Portugal on the Road with Kids
A discovery of adventures for the whole family
Are you ready for a trip trough Portugal on the Road with Kids?
If you follow us on our Instagram account Miniwanderlust Team, you’ll already know that we are currently in Portugal, after a long road trip with the kids, where we have settled for the entire summer… or perhaps even longer.
Getting here hasn’t been a walk in the park because we decided to make the entire journey starting from Italy by car.
How to reach Portugal on the road with kids from Italy
For us, having our own car was an essential point as we wanted to have the freedom to move around areas less connected by public transport. Portugal is undoubtedly a country that is suitable for car trips, so let’s get into the face of our road trip to Portugal with kids.
Ferry to Barcelona
We left from Cesena heading to Civitavecchia because we decided to skip all of France and board the ship that took us directly to Barcelona.
Our choice was dictated by both the economic factor and the fact that we were not interested in stopping in France. Arriving in Barcelona by land would have meant driving 1200 km, which with children, equals at least 3/4 days of travel.
We tried to make stops of no more than 4/5 hours to avoid stressing ourselves too much.
If you are interested in this ferry, I’ll leave you the link to Traghetti Lines, the company where we booked. However, be aware that ports are not as organized as airports, so dates often change.
Usually, the departure ports are Civitavecchia, Genoa, or Porto Torres, but there are not always available spaces, especially for cars. In any case, we booked on the morning of departure, and for that day, we could only depart from Civitavecchia.
FYI We spent €330 with a cabin for 4 people plus a car. If we had made the journey by land, including accommodations, fuel, and tolls, we would have definitely spent more than twice that amount.
The steps to get to Portugal on the road with kids
Everyone is obviously free to make their own choices. Since we wanted to go to Ericeira, which is located 50 km north of Lisbon, we decided to skip the entire southern part of Portugal, planning to visit it leisurely later.
Making this choice, however, we still made several stops in Spain, including:
To then make a final 9-hour journey to reach our destination in Portugal on the road with the children.
Except for Valencia, which we secretly love, all the other stops were chosen for the distance from the previous stop and also for accommodations.
We always travel on a fairly tight budget, mainly because our trips are not vacations but rather journeys in which we continue to lead our lives, study, and work. This often leads us to stay in homes far from tourist destinations, but they guarantee us a good value for money and above all a location to work.
How to find accommodation in Portugal on the road with kids
Unfortunately, since we don’t have a van to sleep in, accommodation is the most complicated part of our road trips in Portugal with children. In fact, moving house every 2/3 days means never being able to get significant discounts, so our stages are always quite long, precisely because 6/7 nights often cost us even less than 2/3.
Here are the main tricks we used to spend less on accommodations during our road trip to Portugal:
- Expand the search area on the map. Being in a car, we always have the freedom to move, and often outside the city center or tourist areas, prices are much lower.
- Extend the number of nights. When traveling without time constraints, we can often afford to stay longer in one area, and hosts will be more inclined to reduce the price for a week, especially in low season.
- Be flexible. Not having preset stops gives us the opportunity to stop where accommodations are cheaper or better in quality.
How to tackle long journeys in Portugal on the road with children
We’re not a great example of organization and often we set off with virtually nothing to eat, stopping to buy something unhealthy and super expensive at the few “autogrills” along the Spanish and Portuguese roads.
However, it must be admitted that having something to snack on is a good pastime for car trips.
The positive side of Spanish roads is that they are not real highways as we understand them in Italy, so you can easily exit to go to a supermarket or, as we did, to have an ice cream in a shopping center and take a stroll.
After all, as we know, car trips are certainly not the ideal time to start a balanced diet, even less so if you find yourself in Portugal on the road with the children among butter cakes and Pastel de Nata.
The stages of our Portugal on the road with children
Your road trip between Spain and Portugal with the kids is an unforgettable experience, full of adventures, breathtaking landscapes, and special family moments.
If you want to read more about our adventures, I’ll leave you the links to all the other articles dedicated to this experience.
Digitally Yours
☀️ Sara ☀️
