Portugal Coastal Roads

Kate and Colin

Guest
Hi, everyone we are planning our first motor-home trip to Portugal and would like to travel along the coast North to South using the coastal roads. A friend has informed us the coast roads pass through many small villages, in which the roads are so narrow a motor-home would not pass through, can you please tell us, if this is true and should we then look to skirt around the villages, or perhaps not even use the coastal roads. Thank you so much. Kate
 
We drove down the Atlantic coast of Portugal a few years ago, don’t remember any serious problems. Getting down to some of the beaches from the nearest roads sometimes involved forest tracks which were a bit bumpy but wide enough. Tip is to look out for bus stops and/or wheely bins; if buses and dustcarts can get down so can you.

Enjoy your trip,

Pat
 
Hi,

We did some of this trip a few years ago.

Starting in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, we did the pilgrim route through northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela then down the coastal roads

to Porto.

Then along the Douro to Ciudad Rodrigo in Spain and followed Wellingtons Campaign trail back into France.

We had no particular driving problems and it was very interesting to say the least.

Dezi
 
Done the whole coast the only minus thing I remember most of the roads where not very well maintained an had very deep potholes. Portugal had millions of euro money and built miles of new rds instead of repairing what they already had. Some villages have advisory diversions posted if narrow I'm sure you'll enjoy your trip
 
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I don't remember any problem either in our 7.55m A class. Google satellite view can be helpful for checking out smaller roads. We've had a lot more narrow villages in Italy and Greece than Portugal.
 
We were there earlier this year and wandered into the outback a few times where we encountered extensive, narrow cobbled roads which shook us to pieces for some miles. Beware the cobbled roads!
 
I agree with the comments above.

You will find some of the roads in very poor condition, worse than the UK indeed!

The cobbled stretches are truly dreadful and should be avoided. I believe they destroyed a ball joint on my ' van ...
 
I agree with the comments above.

You will find some of the roads in very poor condition, worse than the UK indeed!

The cobbled stretches are truly dreadful and should be avoided. I believe they destroyed a ball joint on my ' van ...




Only on the van ?

I vaguely remember a joke about two nuns, two bicycles and a cobbled street.


Dezi :cheers:
 
Portugal

We’ve had two trips through Portugal. One going down followed all the interior mountain roads, narrow, bendy, crap condition, cobbles everywhere, in hindsight very beautiful and very entertaining. Next time headed north up the coast road. In the south, Algarve and so on quite pleasant, further up miles and miles of ribbon development stringing villages and towns together, miles of 30kph speed limits with vague signage, with hindsight fairly dreary and busy..the nicest and quietest bits were where we detoured inland.
 
This video heading SW from Santander via the Picos de Europa on the way to Portugal - follow the coast road, and you miss places like this (Although I suggest a Landy or 4WD camper at least!).
The hotel /bar at the top is the hotel Aliva.
Look out for the next instalments going into Portugal!

YouTube
 
We were there earlier this year and wandered into the outback a few times where we encountered extensive, narrow cobbled roads which shook us to pieces for some miles. Beware the cobbled roads!

There will be no major issues for you, just be cautious about poor quality surfaces and pot holes.
just be aware that those cobble stones can damage your tyres, not all but some rural routes can cause great anxiety at times.

The motorways and A roads are mostly good/OK but B roads and rural tracks have unknowns.

If you are able, it's worth getting a dedicated MH sat nav, where you can input your vehicle's dimensions, that will (mostly) guard against narrow roads, low bridges etc.

It's all a part of the adventure !

james
 
Dedicated satnav devices are very fallible when it comes to narrow roads.

Only roads where the highway authority has imposed a width restriction are avoided. In the UK there are umpteen very narrow country lanes down which you will still be routed.

Height limits are reliable.
 
No worries, haven’t come across a road in PT. in 35 yrs of living here on and off that I wouldn’t take my MH down! Go for it, nothing to be worried about.. 🙀
 

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