Winter in Portugal – what is really like?

We are here, we made it people! We are in Algarve Portugal.

It’s mid February 2022, and we are spending also this winter in Algarve. We have some experience from last year, 2021, a ton of videos (if you want to watch it), and we plan to put this experience to good use.

For first timers and even people coming for the second time, Algarve in the winter can be turn very quickly into a very unexpected unpleasant surprise.

How to have a good winter in Portugal

In order to have a good winter in Portugal, or at least a winter without nasty surprises, you have to know about the following issues and how to deal with it. Fortunately, now we know:

how to heat the house and ourselves; the house needs to be heated, that is a fact and we accepted it, along with the cost;
about the mold and the humidity and what to do about it; it’s simple! air the house, dehumidify the house, heat the house; start all over again next day!
we understand EDP bills – these are the electricity bills; we also understand our potencia and what appliances we can use together and what not; also we know how much each appliance consumes and what is best to use and when

I can safely say that Portugal teaches you things that you never needed to know before arriving here. It gets you to a simpler life and make you more knowledgeable about how things work, if you were not already.

Now we know. And you should know too!

Also now we have the new couch from last year, we have the heating blankets that helps a lot! I cannot live without the 2 heating blankets: one I use on the sofa and one I use at night under the sheets. The cost of the electricity is high but at least now I am not cold anymore.

We have been running the air conditioned in the living room each day and with the heated blankets, the dehumidifiers and the air conditioned we paid like 80 euros for half a month. This was for January, we will see in February the bill. I expect to be at least double – being a full month.

Other things you need to do in winter in Portugal

In order to keep the house clean, mold free and with a nice smell, we will be needing to change the carpets, to buy new mattresses, new curtains and new linens.

We have to change all these, not because the old ones are not usable anymore but because they smell like mold. We tried to wash them in several ways but the smell got worse!

Since we arrived, in mid January we spent our first week or so improving the house.

Then we got tired and started explore a little bit the surroundings.

We couldn’t go to Spain (a test was required) and we spent our time around Tavira, filming and eating a lot.