Overland to Portugal - crazy?

No you're not mad it would be fun and from the sounnds of your campervan a bit of an adventure too!

We have lots of people from Portugal and Maderia living over here and they generally seem to drive home for holidays too. From what a friend tells me it takes a good 2/3 days to get to Lisbon so it's perfectly doable and if you have the time you can do it in short hops and stop off to see a bit of the country/culture at the same time.

No not at all, it's prefectly do-able, especially if you have lots of time. We have done similar twice - once to Portugal in a campervan, down the west coast of France and Spain, and once to Ibiza on a motorbike through central France and east coast of Spain.

The west coast trip is fab as there are excellent places to stop and as the French are camping mad you're never far from good campsites. Also northern Portugal is absolutely lovely and well worth a vist.

We've never done the Bilbao ferry but that would be a good option if you wanted to cut down on the driving - however it will probably work out more expensive.

Not mad, just loads of fun! My sister moved to Portugal about 5 years ago and drove most of her stuff down in their pick-up truck, the rest arrived on a container about 6 weeks later.

The Sucata Run is a charity event that uses second hand cars for less than £250 and they do it every year from Paris to Portugal, most of the cars coming from over here first by ferry.

If you are time rich there is no stress involved, it sounds like fun

5 people in a fiesta? where d you put the luggage? the roof is the only option, and there wouldnt be enough room.

the van - fabulous though it sounds, i wouldnt trust a campervan like that for such a long distance, no chance.

Thanks

My gut instinct is it'll be great. We've taken her over twice to France now and I've been really impressed by the number of campervans and the facilities - in fact, if we wanted to be really tight we could use the camper-stops rather than proper sites.

I think she'll need a decent service and maybe I'll get my Dad to show H & I some basics under the bonnet in case of emergencies... I guess we'd want to spend the best part of a week getting there if we wanted to see stuff on the way. Thanks for the thoughts on routes, Foo.

I'll look into ferries and see how expensive they are - with the pound so low petrol won't be cheap...

But it'd be fab I reckon - especially for the boys - they had their first trip abroad ever in Oct when we took them and the van to Brittany.

I'm excited now! ?

Well quite... I'd have to tow a trailer and use a roofrack.

I am more than a little worried about her roadworthiness but I'll definitely get a proper service before we go. She's a pretty tenacious old bugger (runs in the family ?). She's done south-west France and back once, northern France once and she does London-Lincolnshire regularly. Our breakdown insurance covers towing plus accomodation plus returning us to the UK.... so I kind of think it would just be an alternative holiday ?

Hmm...

H used to overland (and sea) to Majorca (and back) when he worked there, more or less without stopping, so I reckon with stops and not worrying if you do break down that you should be fine!

I think it sounds fantastic.

Can't comment on road as H and I are both non drivers (well he has a motorbike) but there is lots of info about trains here - https://www.seat61.com/Portugal.htm

I am a big fan of trains on the continent!