On the Corpus Christi holiday this year, we decided to go. camping for the first time We went with my family to Portugal. We chose the O Tamanco campsite, which was highly recommended by the expat community in Cascais, and we went with the children, my brother, my father, and some friends who live here in Cascais and also in Braga. It was a lovely surprise for everyone, and I'm already thinking about going back more often!
The Camping
I researched campsites in Portugal that would be suitable for families without camping experience, and in the end, we chose the one called... Clog. The website isn't all that great, but thankfully we didn't stop there. We booked 3 tent sites and 2 tunnels for people who didn't want to sleep in tents, and for our 4-person tent with electricity, we paid 89 euros for the 3 nights. I thought the price was very fair, although some campers said it was expensive, but I think that's because the place is REALLY nice.
When we arrived, I discovered that the current owners are Scottish and the whole family is very friendly. To our surprise, the bathrooms were super clean and renovated, the pool was a good size, there was a mini farm with animals that we fed every day, as well as a ping-pong table, foosball for 50 cents a game, a mini football pitch and a room for board games and reading as well.
Since we had people in the tubes, we were able to use a support kitchen for them, which was wonderful. There are picnic tables outside, and that's where we had coffee every day, with plenty of space for our group of 16 people.
The best surprises were definitely the bakery van arriving every day at 9 am with fresh bread and the pizza night at the campsite restaurant, where everyone created their own pizza with the help of... staff. We paid 15 euros per adult and 10 euros per child and we thought everything was delightful! In addition, on Saturday morning, the children also went for a motorbike ride with a couple who are always there on Saturdays to offer this ride around the campsite. It was a lot of fun and it only cost 3 euros per ride.
Our Equipment
Since we didn't have any camping equipment and wanted to invest in it for annual trips with the kids, we went to Decathlon and bought practically everything we needed. Here's the list:
- Tent for 5 people (a friend always recommended buying a tent for +1, so since there are 4 of us, we bought one for 5)
- table with benches
- two more comfortable chairs
- A tarp to put under the tent.
- 4 sleeping bags that can withstand temperatures down to 10 degrees Celsius (Portugal gets cold at night)
- 2 self-inflating double mattresses
- pillows
- lighting
- lanterns
- clothesline rope
- two-burner electric stove
- Kitchen set with plates, cutlery and glasses.
We brought utensils, a barbecue grill we already had, food, and other things, and we almost couldn't fit in the car because it was so full. We're definitely going to need to solve this space problem in our car for future trips.
We had sunny days with pleasant temperatures, but it got quite cold at night. Sleeping bags, jackets, and pants were very important on this trip; I wonder if we'll need them in the summer too.
What did we do there?
We arrived on Thursday (June 4, 2026) in the early afternoon and spent the day unpacking for the first time. We had a tuna pie for lunch that we had brought with us, and at the end of the day we had a barbecue to warm up.
On Friday, we had a hearty breakfast with fresh bread, fed the guinea pigs, and went out to explore the... Fragas de São Simão River Beach (see more details at https://www.vagamundos.pt/passadico-fragas-de-sao-simao/ We had a picnic-style lunch and then went back to the campsite. This time we had a full barbecue with our friends from Braga, who were also musicians. It was a delightful evening.
On Saturday, we had coffee with bread from the bakery, fed the animals, the children went for a motorbike ride, and we had lunch at the restaurant. Lantern of Fado. From there, we went straight to the Mira de Aire Cave, which we had already been to – see more details here But it's always nice to revisit beautiful places, right? When we returned to the campsite, we had the pizza night we had already booked, and we ate super delicious pizzas that we made ourselves. At night we played games in the shared kitchen to the sound of beautiful live music from our musician friends from Braga.
On Sunday, we had breakfast, fed the animals again, packed our things to leave, but we felt like having another barbecue and finishing off all the things that were taking up space in the car. It was a weekend full of protein, for sure!
We returned to Cascais happy and already thinking about our next camping trip in August, just the four of us. We're ready! 🙂
