Dear Editor
I just found your site and was interested in the motorhoming debate.
As a retired motorhoming couple, we first came to Portugal last winter for about six weeks.
We enjoyed meeting the locals who we found really friendly. We only stayed for a week on one campsite and much prefer to ‘wildcamp’ on our own or with others.
If we could only stop on campsites then we wouldn’t bother coming. Cost alone would mean we couldn’t afford it.
We enjoy the freedom to come and go as we wish, however, we do recognise the problems caused by some irresponsible motorhomers who stay for weeks on end, treating these places as campsites.
The most we have ever stayed in one place was four nights but usually one to two nights being the norm as we want to come back to places as there is more to see.
We like to think that all motorhome owners act reasonably and don’t offend the local population by making any mess or making life difficult for the residents.
We would welcome some sort of official type of aires (there seem to be some excellent ones in the north).
I always thought of some kind of system where you could pay a nominal amount (possibly five euros a night), but having a maximum time you could stay of 72 hours.
It could be some sort of ticket machine where you have to enter your vehicle licence plate number before a ticket is issued.
It would then be simple to check if somebody has a ticket and how long they have been there.
I think that some sort of action is needed to resolve what is becoming a problem for all of us.
Ed Webster
By email
