Portugal in a campervan
does anybody have recommendations for sites in northern Portugal . does anyone have experience of electronic tolls . Sounds very. Complicated to me . How did they deal with them ?
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From this year's trip I can only suggest:
Look at Orbitur campsites which we used a lot on our trip from the Algarve to the far North. Not Club standard but showers hot and facilities usually clean.
It is possible to get an Orbitur "Passport" which, for caravan outfit was €150 for 10 nights (with a few extra euros for electric)
Their site at Caminha is very good and Foz Do Arelho was also enjoyed. The one near Lisbon has lots of trees close together which made access and parking a little difficul for our larger caravan.
Regarding the tolls, we tried to stick to their rules and there are two different and incompatible systems which are:
a) Standard toll booths: take a ticket and pay at the other end. These are mainly in the middle of the country.
b) Toll gantries require an account which you can attach to your credit card or buy a pre-paid amount online before you enter the system. These are mainly in the South but also be prepared to find them in the North too as they had the gantries added to allow the free motorways to be tolled after they were built.
http://www.portugaltolls.com/en/web/portal-de-portagens/home
The bridges at Lisbon are run by a separate company and you have to pay at the toll booths.
It's obviously your choice if you want to try to get away without paying in the areas with the gantries but the cameras take your registration and if you don't pay, you are supposedly charged 4 times your toll amount plus an admin fee.
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Sorry, it's supposedly 10 times the toll if you don't pay it:
http://www.portugaltolls.com/en/web/portal-de-portagens/faq-s
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http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/lynnib/3/tpod.html
We concentrated on Spain and Portugal for our big trip last year, going clockwise, so we were in Portugal for most of July. Two sites we used towards the north of the country were Chave Grande near Satao (my favourite site of the trip) followed by Lima
Escape (not the best with a caravan but easier with a camper, I guess).As far as the tolls ar concerned, we only paid for those with a booth where we used our credit card to pay. A Brit living in Portugal had told us that the number plate recognition cameras can't deal with the size and/or configuration of ours, so like many
others on this forum e have never been charged.0