Parque de Campismo Orbitur Guincho — Hotel in Cascais

Stayed here for one night after we left Lisbon, before heading north up to Nazare and the Douro river valley. Was happy enough with the stay, but to be fair, there is not a single other option for camping in the area.

The tent sites themselves are fine with plenty of trees to provide shade. My only issue with it was the fact that there are no marked-off tent pitches; only large areas where tents can generally be setup. This is not abnormal for a campground (also very common in Portugal), but is unfortunately a system I hate if the campground is even moderately busy (which this one was). Without any limitations on “their area”, other campers tend to erect unnecessarily large, sprawling campsites to give themselves more room and larger buffers to their neighbors. This of course takes up a lot of space they do not need, which then makes it difficult for new arrivals to find a decent place to pitch their tent (which it was). It also creates the risk that someone will come in to your camp area and setup while you are away, which happened to us. After finally finding a decent spot for our tent and car, we set up our camp and then headed to the grocery store and for a walk on the beach. By the time we got back though, a rude couple had already come in and put their car in the parking space right next to our tent and set their own tent nearly on top of us. It made what would have otherwise been a decent night rather annoying.

The facilities here were okay. They of course had everything you need (bathrooms, showers, small store, etc.), but the bathrooms & showers were not the newest or cleanest I have ever seen. They weren’t filthy by any means, but, when I compare the quality and cleanliness to some other campgrounds I have stayed at (e.g. especially in Spain), it could be better. We stayed at one other location from this same chain on this trip and found it to be similar there as well.

The location is good. Short drive in to town for food and what-not. There also a very lovely natural area right next to the campground. Highly recommend you take the walk through the sand dunes down to the beach. It is a very nice 1 hour walk (30 minutes each way).

The only major issue we had was the noise. As with many campgrounds, they love to have live music at night, especially on the weekends. Unfortunately, at this campground, it seemed to run quite late (just past midnight if I remember correctly) and the sound is very audible throughout most of the campground.

As with most campgrounds in Portugal, the price is very good (~20-25 EUR)

If I was back camping in the area sometime, I would probably stay here again. Of course though, as mentioned before, very little choice in the matter since they are the only campground...

The Guincho site is set in a superb location on the outskirts of Cascais, in a wooded area close to the sand dunes and is served by an efficient and cheap bus service in to town every 30 mins. The site is close to Guincho beach which is a fabulous walk away along the boardwalk.

The site is functional, but dated. The shower and toilet blocks work well and whilst relatively clean, the toilets are covered in graffiti which sort of sets the thought that they are not well cared for. The cleaners seem to use a hose to jet the toilet areas down, which often left a collection of dirt in the corners. Similarly, as the site is in a sandy area, when the floors were wet, they would quickly be covered in sand and dirt, again, leaving the wrong impression that they were not cleaned often, which was not the case. One other thing is that during our stay, the taps in the bathroom area of the toilet blocks was never hot.

The staff are fabulous, from the two mature lady cleaners, to the gardener who you see working hard and travelling around on his tractor, to Izabella on reception.

This is a special mention for Izabella who made our extended trip of 7 weeks (our motorbike broke down and took this long to be repaired) an interesting one. Her radiant smile and warm welcome during our initial welcome and checking in carried on throughout our stay. She was an invaluable source of information regarding local events, sites to visit, places to go, buses, trains and how to use the Orbitur app! She was always there, whenever we passed, with her smile and a wave. She is probably one of the best receptionists we have ever been welcomed by and is attentive, helpful, bright and friendly.

So, a very positive 7 weeks stay at the Guincho site which is well worth a visit if you appreciate that it is not new, looks tired in places, but has a charm of its own. We will...

We booked a 3 night stay with our camper van. Given we had just left a 6 star site in Porto, I was apprehensive given the reviews but pleasantly surprised. To be clear this isn’t a 4 star campsite but it also isn’t as bad as some of the reviews suggest. Yes the place could do with some renovation, the old unused sink block is unsightly and would be better removed and the pitch delineation and areas could do with a refresh. There are 2 shower and toilet blocks. One is older but still serviceable, the more recent block is pretty good. Showers and toilets are my least liked aspect of van touring but these were clean with plenty of hot water. Sure the odd toilet door bolt is a bit flimsy but by and large more than fit for purpose. The WiFi really only works when you are in reception so free WiFi is a bit of an exaggeration but they do tell you this when you book in. On that point reception were all super helpful though we could have been told about the Lisbon train strike in advance! Buses to Cascais run to their own schedule rather than what’s on paper and it takes c30 mins. There is a lovely nature walk through the dunes down to the beach with some restaurants next to the ocean. Didn’t try the pool as it wasn’t hot enough but the area and the pool itself was clean and tidy. The shop has some bits and bobs, fresh bread in the morning and Pastel de nata. For comparison we paid £33 per night incl electric vs £51 all inclusive, in Porto (for a fantastic all inclusive site) and £19 in Sintra for something far worse than this with hand-held showers! So not out of kilter for somewhere with reasonable access to Cascais,...