Meandering down Portugal

I promised, when we had decent wifi, to let you have details of the aires we have visited on our trip down here. I think they are all in the aires book but nothing beats first hand experience

The first one of note we were still in Spain and if like us you turn the corner from France towards Santander or you take the Santander crossing then do not miss the aire at Cabarceno which is on the edge of a big safari park (Google it) brilliant waking up to overlooking a herd of elephants, impala and water buffalo. The small village is very neat and tidy and offers good eating

The next one of note was at Almeida the picture in the aires book is a bit off putting but it really is worth a stop over. This is a very well preserved Star Fort and you park within the inner and outer walls,the toilets are about 5 star hotel standards and you are allowed to plug in to the sockets in the toilet block.

The next one was at Belmonte, now this is up to a main road but not too intrusive and there is a supermarket two minutes walk uphill. Not only was there a very new toilet block but also a huge wet room with hot water.

From there I think Lynda tried in vain to convert me as we went To Fatima ( again Google it)
This is apparently only second to Lourdes for people with imaginary friends. the town was full of swish shops selling almost nothing but religious artifacts and the very afflicted went up to the magnificent church on their knees.

She then navigated me to Batahla which again is better known for its once magnificent church, but a decent aire to spend an odd night or two

We then meandered to Lousal which is an old mining village, not coal as I expected but pyretes, this litte town has seen a fair bit of European money spent on it and is becoming a tourist stop. When we were there about 23 vintage cars turned up for a meet at the local eatery.

All the above aires were completely free and absolutely never causing any concern from a safety point of view

We pushed the boat out next and went to the Municipal site at Casto Verde at 11 euros per night which was handy as we had accumulated a fair bit of laundry items. This is a very useful stop over especially if the weather turns wet as the whole site is block paved, but kept supremely neat and tidy and the town is worth a walk around.

As of now we are on a private aire in the Algarve ( Parc du Gale) a very nice one not in the aires book, very good value at 6.50 euros per night with electric and wifi and the nice lady owner brought us all home grown pomegranites yesterday.

My only word of caution to anyone heading in a similar direction and have an aversion to paying toll charges then do your sums as I reckon avoiding them will cost you more in extra fuel than the toll costs.

thank you very much for your update.we cant wait to get there.noted all your stops.and will try some.we love pommegranites  .and use the syrup to marinade lamb.take care and enjoy your stay/trip.

Hi Alan n Lynda just trying to plan a route so your post is really helpful