Disclaimer: This trip was sponsored by Portugal by Van. However, my thoughts and opinions are my own.
I recently went on a one week road trip to the Algarve in a 3-seater campervan with Portugal by Van, and I’m convinced that renting a van is the best way to see that region of Portugal! Especially if you happen to do so during the off season, like we did – we really enjoyed being there in October and November. Here’s why:
WHY TRAVEL IN A CAMPERVAN?
I’m honestly quite obsessed with van life at this point! Here’s why I loved exploring the Algarve with a Campervan:
- Save Money – Since you’re not paying for accommodation AND a rental car/taxis, you save some money. Two in one!
- Flexible Itinerary – Since you don’t have to book accommodation in advance, you can go wherever you’d like and stay as long or as short as you want. Love a place more than expected? Great, stay there the whole trip! Hate it even though you thought you’d love it? Leave early! I loved having that flexibility.
- Visit More Desintations – We were able to see several spots in one day, as we weren’t at the mercy of public transportation, didn’t have to plan for time to find and check in to our hotel, and we didn’t have to go out of our way to search for lunch. We usually just cooked in the van wherever we happened to be at the moment!
- Portable Kitchen (!!!) – Always hungry for snacks? Want to make food on the go? Well, you have your own kitchen at your disposal, where you can do either of those anytime! This also really helped us save even more money (refer to point #1), as we weren’t constantly eating out. We also loved that we could always choose to have a pretty view while we ate if we so desired.
- Get Closer to the Outdoors + Off the Beaten Path – I love being outside and in nature as much as possible, and having a van made it much easier to access! It was especially nice to just hang out in our van with the back doors open to a beautiful view. Having higher clearance was nice too, and we were able to drive down dirt roads with ease.
- Less Packing/Unpacking – Having a van means that you have your belongings with you all of the time, so you spend less time packing and unpacking as you would if you were moving to different hotels each night. I personally hate this part of travel (chronic overpacker = lots of sitting on and swearing at my suitcase to make everything fit each time), so I really enjoyed that it cut this out completely! Our van had lots of storage space and cubbies so we could settle in and store everyday items with ease.
I’m kinda in love with van life at this point, to be honest. And I kinda sorta maybe want to buy my own now??
WHY TRAVEL TO THE ALGARVE IN OCTOBER & NOVEMBER?
LESS PEOPLE

This also made it much easier to find camping spots (and much more likely that we’d be alone without noisy neighbors!).
DISCOUNTED PRICES

THE WEATHER SHOULD STILL BE WARM

FLAMINGOS!!!

TIPS FOR WORKING ON THE ROAD

Want to travel while you work? Learn how to become a digital nomad here!
We found the service to be quite good in the Algarve region – we didn’t have any issues finding good coverage, and were able to work in 95% of the places we visited.
You do need to be hooked up to an electrical outlet to charge your laptop in the van, or anything requiring a plug. These are usually found at paid campsites or RV parks, which you can find on Park4Night (more on that below), but we mostly used free campsites and chose to go to cafes to charge instead. However, anything that can be charged via USB (like your phone or portable charger) can be done right in the campervan, whether hooked up to electricity or not. Our battery charged every time we drove, as well as from the solar power, and there’s even a handy button that tells you the percentage the battery is at! We never had issues or got low on our battery, even on cloudier days.
It was pretty easy to work while on the road – the only issue was finding the motivation to work while there were so many pretty spots to visit!
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VAN LIFE IN THE ALGARVE

The Park4Night app is your BFF forever and ever. It’s similar to iOverlander (although you can certainly also use iOverlander), and shows you where you can camp (both paid and for free), dump your wastewater, fill up your water tank, do laundry, and more. I’d also recommend making a free account, as you can’t see all of the available sites without one. Definitely download it before you go – our trip would’ve been so much more difficult without it!
All campervan rentals are manual (that I came across anyway), so be prepared for that. If renting a van in Portugal is on your bucket list, definitely try and practice back home before coming here if you’re from the United States like me and manual cars aren’t the norm!
Toll roads in Portugal are so expensive (for example, we accidentally took a toll road when we were coming back to Lisbon from the Algarve and had to pay €12), so set Google Maps to “Avoid Tolls” and you should be golden. “A” roads are highways, and they’re the ones with tolls. “N” roads never had tolls so we just stuck to those. Sometimes Google Maps took us on an “A” highway, but would always route us to exit before we actually hit the toll.
Like the rest of Europe, Portugal has no shortage of roundabouts! You also drive on the right and overtake on the left. Stop signs also seem to be a suggestion rather than a law. You can’t turn right on red like you can in the US – don’t space out and do this by accident or you’ll be met with angry honks from locals. Other than that and the plethora of toll roads, driving in Portugal felt pretty similar to driving in the US. Check out this article to learn more about driving in Portugal.
Yes, there is a shower attached to the van, and you can rent a chemical toilet if you want, too (the question I’ve been asked the most, ha!). However, we really didn’t shower that much if I’m being honest. Spending time exploring is way more fun than finding a spot to shower (it’s just a shower head, so you probably want to go to a more private spot or plan to shower in your bathing suit), and showering in the dark isn’t much fun, so…We just didn’t do it? Definitely plan to bring some flip flops or hiking sandals to shower in, too!
We chose not to rent the chemical toilet, since it takes up space and we didn’t want to do deal with emptying it. We were fine finding bathrooms in cafes, restaurants, on beaches (most of them had free public restrooms to use), and in nature. If going in nature, just be sure to throw away your toilet paper after – we saw so much strewn all over the place, and it was quite disappointing (and one of the reasons Portugal decided to outlaw wild camping…). If you happen to need to go, well, #2, be sure to dig a deep enough hole (6 inches is standard) and bury it, please!

Most restaurants and cafes were still open, but we certainly went to a couple that said “Open”on Google Maps, but were actually closed. I’d expect that things are mostly open around Christmas, and then shut back down again until the warmer months.
For 7 days of travel, we spent €130 (about $150 USD) on gas.
WHAT TO DO IN ALGARVE IN FALL (OUR ITINERARY)


We began our trip in Faro, as we wanted to see the Pousada Palácio de Estoi (The Palace of Estoi) as well as the Capela de Ossos (Chapel of Bones). Since we were there during Halloween, we figured a bone church was the best spooky thing to do to celebrate! We also wanted to see wild Flamingos, and did so on the Ludo Trail at Ria Formosa Reserve. Check out this article for more details about where exactly to find them on the Ludo Trail, as well as other places you can spot flamingos in the Algarve!



- Praia da Falésia (Falésia Beach)
- Walk from Praia dos Arrifes to Praia da Coelha (about 30 minutes). Honestly, all of the beaches look gorgeous! There’s no road that you can drive next to the ocean (we would have loved that), so we just walked along the cliffs instead for the views. We had lunch and drinks at Restaurante Praia de São Rafael – I’d highly recommend as it was delicious!
- Albufeira is definitely a party town, and going out in Old Town was quite fun as we were there on Halloween! You can either choose to do that or go to ‘The Strip’ if you want to experience some of the famous Albufeira nightlife. Avenida Francisco Sá Carneiro (the street that makes up The Strip) is a long expanse of bars and nightclubs, and is quite popular with tourists and the younger crowd. Old Town also has a plethora of restaurants and bars, but if a night that you’ll never forget (or remember) is on your Algarve bucket list, The Strip might just be for you!


Be aware that there’s no shade on this trail for the most part, so if the weather forecast is looking sunny and hot it’s better to do this hike in the morning or evening.


There are also a ton of really cool seashells at that beach, so we enjoyed walking around and looking for them. The parking lot at this beach was quite large, but even on a Saturday in November it was pretty full. However, people were constantly coming and going, so it was pretty easy to find a spot.




The next day, we drove to Ferragudo to see the Castelo de São João do Arade, a castle on the beach (I’m not gonna lie, this was definitely a highlight for me). We were definitely guilty of indulging in our inner Instagram model and taking a bunch of photos in front of it…You can’t go inside, unfortunately, but I still enjoyed staring at it from afar.
Ferragudo is also a really pretty whitewashed fishing village that’s worth checking out if you have time. To be honest, most of the small villages we drove through looked similar (whitewashed buildings and pretty coastal views), so even if you don’t stop here, you’re guaranteed to find something like it.
As we were leaving Ferragudo, we happened upon the perfect place to stop and have lunch! I’d highly recommend stopping there – it was a dirt road just past the main part of town.







Since we’d been traveling for almost a week at this point, it was time to do laundry. We stumbled upon The Laundry Lounge, a cafe/laundromat hybrid that clearly caters to van dwellers and surfers (both of are plentiful in Sagres), which was an interesting experience. I’d definitely recommend getting dinner or drinks there, but be prepared to wait as it gets busy!


WHAT WE MISSED:
- Tavira – A beautiful town with colorful buildings on the coast.
- Olhão Fish Market (Mercados de Olhão) – A huge bustling market selling seafood and lots of other goods. Unfortunately it is closed on Sundays, which is when we were in that area so we were unable to go. It is open Mon-Sat from 7AM to early afternoon.
- Silves – This is an old medeival town! It’s located more inland, but we were sticking to the coast, so we skipped it.
- Monchique – An adorable looking town in the mountains with colorful buildings. It’s also located more inland, so we didn’t have time to see it.
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