How To: Camper Van Surf Trip Through Portugal

A surf trip for a surfer in its essence means freedom. Balancing surfing with everyday activities and obligations is a constant organizational nightmare heavily sprinkled with compromise and broken promises. You know, how do you recognize a surfer at a wedding? He is the one that is not there :). It sounds a bit stressful but to be honest, I kind of love it, makes you feel like you are some sort of a Tetris master. But when you go on a surf trip there is no doubt what comes first and what is on center stage. It’s scoring the best possible surf twice a day. Everything else comes second. But within surf trip itself there is another higher level of freedom that just might be the ultimate when it comes to surfing. It’s a camper van surf trip, in my case a camper van in Portugal. Why?

Putting your house on wheels directly on the spot eliminates all sorts of useless activities like packing and unpacking your car, driving to the sea to check the conditions, waiting for your friends to get dressed, finish eating, find their wetsuit, planing your trip days ahead, making reservations for sleeping, checking in, checking out at correct hours, staying at the wrong spot because that is where you have rented the apartment etc… time wasted that could be put to better use surfing or at least chilling by the spot… OMG, everybody went out for lunch and the waves are pumping, lets go in! This never happens if you are staying at a random hotel in a random nearby town.

Dream Surf Trip

I have always kind of felt this is the ultimate. I have done plenty of surf trips and almost all of them involved a scene when we arrived at a spot and some camper vans were already parked there with people already finished surfing or maybe just sipping their morning coffee, no hurry, no driving anywhere. And after surf we were packing things back into the car and watch drip drying wetsuits hanging from the outside rear view mirrors of various camper vans with people again sipping coffee, making lunch or just chilling, reading a book and occasionally glancing towards the waves just to be up to date on what they are doing, just in case they need to jump in again for a quick session or checking the forecast and making plans where and to which beach they will move next to do it all again. And when we were driving away they were still there..the ultimate freedom. “Someday I’m gonna do that!” was always on the back of my mind, but when surf trip plans were made it always slipped my mind…until this year. “We are going to rent a camper van in Portugal and do a surf trip up and down the Portugal coast. Are you in?” Hype!

You can bet I am in. Not going to Indo was forgotten in a moment and the organization wheels started turning. Plane tickets and surfboard charges calculations, forecast checking and also, the essential question that makes or breaks the trip itself  – where to get a camper van in Portugal and not go broke?

Where to Rent a Camper Van in Portugal and Why Atlantic Coast Campers

After lots of research and after doing two surf camper van trips in the last two months (check the Sicily surf trip for the second one, looks like a lot of surf van desire has accumulated over the years and once released… I had to do it twice, lol ) I can save you some time and recommend Atlantic coast campers. Main reasons why to choose them over other camper van rental companies in Portugal (this is just my opinion, maybe to you other things matter when choosing a van):

• You won’t look like a tourist with huge RENT ME!!! stickers plastered all over the van exterior. It might be good advertising for the company but for the traveler it’s kind of like a kook tattoo. Driving around in Atlantic coast campers you will look like a seasoned surfer doing the surf Europe pilgrimage down the Atlantic coast and with Portuguese license plates on the van you should either learn to speak Portuguese or learn how to explain that you don’t speak Portuguese (eu nao falo portugues) because locals will start talking to you assuming your are one of them :)! Looking local also puts you lower on the possible burglary target list.
• The vans are thoughtfully built and have everything you will need for a surf trip. We rented van called Sardinha that came with 2 big beds with pillows & pillow cases, duvet & duvet covers, sheets; seating for 3-4 people, lots of storage space (when I say lots, please check the rest of the article hehe), kitchen with sink and running water tap, gas cooker with fixed two pit places, fridge, kitchen utensils including a coffee pot, cleaning kit, secondary battery, solar panels and 12V and 220V electricity, camping 220V wall cable (use for electricity on campsites), radio/speakers with USB and AUX options (AUX cable included), car jack, triangle & fluorescent vests, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, privacy curtains, space for surfboards, external shower that you get by either pulling the faucet from the sink or by filling the black camping shower bags (btw, the shower works great, you come out of the water and shower in the back of the van… people will look at you with envy :) ). What I hate with other camper vans in Portugal and elsewhere, and it’s just a cheap little thing, but it makes quite a difference – things like salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, coffee..etc are already in the kitchen! If you run out, you buy a new one. This works great, because the alternative is arriving to an empty van for a week and then buying 1l of oil, 1l of vinegar, 1kg of salt, 1kg of sugar and then using 5% of it in a week having no idea what to do with the rest when returning the van. It’s not like I am going to drag these things home on a plane.
• The rental price is very good. If you compare it to renting a regular car + an apartment and you are almost there.
• It’s a small and therefore flexible company so it is possible to arrange everything to your need. Pedro (the owner) is a great guy and very very knowledgeable when it comes to surfing in Portugal. If you need any advice on where to go to score, he will help you out.

So if you ever decide to do a surf trip in a camper van through Portugal, and you are wondering where to rent one – check atlanticcoastcampers.com. You can also check my IG story highlights from the trip to get the idea how the Sardinha and van life looks like.

Van Life Ups and Downs

With the recent #vanlife craziness it seems that taking a van surf trip is the best thing since sliced bread. And actually it is. But if you imagine it solely by social media posts you will be hard struck by reality. It’s not all Mexican blankets, ambient light bulbs, spices in wall mounted flower pots and good looking girls in bikinis stretching on the bed while looking out at waves from the opened back doors of the van. Actually it’s none of it. Or maybe the girl is there if you do the trip with your girlfriend (highly recommended) or not if your trip is a sausage party (also cool).

So to represent the reality of a camper van surf trip, here are two lists. One for the things I like when it comes to van life and one for the things I hate. It would be awesome if someone would chip in with what is missing and what do you love/hate when it comes to van life.  I would love to hear your comments :)!

10 Best Things About a Surf Trip With a Van

• It’s like owning a beach house at every surf spot, you come out of the water and you are home.
• You always know the surf conditions, just look out of the van. Makes picking the best time to surf a piece of cake.
• When you wake up in the morning you just raise your head and check the surf. If it’s good you get up, if it sucks you put your head back down and sleep on.
• Coffee, tea, pasta, beer, chocolate…everything is always ready and at arms reach. Thirsty, hungry, sleepy…not a problem, you can do it right there, in front of the wave, not missing anything. And everything tastes better at the beach.
• Chilling on the bed in your van looking at the waves through opened doors after the surf is the best thing ever.
• You will always beat the crowds, even at non surfing locations. While people had to wake up, pack, get into the car and drive to where you are well… you are already there:).
• You can really chase the best conditions up and down the coast, no packing, planing, making reservations…just decide where the forecast looks good and you can go.
• You suddenly turn into camper van expert, checking how other peoples vans are built and organized, watching youtube videos of home builds and imagining how your own van would look like.
• Your Instagram engagement will go through the roof, just use #vanlife and post photos of coffee/laptop with waves in the background :).
• If you own the van it’s way cheaper, if you rent a cheap one it can still be cheaper than renting a car and a new room every second day. Either way, can you put a price on freedom?

13 Worst Things About a Surf Trip With a Van

• Everything you take with you on a trip gets in a way when you are living on a few square meters, it gets annoying.
• The floor is always dirty and sandy and if it rains everything gets a bit damp, boring and depressing.
• You will constantly be moving things, loosing things and searching for things. Especially if the van is at full capacity.
• The most frequent 7 words you will hear on your van trip are:  “Do you maybe know where is my…?”
• Second most frequent 7 words you will hear on your van trip are: “Can you please move so I can…”
• Personal hygiene can drop a bit hehe and trash quickly starts piling up and taking space.
• If someone gets on your nerves it will escalate in a van, it’s like a boat, nowhere to go.
• You will end up driving around way more than you though you will. The option to be at the best spot, all you have to do is go, can get tiring sometimes.
• Why the hell do they put those 2.2m height bars on shopping mall parking lot. I hate them!?
• Electricity problems, these days everything is chargeable and van batteries can run out of juice if you are not driving around all the time.
• Noises and things falling over. Your van is a cute little house on wheels but as soon as you start driving, especially on dirt roads leading to surf spots this house is like hit by a small earthquake every time you hit a bump or a hole. And things that are not in their right places start falling down and flying over the van and the rest of them start making funny noises.
• A camper van is usually not the fastest vehicle. So if you planned your timing poorly and you have half an hour to the surf spot 1 hour before darkness it’s is hard to really step on it.

It sounds like there are more bad than good things when it comes to van life but trust me, the good by far overweight the bad. If I only take owning a beach house at every surf spot, every beach, everything else pales in comparison. It’s as good as I have imagined it would be.

8 Tips for Portugal Surf Van Trip

Here are some useful tips for traveling with a camper van in Portugal. Or actually, most of these are also general tips that apply to van travel anywhere. Since I am a camper van rookie most of these will be obvious to people that did it already, but if you have never rented or used a camper van in your life, they will make your life easier :).

1. Preparation starts at home, bring only things that you really need and put them in soft luggage, like a duffel bag. A hard suitcase with wheels is a cool thing to store your stuff while traveling and dragging through the airport but as soon as you put it inside a camper van it turns into a useless waste of space that fits nowhere and is always in the way. Usually one or two suitcases will fit in vans storage space, but image 4 people arriving with 2 suitcases each. It’s a recipe for disaster. So leave it at home!
2. Camper van is always way more comfortable if it is not full. A 4 person van with only two people inside is like a beautiful melody. With 4 people inside it’s a zoo.
3. Best season for camper van travel is out of the main season. In the main season all the parking spots are full, there are people everywhere, cars are everywhere, if camping at some place is illegal the cops will be more touchy about it when there are lots of people, when places get empty no one cares anymore where you park and sleep. Or maybe it’s just me, I don’t like crowds:).
4. It is illegal to do wild camping with your camper van in Portugal. Information on this is a bit vague as usual (no matter which country you check), some people say yes, some people say no, same people call the others stupid etc:). In Portugal it is usually up the the municipality to decide if wild camping is allowed in the area. But with recent recent boom of vanlife there are more and more restrictions that are enforced more strictly. People just parking and living everywhere, starting fires in nature, throwing garbage on the ground or putting up a bbq, table and chairs in a busy parking got locals angry and even started some tension between locals and camper van people. The main issue is that people use the resources but don’t actually bring much to the local economy. Bringing your own food and not spending any money, sleeping for free while acting like you own the place and leaving trash behind is a sure way to get the locals upset. Who wouldn’t be.
5. If you need to restock on water – every gas station in Portugal has a hose with running water, so filling up your water tank is easy. We did buy drinking water in supermarkets, maybe the gas station water is good as well.
6. Driving your camper van in Portugal on highways you will notice they have three different systems. There is the usual – take a ticket and pay at the exit toll booth. Then there is the electronic payment called Via Verde that has special lanes through the tool booths. If you did not purchase a prepaid electronic device then don’t use these lanes. And then there is the third option where the system records your license plates and you have to pay for the highway use at a post office in 15 days. These roads are clearly marked and you probably won’t find them driving along the coast unless you go far up north.
7. Even if you can drive and surf anywhere, plan your trip a few days in advance according to the surf forecast. From the Peniche/Ericeira area all the way down to Algarve and Sagres it is quite a drive. Jumping up and down every other day is exhausting and also expensive.

This Is How We Did It – From Figuera Da Foz in the North to Sagres Down South

I once read that the perception of time is not measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days… it is measured in the amount of new information that your brain has to process. I might have mentioned this already, but I can hep mentioning it again. This is why for a child time moves so slow, everything he sees, hears, tastes, touches…is new. Brain overload. When you get older and set into a routine there is not much new that happens from day to day. Same home, same road to work, same job, same supermarket, same food, same people…brain gets bored and time flies. Where did this year go?!

Have you noticed how when you go on vacations first few days go kind of slowly, you still have your whole time off ahead of you, and then suddenly it starts flying and it’s over? That is if you go somewhere and then stay there for the whole time. A change of location gives your brain something to do, but when days again start to look the same…idk…beach -> bar -> drunk -> sleep time again flies.

Why this intro to our trip? Having the ability to just turn on the engine and go someplace new is an unlimited potential source of new info for your brain. We didn’t have the best surf conditions when we were in Portugal. There were two storms going over the country in the second week that we were there. If conditions were perfect we could have been parked at the same spot for the whole 14 days. OK, that would probably not have happened :) but this time we had no choice. We were chasing waves up and down Portugal coast and after a week I felt like I was away from home for a month, after 14 days I have almost forgotten where home was :).

And this is exactly how I like it. Portugal is I guess one of the sickest countries for this kind of trip. The coastline is long enough so there is a real difference in weather and conditions between different regions. Even though the majority of the coastline faces west there is also plenty of protected beaches and beaches facing other directions. This means that no matter what the weather throws at you, you can find something to surf.

We started in Torres Vedras where we picked up our van at Atlantic coast campers and drove straight to Ericeira. It’s the closest wave area and we wanted to get wet as soon as possible. We had a couple of fun sessions there, but soon it was time to move on towards Peniche. By towards Peniche I mean – try to avoid Peniche itself at all cost :). Everybody goes there and it’s super crowded. We slept once above the Lagide surf spot, arriving late at night, and we almost could not find a parking space among all the camper vans. We rushed away first thing in the morning. So next few days we surfed either 20 min drive north or south of Peniche and it was pretty sick, usually sharing the lineup with just a few other people or even surfing alone!

When the swell started dropping it was again time to move. If you don’t own an 11 ft lead weighted rhino chaser and have no desire to own it then Nazare is the place to go when there is almost no swell. Thanks to the properties that make it a prime big wave surfing spot this is also the spot that picks up a lot of swell and that is 2x bigger than anything else. Even with tiny waves coming from the north and long straight beach the two hour session was a 4h paddling workout haha… we had to paddle non stop to stay on the peak. But it was fun.

The forecast has been promising sizable waves arriving together with super strong winds and since the plan from the beginning was to also check the south it was time to go. The goal was to go to the south of Algarve and surf around Sagres, but luckily we decided to check a few spots along the way. The warm water spot south of Sines was way to small, but once we arrived to Arrifana the waves were pumping and we had a couple of sick sessions there. Once the wind turned to much in to the west direction and Arrifana went to shit we finally made it to Sagres.

This was probably the worst part of the trip surf wise. Wind and swell were both coming from the same direction and if you managed to hide from the wind you also managed to hide from the waves. So we had one XXS clean session and one medium sized blown out one.  That was also the day with lots of rain so we spent some time in the cool place called Laundry. It’s a laid back place where you can do your laundry and then hang out, tap on your laptop and check your surf photos, have something to eat or drink, talk to people etc… check it out if you are there.

When the weather normalized we were back on the hunt, this time aiming at spots around Porto Covo but even though there was no wind, the sea had that morning sickness to it and with not that small waves we wanted something cleaner. We again ended up at the warm water spot :) and this time it was almost too big, but we had a sick session there.

Btw, this is how waking up south of Porto Covo looks like and how I caught a super small shorebreak at Beliche near Sagres:

Finally we again pointed our camper van towards north Portugal. This time even further up than Nazare. We ended up in Figuera da Foz. The water was freezing!! :o.

We hoped to score the long pointbreak at Buarcos but first day it just wasn’t working. So we checked Cebedelo and it looked shit. You know, foggy, drizzle, gray muddy water and waves spilling one over another. This was even more confirmed after watching three (I think) Dutch guys floating around lineup without doing much surfing and even more when they got out and said: “It is shit.”

Since there was nothing better to do we decided to go in anyway. Sometimes the key to a good surf session is low expectations. We had one of the best session of the trip :)?! The tide dropped a bit and the foam burgers on the outside turned into sick gray walls. Suddenly drizzle and water color meant nothing. High fives and smiles all the way!

Last day I made a sketchy paddle out at Buarcos and caught a few waves there before it got dark, it wasn’t really working as I imagine it can, but they say it’s a fickle spot that no one I’ve talked to really got good, and they live in Portugal. So surfing it together with some guys from Australia was a sick ending to the trip.

This is it, this is how you rent and drive a camper van in Portugal and this is how we did it. Hope you got some useful tips and ideas for your own trip and if you have any questions or something to add – the comments are open.