Final Thoughts

With a gap of about 14 days, I would like to reflect briefly on the trip.

In hindsight, we were lucky with the weather, it was a coincidence that it didn't rain even once except in Faro.

There can also be bad weather in September and October, we have already had rain on the Atlantic coast in France, and there were floods both before our arrival and now, 14 days after our departure in the Valentia area.

In the off-season, we had no problems getting a pitch at the campsites. In Portugal, it became noticeably quieter in mid-September, the first two weeks were still busy. There are campsites that offer winter deals. It gets crowded again in October. There is such a campsite in Cabanas (Tavira). For 400 euros per month (if you reserve), you get three pitches next to each other. Many English, Dutch, and other Europeans settle there for months and spend the winter.

Our dog was not a problem at the campsites, but in restaurants he was only allowed on the terrace. He was not allowed on the beach in Spain and Portugal, although both countries have many dogs. If you know your way around, there are probably places almost everywhere where you can take dogs despite the ban. These are usually the 'edges', so it was good that we had bicycles with a dog trailer.

However, the main problem is the big cities. Without bike paths, bicycles are useless, dogs are not allowed on trains and buses, and campers cannot access all parking lots. Maybe we will have to rent a car in the near future.

All in all, we spent about one month's salary of mine in the 7 weeks, with camping costs, gasoline, and toll fees in France being the highest costs. The food in Portugal is very cheap, and the diesel prices in Spain are also cheap.

I would choose our stops similarly again. Chécy on the Loire was a great start, Narbonne-Plage was nice to relax at first. I can only recommend Salamanca, a great place and a great city. I have written enough about the Algarve places in the blog. The return journey through Spain along the Mediterranean was smooth, St. Elena is open all year round and very popular in the middle of the route. Maybe I would drive a little further from Benicassim to be able to drive the last stage home without a stop, because it was already uncomfortable in northern France.

Let's see where the next trip will take us.