Algarve/Andalucia or Valencia/Murcia

[redhand]

For the last seven years we have wintered in Algarve and andalusia would be interested in the med side of Spain and how it compares weather wise aire availability etc.
We prefer to use free aires or wild camp with occasional sites

 

[jacquigem]

We live between Alicante and Torrevieja. Winters normally warm during the day but cools at night. Coastal sites get pretty full but if you are prepared to wild it then you will always find somewhere ,although popular spots are cleared put from time to time and some eg La Mata are regularly policed and emptied. Inland more availability but colder.
If you fancy a change I would go for it, at least you will have experienced it and if not for you then not too far back to Andalucia or even the Algarve for that matter.
Hope it helps.

 

[Moonraker 2]

I did not particularly like the Algarve in 2019 apart from Odimira. I travelled along the coast and back into Spain stopping at Monasterio de la Rabida.
El Rocio was great with a wonderful lake for bird watching flamingoes. All my photos show blue sunny skies. Carmona and Antiquera really nice.
Villaricos on the coast was great too and parked right on the beach.
I only ever stayed 1,2 nights and kept away from the rows of white vans facing the sea.
I hope it is all still as lovely as it was then..

 

[Moped]

Spain on a different time zone so sun sets 1 hour later than in Portugal.

I like the coast between Portugal and Gibralter. Pass on the coast between Gibralter and Almeria. Like the coast between Almeria and Palomares. Pass on the coast between Palomares and La Manga. Like the coast between La Manga and Valencia.

The further north you are the cooler it gets at night. Maybe just 2 or 3 degrees difference daytime. As others have said if you are in Spain for 90 days you can do both coastal areas but I would go south first and east later. A lot depends on whether you enjoy nightlife or not. We prefer quieter areas but we do enjoy our trips to Benidorm.

Aires on the east med coast north of La Manga and around Guadamar are always very busy and you might struggle to find somewhere. We did and we hope to stay longer at Guadamar this next time around as the area suited us fine. Plenty of park ups around Palomares and Vera or a reasonable ASCI campsite. Plenty of park ups between Alicante and Benidorm but not in Benidorm itself where it is campsites only really.

 

[Coolasluck]

Done all the coast of Spain and Portugal. The med side can become cluttered with plastic fantastics who also like to leave chairs and other rubbish on the street to save a place for their friends. I don't miss the behaviour of Johnny foreigner. As places get banned for motorhomes it means those once quiet places then become busy. It's still going to be easy enough to find a place though. We preferred to be on our own.
One bit of advise is stay away from the beach at weekends. The Spanish are always noisy and kids in cars don't bugger off until 6 a.m. Better to just park on a quiet street if you want peace and quiet. Personally I would stay north of Valencia . Much past that it starts to get crowded.

 

[Coolasluck]

As an aside Portugal has a new addition to it's highway code which means they can move you on with the added power of fines. It's also much more difficult to park on the coast. Last I heard parking around the sagres fort was a no go zone now. The good old days are not quite as good as they once were.

 

[redhand]

Thanks for replies
Yes things are changing even in the relatively short time of seven years, two years ago we were moved on in Portugal from two popular sies tomatoes beach falesia and Lagos stadium which was devastating at the time. Sagres has been no go for a long time. Also seen plenty of little englanders exhibiting anti social behaviour. Yet last year we discovered three small intimate areas which were much better.
Will probably give the med side a go this year on the return leg despite posts seeming to confirm the images I have of large sites filled with quad bikes trailers and long termers etc

 

[Drover]

We have spent the last month or so coming down the spanish coast from the east, now in Gibraltar.. we met one other English couple, though they had a spanish van and were heading for the uk... and 3 million german vans ..... they are en-mass this year around the Costas. Gibraltar (la linea)is just about empty and we hope Portugal will be the same....
Coolasluck, we heard they are giving fines for parking at the no parking/camping signs in Portugal . If theres no sign they dont bother you....we will find out in a week or so.