytime.
Very clean, friendly, and everything you need is there. We'd gladly stay again.
After a pleasant evening, we drove along the Algarve coast towards Albufeira the next morning.
In Albufeira, we stayed for two days at the fantastic "Camping Albufeira" campsite.
Everything was very clean and everyone was very friendly, with a small supermarket and restaurant.
The next morning, we drove into the small and very beautiful town.
What's really cool there is that everyone can get to the beach, because there's an escalator and even an elevator from the hill down to the beach.
The town is very cozy, and the little tavernas everywhere are wonderful.
They're so comfortable places to sit.
In the afternoon, we couldn't resist and took a buggy tour..
It was very nice, but not comparable to the tour in Cyprus.
The next day we continued along the coast towards
"Bengali Cave",
which we viewed from below that day with a boat tour,
and the following day hiked the beautiful trail
"Precursor dos Sete" to the cave.
That night we slept in a Park for Night parking lot near a pizzeria that's closed in winter.
But there was a fantastic restaurant near the beach.
The food and the view were simply amazing.
In the Rei das Praias restaurant.
After our hike the next day, we drove towards the stork paradise. It was amazing how many storks had settled there.
We found the next campsite with good reviews in Alvor. A lovely site with a swimming pool. The village was very charming with its narrow streets and taverns. Next to the campsite was a great supermarket "Pingo Doce" where we had the best and cheapest breakfast in all of Portugal.
From there, we continued along the coast to Lagos. There, we took another fantastic boat tour and then drove on to Sagres, where we stayed for three days. Sagres is truly a wonderful little town.
And our accommodation "Time Apartormentos".
It was amazing, everyone was super friendly. We would book there again in a heartbeat.
After arriving in Sagres the next morning, we first visited the village bakery.
Small, charming, and actually a meeting place for locals to quickly catch up on the latest gossip.
From there, we drove to the Roaring Hole, which, of course, didn't roar for us. The waves weren't strong enough, but it was still beautiful there because we could see the Atlantic Ocean and the first surfers for the first time.
After that, we spent the rest of the day on the beach and in the water.
In the evening we went out again to photograph the sunset.
We started New Year's Eve with breakfast at Intermarché.
What's great about Portugal is that almost all supermarkets allow campers to stay overnight, and some even have showers and washing machines.
We then ended the old year with a dolphin boat tour.
We had to go quite far out by boat, but it was really worth it.
We were able to observe a very large school. Check out the video! 🤩
In the late afternoon, we went to eat at a very good pizzeria in Sagres.
We then spent the evening relaxing on the sofa and watched a beautiful fireworks display from our balcony, ushering in the year 2024.
The next morning, we continued our leisurely drive through beautiful cork forests towards Lisbon.
It's truly remarkable how much work goes into a simple cork bag.
After the cork forests, we saw many more storks.
We then continued along the coast, but unfortunately, it was too windy and the water too cold for swimming. However, the waves were absolutely fantastic.
We ended up at a highly-rated campsite, but stupidly, we hadn't read the reviews this time.
It was a total eco-campsite; everyone was a bit of a weirdo, and the resident pigs were already waiting for leftovers while we were cooking.
We decided against using the showers and toilets.
We continued our journey the next morning.
With a few short stops along the way, we drove until we were just before the bridge to Lisbon.
There, we found another lovely, albeit enormous, campsite.
Unfortunately, it rained continuously until the following morning.
After a leisurely coffee the next morning, we cleaned the car as best we could.
Because that day we drove to Lisbon; more about that in my next post.
"Lisbon"
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