Tourism in the Algarve is allegedly down, airlines have cancelled winter flights and except for August the beaches are relatively empty, which is great for all of us that live here.
So in an effort to totally kill off tourism altogether, the Portuguese government are supposedly introducing Road Tolls early next year on the main A22 dual carriageway that runs the length of the Algarve.
There will be no toll booths as they cannot afford to build them, instead they intend to bill the motorists by having microchips fitted to number plates or building a device into the vehicle. Of course they can only do this to vehicles registered in Portugal, so if you are a foreign traveller in any car, motorhome or whatever, registered in any other part of the world, currently you will be exempt.
According to figures released, the estimated cost of a trip from my house to Faro airport which is approximately 100 kilometres, will to be in the region of 22 euros, EACH WAY. The only other option would be to take the EN125 road, which will add at least an hour on a run to the airport. It is also a traffic clogged death trap of a road at the best of times with an increasing death rate each year and this is only going to increase the situation.
The Portuguese love beaurocracy and red tape, and can be a real pain in the ass and a right bunch of numpties, but most of the time I love them to bits.
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