Motorhome Touring Costs Portugal
I keep a track of all of our spending as we’re going along and here I’ve broken it down by country, so you can see what we’ve spent to give you an idea of how cheap/expensive a place can be.
Portugal – 40 nights in 2012
| Travel | Cost | |
| Ferry | 0.00 € | |
| Tolls | 22.75 € | |
| Fuel | 234.00 € | |
| Daytime parking | 8.35 € | |
| Train/bus/tram | 0.00 € | |
| Camping | Nights | |
| Wild Camping | 22 | 0.00 € |
| Free Aires | 2 | 0.00 € |
| Paid for Aires | 1 | 6.00 € |
| ACSI (2012 book and card bought) | 0 | 17.45 € |
| Camping Cheque Site | 0 | 0.00 € |
| Campsites (inc Christmas & New Year) | 9 | 135.81 € |
| Free use of friends villa | 6 | 0.00 € |
| Subsistence | ||
| Food (ie Supermarket) | 456.73 € | |
| Food (ie eating and drinking out) | 396.05 € | |
| LPG | 31.76 € | |
| Repairs | 0.00 € | |
| Laundry | 40.00 € | |
| Contact with home (paid wifi, phones, post) | 128.58 € | |
| Tours/Entrance fees | 15.10 € | |
| Supplies (guide book, Dave decals, ad-hoc items for Dave – non motoring) | 118.86 € | |
| Souviners | 0.00 € | |
| Summary | ||
| Total cost | £1,611.44 | |
| Days away | 40 | |
| Cost per day | £40.29 | |
| Cost per day (minus repairs) | £40.29 | |
| Total Mileage (@ approx 29mpg) | 1270 | |
| Average miles per day | 31.8 |
Comments
We stopped still a few times in Portugal. We had a few days on camp sites for Christmas and New Year and also were kindly given the use of a friends villa.
In Portugal Aires were once again few and far between, so we planned a little bit ahead to make sure we didn’t have to pay at a site just to empty the loo. No one seems to bother you when wild camping (but again we were very much out of season when we were above Lisbon). We found somewhere to wild camp near Porto, but decided to pay for secure parking for Dave when we visited for the day. We avoided the Lisbon area as research told us it would be difficult to park safely at a place that was close enough to walk in (as Charlie isn’t allowed on public transport in Portugal), so we’ve added it to a list of places to visit on a long weekend break.
As we got south of Lisbon the weather brightened up and camp sites were more abundant, and when we reached the Algarve we were just one of many vans. We’d heard many stories of the police moving on wild campers (which the say is done in the early afternoon) so we picked our places carefully. Laundry was done on camp sites using their on-site machines (usually needing tokens from reception).
Diesel in Portugal is quite a bit more expensive than in Spain (about 0.20 € a litre) so stock up before you cross the border and when in Portugal it’s generally cheaper at supermarket service stations. LPG is also slightly more expensive, but is more widely available than Spain, keep an eye out at petrol stations close to larger towns. In Portugal we did experience one service station that would only take one type of card (Santander Totti card). I think this may have been a mistake by the cashier, however be sure you always have enough cash on you to pay for fuel, just in case!
Thanked for your info. My first trip will be through England then France followed show trip through Spain before Portugal with ababa. Very nerve wrecking but appreciated any info we can pickup. Would you recommend morroroco I winter and where to a must avoid area! Many thanks 😋
Hi Che – you’ll have an absolute blast! Yes, we’d recommend Morocco, it’s very safe, very used to motorhomes (thousands go each year) and there are lots of camping facilities (albeit of North African quality much of the time, so not like European sites). Check out our book, which explains all the stuff you need to know about heading over there:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/OurTour-Guide-Motorhome-Morocco-Independently
Cheers, Jay
First motor home aqdvventure buying one was thr first mind blowing experieience