# Starting a camping/holiday business



## Laupylugs

Hi all, I travelled to the Fundao area of Portugal a couple of years ago and looked at some land while I was there. I found a piece that was about 3 acres, had electric and water and a derelict house. I had the idea to rebuild the house for me to live in and start a camping/holiday business Inc building a couple of log cabins as a start and seeing how this goes for a while then maybe liking to expand if it got successful. I have read some of the threads on your site and I'm beginning to realise that my dream may not be as straight forward as I first thought. I see people posting that they are thinking of doing it on a tight budget whereas I'm not quite in that situation, I don't have an endless pot of cash however. I do realise from my visit that the area that I looked is not exactly on the beaten tourist path and having read some of your threads already I see that there are many procedures and hoops to jump through. So I suppose my question is: has anyone managed to do this or tried and failed? The last thing I wasn't to do is make a plan to go for this and it not work so any information, guidance, advice will be received gratefully.


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## Janina k

Hello

Almost all over Portugal you will find camp sites, however these cater for anybody who wants to camp. To make it work you would need to offer something Unique maybe a site for disabled people or maybe for people looking for property. Without a USP you will find it hard to compete with the site run via the local Camara. 

Fred


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## Laupylugs

Janina k said:


> Hello
> 
> Almost all over Portugal you will find camp sites, however these cater for anybody who wants to camp. To make it work you would need to offer something Unique maybe a site for disabled people or maybe for people looking for property. Without a USP you will find it hard to compete with the site run via the local Camara.
> 
> Fred


Thanks Fred but that wasn't quite the answer I was looking for. I have the ideas, many of which are unique, its the process that I am questioning I.e I have heard that the Portuguese authorities are not very keen on non nationals starting campsites/holiday businesses and because I am looking for as much land as possible for my money I will need to buy somewhere that has a ruin of a building which can also provide complications,I believe,e.g habitation certificates?


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## travelling-man

I'm no expert but think it's more complicated that that.

You'll have to have land with the right designation because some designations such as Rustica don't allow for habitation or structures for anything other than animal shelters etc. 

Then you'll need things like toilet blocks & some kind of licencing such as alojamento locale or similar.


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## Laupylugs

Thanks for that, I didn't think it was going to be that easy from what I had heard. Reading through some of the similar threads I am learning more though. Finding it all really helpful. Thanks


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## travelling-man

I don't think it's really a case of "the Portuguese authorities are not very keen on non nationals starting campsites/holiday businesses" but rather that they're bureaucracy mad no matter who you are, where you're from or what you want to do.


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## Strontium

I think you really need to spend time in the area developing a "business plan" to see if it is a feasible idea. The holiday industry here is seasonal, the winters are wet and even businesses - bars. restaurants, hotels, shops - at the holiday destinations (beaches to you) close as no customers and needing to heat the place. Generally holiday here is a mass rush to beach. Log cabins would be unusual as normally they have to be imported in kit form from some Northern European country (try Lithuania) where suitable wood grows. Wood is not a common construction material here, the wrong trees grow, the damp means wood rot and wood boring insects and the UV destroys the cell structure (integrity). Getting a design to be classed as habitation thus meeting regulations and having planning permission (rather then a garden shed) can only really be checked out with the local council (Camera) as each local council implements the regulations differently, same for the rules of setting up a camping. Don't ask open-ended questions as these will need to be answered by some political policy bod, take outline plans on paper and someone speaking Portuguese and do it in person not via email/phone. Where you are looking is remote (most of the population are Porto/Lisbon/Algave but there are things like Boom happen over that way (won't help you as it's a temporary eco-friendly town on-site)
https://www.boomfestival.org/boom2016/boomguide/location/


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## travelling-man

Apologies for missing the part about log cabins but now I've seen it, I need to point out that log cabins are an absolute recipe for disaster because of the fire risk issues................ as has been proved in the recent wild fires. 

To say nothing of the number of types of wood eating insects here.


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