Looking For Help re opening albergue in Portugal

[adamrichardson2]

Hello fellow pilgrims,

I am planning on opening an Albergue on the Portuguese route. I have walked both the Frances and the Portuguese route. I speak pretty decent Portuguese and am looking for either an Albergue for sale, or to start a new one. Not much help out here.... I hope to travel to Portugal in October and speak with a local council to see what conditions, licences, red tape will be expected. Would love to meet any other non native Albergue owners to hear what they had to do and see if they can share some tips.

Many thanks

Adam

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

Adam, welcome to the forum. Can't help, just wanted to wish you luck. It's a great dream, hope you make it a reality!

 

[Robo]

Hello fellow pilgrims,

I am planning on opening an Albergue on the Portuguese route. I have walked both the Frances and the Portuguese route. I speak pretty decent Portuguese and am looking for either an Albergue for sale, or to start a new one. Not much help out here.... I hope to travel to Portugal in October and speak with a local council to see what conditions, licences, red tape will be expected. Would love to meet any other non native Albergue owners to hear what they had to do and see if they can share some tips.

Many thanks

Adam

We were quite seriously thinking of buying one in Spain last year.
Lots of email exchanges with two owners, going through their costs/income etc etc.
They were very helpful in outlining some of the challenges and issues they faced.

In the end we didn't go ahead, as I still need to run a business at home, and whilst doing that remotely is possible, it wasn't really practical, and would have detracted from running the Albergue. So it's on hold sadly.

But my point is........

Look for Albergues for sale and contact the owners.
They might give you some good insights into local conditions.
I just looked online.

 

[Tincatinker]

This may be of interest: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...for-albergue-in-vila-nova-da-barquinha.88219/

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I know next to nothing about the Portuguese Caminos. I do know that the Fishermen's Trail is not one of them but perhaps you could look into that also if the competition elsewhere is too much.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

One of the Camino forum members here, @jungleboy, has lived in Lisbon for the past seven years until recently. He has walked quite a few pilgrimage routes in Portugal and may possibly have a few ideas that may be of help to you. You could try sending him a PM(private message) if he does not happen to see your inquiry.

 

[jungleboy]

I don't know about logistics, legalities etc, although @Friend from Barquinha has possibly looked into it more than me.

In terms of location and demand, some options that come to mind are:

Lisbon - no albergue currently, though it will be more expensive to buy here than elsewhere.

Tomar - this is where I would open an albergue in Portugal, all things being equal. There isn't one currently (though there is a youth hostel).

CP Coastal / general - the coastal is booming in popularity and I'm not sure the albergue scene has caught up. If you're a beach town kind of person, you could pick a spot you love virtually anywhere along the route.

Armenteira (VE) - this has become an accommodation pinch point lately with the reduction in capacity of the municipal albergue and increasing popularity of the VE, so there's certainly demand for more pilgrim accommodation. It's a small village, though, so there might not be many possibilities to buy a property.

 

[BarbaraW]

You might find it helpful to look at a website aimed at expats, like expatica.com. It all looks rather complicated, especially if you don't have EU residency. But some of the nicest albergues I've stayed in have been set up by people who fell in love with the Camino and followed their dream. Good luck!

 

[Corned Beef]

Tomar - this is where I would open an albergue in Portugal, all things being equal. There isn't one currently (though there is a youth hostel).

There is a good website called Idealista which shows properties for sale (and therefore prices) There is a specific version for Portugal

https://www.idealista.pt/en/comprar-casas/tomar/