I spent 11 days driving north to south through Portugal in my van. I love this country and it has to be one of the most van friendly countries I’ve been to!
Here’s my journey through in 20 photos, driving from north to south:
Exploring Porto
See other post: 17 photos of Porto that made me want to stay
A stop over in Coimbra
A nice historic town built down the side of a hill on the bank of the River Mondego and home to one of the oldest universities in Europe
Through the forest
To the coast
This is the town of Nazaré. This is right near where the biggest wave (nearly 100ft) ever surfed was a few years ago
I spotted some vans
Just in time for sunset
I stayed the night. I can’t miss this sun rise…
Living like this makes me love getting up early in the morning. I’ve learnt how watching the sun rise completely changes the whole day.
Surfing is the main thing around here
This guy is an architect but he also lives in his van, travels and surfs
I moved along the coast to Baleal
And down to Peniche
Another amazing bit of Portuguese coast
These huge beaches have to be some of the cleanest and nicest I’ve ever seen… and the waves are huge
Now to the town of Sintra
I did a separate post on this. See Exploring the slightly surreal town of Sintra
A quick stop in Lisbon
I camped here
Right in front of the Rua Augusta Arch
I continued south via some backroads
I found this lake
This was just north of Odiáxere
So I camped here for the night
Then in the morning I met chris, he’s a follower of the blog
We jumped out of a plane at 14000 feet
See this post: Jumping out of a plane with Chris, a follower of the blog
I camped under the stars thinking about what the hell just happened
And the next day (Christmas day) I got a ferry to Morocco
See my video: Vanlife – Christmas Breakfast Video
Portugal, I will be back
I was surprised how much warmer Portugal was than Greece, where I spent last winter. I didn’t have to use my heater once and could easily get up before sun rise.
Feel free to share your favourite places and spots in Portugal below in the comments. And thanks to the people who suggested some of these great places above
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Stan