# Central Portugal



## NickyVer (Nov 20, 2014)

Hello,

me and my wife are planning a trip to Central Portugal soon, maybe end of April, as a first exploration of the region. We are considering recolating there later on, but now first a little 'holliday'. My first questions are about the trip, as we plan to drive from Belgium to Portugal, make it a road trip!
Are there any suggestions about how to drive, looking it up on Google maps, the best route seems Lille-Paris-Bordeaux-Spanish border-Burgos-Salamanca-Guarda-Coimbra. Because we want to start with Coïmbra and then Leira. We are a bit worried about the Toll that will be quite high, but I don't think you can avoid the French toll, not sure about the Spanish. 
We would like to stop for the night somewhere South of Bordeaux maybe, does anybody have any suggestions for that?

We would like to drive to Tomar next and then to Castello Branco and then back home, but the whole Castello Branco-Guarda road is a Toll road, so it might be better to find an alternative route.

We probably already have a place to stay near Leira, but suggestions are welcome. But we still need a place to stay in the Castello Branco area, so would love to hear some suggestions about that.

Then we can decide which area would suit us best and then the plan is to rent a house for 6 months to a year. Anybody who knows a real estate that can help us find a rental house...

Thank you


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## Pablo91 (Jan 30, 2013)

After such a long journey, I doubt you want to escape the tolls at least in Portugal, the alternatives are not very good. Tomar for Castelo Branco the best way (despite some curves) is the road EN 238 (toll free), get to know the beautiful scenery of Castelo de Bode Dam and its lake, near the region where I live. As for the venue to choose after your trip you can already get an idea, do not know if you want a village or city.


Regards


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## Janina k (Nov 30, 2011)

Hello

Your route seems fine and should be no problem however are you going to use a satnav or a printoff from Googlemaps or Googleearth?

If you use a satnav then may i suggest you don't take the setting from Google maps. I was given by a friend the setting for a market i wanted to go to. The two examples below are for the same market but one from Googleearth and the other from Googlemaps both these setting where from the same person. If you see the number 99 that is wrong as it's minutes and 60 is the maximum number that can be used. The bottom is correct and by using it we arrived just where we wanted to be.

Previous we where given details to a place in France only to arrive in completely the wroing place. So use Googleearth not Googlemaps.

Fred

40 35 72 56 N
7 99 06 38 W

40 21 26 01N
7 59 26 03W


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

You don't say from where in Belgium. Most of my journeys south (to other than places in Northern France) have been from Calais so via the outskirts/bypass of Rouen, (I would avoid the Paris area like the plague) Le Mans, Tours, Poitiers, Niort, Bordeaux, to an overnight stop at Bayonne (there is Premiere Classe and a Campanile Leisure activities near the hotel PREMIERE CLASSE BAYONNE) this is a bare 500m from the motorway.

From there it is a short distance to the Spanish border.


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## BodgieMcBodge (Mar 8, 2013)

That's something like 4000km roundtrip so maybe the cost of some tolls would be less time and stress than trying to find and use all the non-toll local roads. Paris can be a mess, I worked in Burgos for a company based in Paris so did that bit a lot and your route looks ok. There always seem to be a lot of road works and speed restrictions on the Bordeaux/Irun section. Try and avoid Bordeaux in the rush hour. Spanish motorways are mainly gloriously long and empty and stress free. Make sure any satnav has up to date maps as there are new roads, like the toll ones near Tomar, then you can use the "no-toll" function to avoid them if you want. It is difficult to get decent road maps for Portugal. There are a couple of holidays in Portugal Saturday Apr 25 and Friday May 1 so expect some busy places. Recently have stayed at Logis Hotel Le Grandgousier which is ok and because it's close to the motorway and half way London/Peniche.


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## NickyVer (Nov 20, 2014)

Thanks for the replies guys, we are living close to Ghent in Belgium, and we can enter the E17 really close by, so I think we might opt for the 'normal route' via Lille and Paris, but leave very early to pass Paris before morning rush, we did this before and it was no problem.

Thanks for all the tips!


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## Mattskii (Oct 28, 2009)

We did a similar route last year in our old Motor home. We drove from Roscoff through France and Spain and into Portugal on the North border on the A-75. Tolls were not that expensive to be honest. This route made sense for us as our last stop in Spain was Leon. 

We stopped off a Porto, which I would recommend just because it is such a beautiful place.

We ended up settling in the Castanheira de Pera area. We are very happy here. You will love it!


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

By the time you have avoided the tolls you will have used more fuel, more tyre wear, more break, clutch etc. Unless you have a specific place you want to visit. Then just pop off the motorway and back on! 

I had the most dreadful dose of food poisoning ever from the Campanile near Bayonne!!! I now avoid ALL motorway hotel stopover.


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