Quinta-ssential Portugal: a campervan tour of farms, villages and flavours

A new website for campervanners puts Portugal’s superb country food and wine on your doorstep – and you only pay for the welcome basket

As we pull up at the gate of Lavoura da Bouça, a huge but friendly mastiff is there to meet us. Behind him waddle a gaggle of noisy geese, followed by a scattering of sheep. In the back of our brightly coloured rental van, my two sons and their school friend look doubtful. Have we come to the right place?

Admittedly, the stone farmhouse with its animals and apple orchard does not look like your usual edge-of-town campervan stopover joint. There are no other vans, no facilities (other than a very clean compost toilet), and no illumination other than the stars.

I assure them this rustic spot, an hour-and-a-half’s drive from Porto, is where the EasyCamp website has directed us and so, while it looks like someone’s private home, it must indeed be our destination. Then, as if on cue, Aurora and José, the farm’s cheerful owners, appear from behind a large fruit tree and usher us through the gate.