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We are camping on the Costa da la luz and southern Algarve in August. Attempts to book ahead have been problematical. Will it be a problem turning up on spec?Ojasper

Hi,

Sorry for the very late reply.We had big problems on the Costa de la luz with the completo signs up everywhere, and even the site where we had a possible telephone reservation was full. The site in the south of Portugal was like a landscaped Quarry but Ok despite being some distance from anywhere but again got us out of a tight spot with the other site in the area packed! That was in 2005, this year we were back at the Costa de la luz - with a booking but the Completo signs seemed to be up everywhere, including ours which was very busy but definately not full. I am not sure whether at our site (Camping Roche) they leave the sign up regardless or whether there were other reasons.

We also stayed on the Costa del Sol where no reservations are taken with no problem and at Seville it was busy but got in ok.

Will be interested to hear how you got on as well!

Ojasper

We've just come back from Portugal with varied experiences. Booking ahead on the internet doesn't seem to get any response. We were in the centre and north so probably fewer tourists than on the Algarve. There are hundreds of sites along the coast and the ones we saw (didn't stay) seemed to have vacancies.  There are far fewer sites inland - some very good (at Coimbra, Guimaraes, Evora, for instance) others mmmm - despite what it says on the intenet, one of these had closed (Orbitur at Portalagre), one was not "built" (Vila Nova de Foz Coa) and one was pretty bad (Vila Flor). The latter may be a temporary thing - the camp has the only large swimming pool for miles around and people come to have weekends or holidays there! 

Our one experience in northern Spain (Navarre, Cantabria, Basque Country) was mixed: two good sites with no problem getting in with one full diverting us by about 50 km to one where we just squeezed in! We had been unable to make contact with any of these beforehand and, anyway, some of them simply don't take bookings - turn up and see if there's a vacancy.

From our experience, Portuguese and northern Spanish sites do not have allocated plots: many of them are hilly and lumpy so it's just a matter of fitting in where you can!

Interesting to see your reply Paul,

It's a wearying process trying to book for peak season via the internet, sometimes you get a reply, more often not. The telephone is better in my experience. During the season the Spanish sites often have an english speaker which helps. You can get through to Spain and presumably Portugal for 1p per minute with a 18185 tel account which is worth checking out on the internet.

All the Spanish sites we have been to have had allocated pitches but they were not in the NW.

regards,

Ojasper

Thanks - will bear that in mind when next we return to Iberia.

Regarding 'phone calls, it may be useful for Portugal, if the person at the end of the 'phone doesn't speak English (I assume that few of us speak Portugese) they may well speak French - our experience was that, outside of Lisbon, the second language was French.