Portugal Road Trip 2025 – The Thousand Mile Tour

Highlights From This Trip

• 6 Days
• 17 Locations Explored
• ~1000 miles driven
• ~500 photographs
• Rusty car graveyards and collapsing traditional Portuguese houses

This summer I embarked on another road trip, exploring some more amazing lost places in mainland Europe. This marks my fourth urban exploration road trip around Portugal! This trip included both adventures discovering exciting new locations and revisiting some old favourites. The fourth Portuguese trip focused on four things: mysterious abandoned medical facilities, a collection of industrial ruins, rusting car graveyards, and traditional Portuguese houses spread across northern and central Portugal.

The Atmospheric “Horror Hospital” & Long-Abandoned Mountain Sanatorium

Every trip needs a beacon, that spot that captures my interest enough to begin the road trip plan. On this occasion, a wonderfully creepy atmospheric clinic often called “The Horror Hospital”. This small town clinic and surgery closed down many years ago and stands frozen in time, filled with curious treasures to photograph. The main attraction, undoubtedly, was the upper-floor surgery. This room is well-preserved with operating lights and a plethora of medical equipment. Bottles of medicines and boxes of medical supplies still lined the shelves, making for fascinating detail photos.

I also (finally) visited a long-overlooked Portuguese classic, an old sanatorium in the mountains. This is one of those well-known, older locations (heck, I remember having this on my to-do list since my first Portugal Road Trip in 2017!). This time I made route adjustments and took time to finally see it for myself. Inside, the building is relatively stripped, in contrast to the previous hospital. The operating theatre was only an empty shell surrounding a rusty old surgery bed. In other rooms, there was an old x-ray machine and another one in a partially collapsed room. For the rest of the site, the long balconies, dimly lit corridors, and an old elevator cage gave us enough options to capture a variety of photos.

Ruins of Portuguese industry – Factories and Powerplants

This tour delivered plenty of industrial decay, which is always a pleasure to shoot. I explored several hydro powerplants, ranging from small simple sites to a large 1920s beauty with a gorgeous control room. I visited a charming paper mill, exploring the collapsed remains of pulping floors and rolling halls. A highlight of the trip was a large fabric factory, along with the on-site hydro plant that once powered the vast industrial site.

Uncovering the rusty treasures of forgotten car graveyards

Near the end of the trip, for the final spot for the day, I enjoyed a ramble through the forest at sunset. Among the trees were sun-faded and rusted cars, the remnants of an old scrapyard now long-forgotten. Trucks, vans and cars were scattered in clusters separated by dense overgrowth. As an added bonus, a large warehouse contained rows of cars from Citroën, Chevrolet, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, VW and more.

On the final day of the trip, I explored a mammoth collection of cars tucked away inside some large warehouse-sized garages. Inside is a fascinating treasure trove and an eclectic collection of vehicles. From Portuguese taxis and ornate funeral cars to an Art Deco Buick and a sporty red MG convertible. Curiously, an old armoured personnel carrier sits against one wall. Locked up tight, but I managed to shoot through a propped-open viewport slit.

Traditional Portuguese houses and Quintas, now abandoned

When visiting Portugal, I always make time to explore some fascinating old houses and quintas. One of the first stops on the tour was a pink house on a hill, built in a similar striking Gothic exterior style to Casa Azul from an earlier trip. The houses could be twins! Unfortunately, both houses are also collapsing, their wooden frames eaten away by termites and rotted with the passage of time. After an incredibly dodgy climb up the splintering stairs at the pink house, I made it to the top floor!

I planned to revisit Casa Azul to reshoot this wonderful property on 35mm film. Unfortunately the stairs that I precariously climbed a few years ago have now collapsed entirely. Sadly, the beautiful upper-floor “zodiac room” is now beyond my reach.

I visited several other grand old Portuguese houses, each filled with hand-carved wooden furniture. The trinkets and treasures left behind offer a glimpse into the lives of those who once resided here many decades ago.

SHooting ruins on 35mm Film

On this trip, I defrosted a few rolls of Kodak Portra 160 that I had languishing in my freezer. This professional-grade film comes with a matching professional-grade price tag, so I have been saving this one for one of my tours abroad.

As usual, I opted for my 1970s Zenit-E camera and my trusty Mir-1b 37mm and Mir-20 20mm wide-angle lens trio.

Other highlights from this Portugal Road Trip

• An oval-domed swimming pool, unbearably hot in the summer sun
• A massive monastery complex and church
• A shopping mall filled with shuttered shops, bars and closed cinema
• Some historically interesting statues, the remains of an old theme park

Appearing in my Beautiful Abandoned Places Calendars 2026!

Some of the locations and photographs featured on this blog also appear in my Beautiful Abandoned Places 2026 calendar, available for sale now.

My calendar only features photos captured this year, to celebrate an amazing 12 months of adventures.

You can find out more about my calendar, and order your own copy in my online shop.

Take a closer look!

More behind-the-scenes photos from my Portugal Road Trip

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this road trip blog! Here are the rest of the behind-the-scenes snaps and preview photos from this trip, see you next time <3.