Warmish Locations In October

Monday morning, our first rain. At least it was warm.

We were going to go straight to the Algarve (long drive), as the weather on the Portuguese West coast was poor, but decided we needed to get into inland Portugal first. So a plan was hatched over that cheap bottle of wine to get there. A cheap hotel was booked (cheating I know) for 2 nights in Elvas, just inside Portugal, and that is where we are now.
Now completely stuffed from a delicious and cheap restaurant meal in Elvas, watching Portugal lose to Ukraine.
Having a hotel room makes exploring towns much easier as we have found on previous European trips. Tomorrow we drive to Evora, but if it is half as good as Elvas then it will be brilliant. Pics of Elvas to follow.

Pete
 
Peatey said:
Seriously jealous reading this, as I sit here listening to the rain bounce of the windows in good old Shropshire :(
Click to expand...

Ha, that’s where we are from too. Kids at home are telling us how wet it is.

Pete
 
Sounds like you holiday very similar to me @Pete C in that a fixed destination is not imperative, and you will move where ever the weather is. (Or isn't) regardless if that means driving from one side of a country to another.

Ok, so we are in a motorhome and it has plenty of room, and fully self contained, but this way of holidaying just works so well for us, and no location in Europe is out of bounds really.
I've been doing this for 10 years now, and I often wonder if I will get bored of this style of holiday, as my kids have got older and decided they want to stay at home rather than trudge across Europe, but I've only scratched the surface of Europe and look forward to the time I book a one way ticket to stay over here for months.
 
So Elvas and Évora done - absolutely fascinating places. We are now in the Algarve near Tavira on a campsite called “Camping Ria Formosa” right on the coast. It’s got to be 23-24 °c and sunny right now. The campsite is big, with full facilities, and you need proper rock pegs to get anything tied down- the standard Vango pegs just bend !

Campsite is about 1/2 full, with many people in big motor homes, and here for long stays. A complete mix of nationalities, but mainly Northern European like us.

No idea where we are going next, that will depend on the weather forecast for the rest of Portugal or Spain when we look tomorrow.

We have now booked our return ferry in about a week’s time, which should be just long enough for the kids to make sure the house is tidy.

Pete
 
Pete C said:
...............and you need proper rock pegs to get anything tied down- the standard Vango pegs just bend.............
Click to expand...

The moral of that story is just buy loads of rock pegs and use them everywhere. Those coathanger wire things (even the thicker vango originals) just don't cut it.

Pete, Don't forget to try the Elvas Plums before you leave. They're delicious but you need a seriously sweet tooth to eat more than one or two!
 
Agree about the rock pegs. It was lucky that we had a set, but going to get a few more. The standard rubber mallet is useless too.

We had a delicious pudding in Elvas based around plums

Pete
 
DXX said:
Very popular with Chinese tourists.
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Switzerland always is. My wife hates going places where the Chinese are, because she gets claustrophobic and they have this culture of pushing and shoving no matter who's in the way. A total opposite to the British way, but very interesting when you read why they act this way.
 
DXX said:
We were there at the beginning of October, had a great time travelling about by train and bus.
Getting to high altitude so easily with the funiculars and cable cars is a real eye opener.
Very popular with Chinese tourists.
Click to expand...

wow! Looks beautiful!! I used to love to ski there!
 
So we left the Algarve, and headed up to Cascais near Lisbon. The target was the Atlantic coast plus the town of Sintra. Very heavy rain on the way but it stopped by the time we got near Lisbon.
Now on our second night at a campsite called “Parque De Campismo Orbitur Guincho”, near the coast. It was all we could find, and is well situated for what we want. Facilities are a bit tired but the toilets are clean and the showers work well. Temperature is about 18°c during the day, and it’s mostly sunny, so all good there.

Sintra is worth a visit, but on the Sunday we were there it is very busy.

We now have to put in some decent mileage to get us to St Malo in a few days for the return ferry, so it looks like we will be using hotels for most of the remaining nights, or just pitching up beside the road and wild camping somewhere. We have a portable toilet in the roof box.

Photos to follow.

Pete
 
Worth mentioning that we have 2 awnings with us. The Vango Idris is used where we are pitched for 3 or more nights. We can drive away from it, and it gives us more space on site. The Sunncamp van canopy is great where you want some quick cover, but don’t want the hassle of erecting a full enclosed awning. It goes up or down in about 5 mins, and appears to be waterproof.

Pete
 
Some other random observations:

I am starting to get the “bigger than a T6” motorhome thing. Yes, they look like a bugger to drive around, but on the campsite in the Algarve, people are living in them on the campsite for months on end, basically to avoid the English/Dutch/German etc winter. They almost all have other means of transport too, but they sort of make sense now.

You need to carry around a European plug adapter for EHU. The standard big 3 pin jobbie used on UK campsites is not universal here. These can be bought for peanuts in the UK - luckily I had bought one ages ago.

Spain and Portugal are cheap for food compared to France, and the quality of seafood (and meat to be honest) in restaurants is excellent.

Pete
 
Pete C said:
Some other random observations:

I am starting to get the “bigger than a T6” motorhome thing. Yes, they look like a bugger to drive around, but on the campsite in the Algarve, people are living in them on the campsite for months on end, basically to avoid the English/Dutch/German etc winter. They almost all have other means of transport too, but they sort of make sense now.

You need to carry around a European plug adapter for EHU. The standard big 3 pin jobbie used on UK campsites is not universal here. These can be bought for peanuts in the UK - luckily I had bought one ages ago.

Spain and Portugal are cheap for food compared to France, and the quality of seafood (and meat to be honest) in restaurants is excellent.

Pete
Click to expand...

You can do the same in a SWB transporter, you just need to be a bit disciplined with how much Stuff you feel you 'need'.
We spent 6 weeks on the road last autumn during which we stayed a few days on a site in the Algarve that was a bit like Gods waiting room. Very nice climate, pools, etc. If we had booked in for 6 weeks plus it would have worked out to about 6.50 euros / day.
In return you spend your dosh in the campsite bar, shop & gym.
Winner for all concerned.
 
Apparently the campsite we were on in the Algarve, which was about 40% full, would become 100% full in a few weeks time, when the Northern European retirees move in en masse in their caravans and motorhomes and stay there until the spring. We noticed that the campsite was doing deals on long stays but didn’t take much notice of them.

Good luck to them I say - I can see the attraction.

Pete
 
Final part of the trip:

We left the campsite at Cascais, and drove about 500 miles to Burgos, where we had booked a hotel room. We didn’t get a chance to have a proper look at the cathedral there, but it looks impressive from the outside. It was pretty cold there, 7°c at night, which was not what we were expecting.
The plan was then to move up through France, and stop somewhere like Nantes, before moving on the following day to St Malo, but the traffic was light, the roads were good, and we ended up going to straight to St Malo - that’s about 600 miles in a day.
The van just took this in its stride, and we felt pretty fresh when we got out at the “La Fontaine” campsite that evening.

The plan was always to spend some time in and around St Malo, and we did that today - definitely worth doing if you can. Tomorrow we do the 10 minute drive from the campsite to the ferry terminal to come home.

I will post some more thoughts on the whole trip once we are back.

Pete
 
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