Visiting Portugal's Northern National Parks (1 Viewer)

[DBK]

I am planning a trip to Portugal in September/October and want to visit the national parks in the north, specifically the Parque Nacional da Peneda-Geres and the Parque Naturel de Montesinho.

My Rough Guide to Portugal suggests there are a few campsites but I guess these will close at the end of September, if not earlier.

Does anyone have experience of visiting these places, what were the campsites like? Opportunities for "wild" camping or did the Park Rangers move you on?

 

[simply]

Portugal

I have no experience of Portugal but am also interested in such a venture. Not sure if you intend to travel alone or are looking for others to join your travels ?

 

[JJ]

Let me first state clearly that I have no actual knowledge on these matters in so much as I have never asked anyone anything or read anything anywhere and so I am not an "expert" able to quote you the official rules and regulations.

I have, however, lived in Portugal in my van(s) for years and toured around the country extensively (although not much around the north).

I have never even seen a "park ranger" never mind talked to one.

I have long since given up marking excellent off-site parking places on my sat nav as there are just so many of them.

The same with water... communal water sources and taps are all over the place... practically every rural village has at least one.

I have limited experience of camp sites but the municipal one I have stayed on in Alcacer is open all year except Christmas and is very reasonably priced. They allow motorhomes to use their black water dump and fill up with water free. Try as I might, they won't take any money. They do not allow advanced bookings.

In the north it is cooler so maybe their sites close off season. I guess Google Is Your Friend in these matters. If I remember correctly September/October weather is pretty good but might be a tad chilly at night... you might have to wear a long sleeved tee shirt!

There are so many reasons why I love Portugal and the ease of motorhoming here is one of them.


JJ :Cool:

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[DBK]

I have no experience of Portugal but am also interested in such a venture. Not sure if you intend to travel alone or are looking for others to join your travels ?

It will be just my wife and I, probably only going to spend a few days but it depends on the weather and places to stay. Supposed to be some good walking with marked trails.


https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Peneda-Ger%C3%AAs+National+Park/@41.838656,-8.241591,2a,90y,90t/data=!3m5!1e2!3m3!1s75642297!2e1!3e10!4m2!3m1!1s0xd256917fd47c523:0x6d193b91beb28db6!6m1!1e1

 

[DBK]

Let me first state clearly that I have no actual knowledge on these matters in so much as I have never asked anyone anything or read anything anywhere and so I am not an "expert" able to quote you the official rules and regulations.

I have, however, lived in Portugal in my van(s) for years and toured around the country extensively (although not much around the north).

I have never even seen a "park ranger" never mind talked to one.

I have long since given up marking excellent off-site parking places on my sat nav as there are just so many of them.

The same with water... communal water sources and taps are all over the place... practically every rural village has at least one.

I have limited experience of camp sites but the municipal one I have stayed on in Alcacer is open all year except Christmas and is very reasonably priced. They allow motorhomes to use their black water dump and fill up with water free. Try as I might, they won't take any money. They do not allow advanced bookings.

In the north it is cooler so maybe their sites close off season. I guess Google Is Your Friend in these matters. If I remember correctly September/October weather is pretty good but might be a tad chilly at night... you might have to wear a long sleeved tee shirt!

There are so many reasons why I love Portugal and the ease of motorhoming here is one of them.


JJ :Cool:

Many thanks, I am sure you are right. They are trying to encourage tourism from what I read so I doubt they will turf us off somewhere. The Montesinho park has a population of about 8000 spread over 750 square kilometres so there should be room for us!