Abacist goes to Spain

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Very PO with Vodafone who have cut me off my data MIFi as they say my unlimited, expensive data contract has a 25Gb roaming limit which we are through in about a week. Must be buried in the small print as I was not aware. They will get the sack as soon as I get home! 25Gb fair use policy is crap in today’s world when travelling. The wife had only just got into having some English TV in the evenings! It’s really galling as the fair use doesn’t get rolled up when I’m not using it in the winter when the Moho is sat idle by the house!

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Now relying on my 3 phone contract which only gave 3G last time in Portugal and has a 12 Gb roaming limit which I’m hoping my son can extend as it’s a business contract
 
Around 20 years ago we toured Northern Spain with a caravan, yes I know it seems a strange thing to do for many funsters, actually tour in a caravan.
We stayed at Camping Paxarinhas for a few nights just round the corner from where you are.
We arrived on a beautiful June Sunday and the beach next to the site, which is behind a hotel, was packed, cars everywhere.
I took the wrong turning which led directly to the beach, a dead end with very little room to manoeuvre.
My endeavours caused much amusement but I did eventually reverse it into a space and turn round without un hitching.
A memory that lingers, lovely area.
 
Abacist said:
Very PO with Vodafone who have cut me off my data MIFi as they say my unlimited, expensive data contract has a 25Gb roaming limit which we are through in about a week. Must be buried in the small print as I was not aware. They will get the sack as soon as I get home! 25Gb fair use policy is crap in today’s world when travelling. The wife had only just got into having some English TV in the evenings! It’s really galling as the fair use doesn’t get rolled up when I’m not using it in the winter when the Moho is sat idle by the house!
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Us too with 3. Got about a week out of it. Rang them about no Internet and the very nice Indian chap took 15 minutes to tell me we had no data left. Off to get a payg sim for France then for Spain when we eventually end up there.
 
We have met an English couple on the Aire who now live in Portugal and they have given us a list of lovely places to go:-

Balona-lovely old town, park up south of town and walk back in Motorhome lay-by

Coast road south to A Guarda is lovely

Cross into Portugal at Lovelhe

Good Orbitur campsite at Caminha, 2 minute walk to beach, cafes & restaurants and a boardwalk to Caminha


Viana de Castelo nice town to visit

Braga- full of fabulous old buildings & churches. The people of Braga evidently pray whilst others work and play! Municipal campsite or aire near Bom Jesus

Guimares - the cradle of Portugal - medieval town

Aviero- the Venice of Portugal, stay at Costa Nova and bus to Aviero-lots if small canals

Coimbra - prestigious city with university

3 world heritage sites in close proximity - Batalha, Tomar & Alcobaca

Tomar has a free aire in the centre of town and the Convento do Cristo is worth a visit

There are 4 white marble towns made from marble mined locally at Estremoz, Evora, Elvas & Vila Viscosa

Hilltop village at Monsarez with good aire on top with stunning views of lake and over border into Spain

The south west coast is good - stay at campsite at Vila Nova da Milfontes close to everything

Zambujeira do Mar has a good campsite with walk to town and bay

If you want to visit Lisbon she suggested staying at Costa da Caparica where there is a good Orbitur campsite and catch bus and ferry to Lisbon - everyone will speak English for tickets etc

Many thanks to Chris & Helen if they should ever read this! Chris was from Scotland and Helen from Oxford and they met in Montreal, married & eventually returned to UK but could not stand it and retired to Portugal where they now have 2 acres of olive grove and tour Spain & Portugal in their Motorhome when not tending the olives!
 
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Abacist, do you have a list of Aires you use or an app?

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Bobandfay said:
Lovely photos we always stay at caberceno on our first night after getting off the ferry and also stay the last night before coming home.
Some nice bars up in the village and small shop for fresh bread in the morning.
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It does look perfect, but what do you do for water? I am assuming we will travel with an empty tank on the ferry and then need to fill up in Spain.
 
The Searle said:
It does look perfect, but what do you do for water? I am assuming we will travel with an empty tank on the ferry and then need to fill up in Spain.
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I always fill up with water before leaving home and choose aires with water and dump facilities.
There are also garages that provide water and dump facilities for payment or free if you buy a certain amount of fuel.
 
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Janecambridge said:
Abacist, do you have a list of Aires you use or an app?
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I am now using almost exclusively The App Park4Night and have bought it and downloaded the database to my iPhone so it’s available if I have no signal or get cut off by my data provider!

we also have the book All the aires for Spain & Portugal by Vicarious Books, the BordAtlas German Stellplatz books and Campercontact on our SatNav but Park4Night is absolutely fab.

we also always buy the ACSI campsite books each year to get discounts off their sites and use their App when needed.

Park4Night let’s you filter what you are looking for so for night stops I choose both Motorhome emojis for paying and free sites, Red is paying and green is free. Wherever you are you open the map and green message appears Search for sites around here which you click and the map gets populated where you are. Select a site to read about it and read and translate reviews from other users. Cannot beat it and certainly the best yet

also filter for garages that do water and dump facilities
 
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Abacist said:
After a 20 hour crossing from Plymouth we reached Santander at 12:15pm UK time. Unloading took a while as we were in the bowels of the ship, not helped by an RS Elysian who had sat with all his lights on while we waited and then needed a battery boost to start his engine!

Quickly found a large commercial centre with a Carrefour Hypermarket to stock up with fresh food essentials and a new belt to hold my shorts up as I forgot to pack mine!

Now at Caberceno up in the hills at the back of Santander.
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Bobandfay said:
Lovely photos we always stay at caberceno on our first night after getting off the ferry and also stay the last night before coming home.
Some nice bars up in the village and small shop for fresh bread in the morning.
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What are the coordinates please as would like to stay on our return to Santander in two weeks 😊

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Abacist said:
Now relying on my 3 phone contract which only gave 3G last time in Portugal and has a 12 Gb roaming limit which I’m hoping my son can extend as it’s a business contract
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We’re on 3 and businesses contracts can’t be extended beyond 12gb
Three then charge 35p per mb

Might be worth getting a local sim
 
Duplicate post deleted!
 
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Abacist said:
I am now using almost exclusively The App Park4Night and have bought it and downloaded the database to my iPhone so it’s available if I have no signal or get cut off by my data provider!

we also have the book All the aires for Spain & Portugal by Vicarious Books, the BordAtlas German Stellplatz books and Campercontact on our SatNav but Park4Night is absolutely fab.

we also always buy the ACSI campsite books each year to get discounts off their sites and use their App when needed.

Park4Night let’s you filter what you are looking for so for night stops I choose both Motorhome emojis for paying and free sites, Red is paying and green is free. Wherever you are you open the map and green message appears Search for sites around here which you click and the map gets populated where you are. Select a site to read about it and read and translate reviews from other users. Cannot beat it and certainly the best yet

also filter for garages that do water and dump facilities
Click to expand...


We used to be big fans of Camper Contact, until we went to Norway. We then found P4N and use it almost exclusively now. We do, however, check out the most recent comments thoroughly, and don't even bother looking at the posts about the "yellow" motorhome symbols 😅.
 
Abacist said:
I always fill up with water before leaving home and choose aires with water and dump facilities.
There are also garages that provide water and dump facilities for payment or free if you buy a certain amount of fuel.
Click to expand...
Makes sense, does that mean you have a full water tank on the ferry?
 
jumartoo said:
We used to be big fans of Camper Contact, until we went to Norway. We then found P4N and use it almost exclusively now. We do, however, check out the most recent comments thoroughly, and don't even bother looking at the posts about the "yellow" motorhome symbols 😅.
Click to expand...

We use P4N exclusively now, to the point I keep forgetting the names of the other apps... As you say you have to learn to read between the lines :LOL: :LOL:

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Abacist said:
Very PO with Vodafone who have cut me off my data MIFi as they say my unlimited, expensive data contract has a 25Gb roaming limit which we are through in about a week. Must be buried in the small print as I was not aware. They will get the sack as soon as I get home! 25Gb fair use policy is crap in today’s world when travelling. The wife had only just got into having some English TV in the evenings! It’s really galling as the fair use doesn’t get rolled up when I’m not using it in the winter when the Moho is sat idle by the house!
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That was all over Fun earlier in the year.Unlimited reduced to 25 gb when abroad.Thats why I went for 120 gb deal.Supposed to be limited to fair usage but I used about 90 gb in June this year without a problem in Spain and France. BUSBY.
 
The Searle said:
It does look perfect, but what do you do for water? I am assuming we will travel with an empty tank on the ferry and then need to fill up in Spain.
Click to expand...
Why?
 
busby said:
That was all over Fun earlier in the year.Unlimited reduced to 25 gb when abroad.Thats why I went for 120 gb deal.Supposed to be limited to fair usage but I used about 90 gb in June this year without a problem in Spain and France. BUSBY.
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You were lucky then! I have not been so fortunate!
 
Today we moved on, heading south via Pontevedra, Redondela, Vigo, Baiona, A Guarda to Vila Nova de Cerveira, just inside the northern border of Portugal, on the river Minho.

Avoiding the toll motorway & all motorways in fact we went through the big city of Vigo. Somewhat hair raising and Margaret was having kittens!

The most frightening part of driving is on the roundabouts where the majority fail to signal so you don’t know whether to enter the roundabout or not! Once on and say you are taking a far left junction so you enter the inside lane of the roundabout as you indicate to change lanes and leave some lunatic overtakes you on the outside lane but going even further round the roundabout!

The wife keeps saying ignore everyone else and concentrate on what you are doing!

Anyway some pics to follow of sea views from just south of Baiona

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