so im heading to portugal in a few weeks and obviously bringing the mini 3 because why wouldnt you. but ive been going down a rabbit hole trying to figure out the actual rules and honestly its a mess. EASA regs apply but then each country has its own stuff layered on top and some beaches are near restricted zones and i cant tell if the maps ive been looking at are even current

like do most of you actually do proper research before flying somewhere new or do you just check airspace on the day and hope for nothing. genuinely asking because ive heard people say they just fly and never had an issue and ive also heard horror stories about gear getting confiscated

also the algarve specifically if anyone has been there with a drone would love to know what its actually like on the ground

portugal was pretty chill when i went last year tbh. used dronemaps and also double checked with the local authority website which is ANAC i think. the algarve cliffs are insane to fly around just watch out for the tourist areas, there were signs at a couple spots saying no drones but nothing official really. i always register in the destination country if theyre not on some reciprocal thing, takes like 20 mins and then at least you feel legit

i just use google maps and airmap the morning of ngl. havent had anything confiscated yet but ive also been lucky probably. the EU stuff is more standardized now so if you have your operator ID sorted youre mostly fine in the open category. just dont fly over crowds or near the airports obviously