Why ADAP exists
I created ADAP after living through, like many of you, that moment of arriving in Portugal with plenty of questions and not always the right answers at hand. Finding a doctor, understanding administrative procedures, knowing who to trust for a given search: these are things you often learn the hard way, each on your own.
ADAP was born from a simple idea: we gain more by helping each other than by each reinventing the wheel alone.
François Wilman
What we do
ADAP is a community platform born from French experience, but open to everyone who lives, is arriving, or is considering moving to Portugal, whatever their native language — which is why ADAP is available in seven languages.
Specifically, ADAP is built around several spaces:
- 01
A blog, open to all, covering everyday life in Portugal: administrative procedures, culture, news.
- 02
A private community space, reserved for registered members, to connect directly with people living the same reality on the ground — questions, mutual help, connections. Each member has a profile, can join groups and discussion forums organised by topic or interest, and get in touch directly with other members. A space built for everyday life: asking a specific question, sharing an experience, finding or offering a hand.
- 03
AdapGuide, an assistant that helps you navigate procedures and useful resources. It’s still a very young tool, but it grows a little more every day: the more it’s fed, the more it becomes able to give relevant answers, across a growing number of situations.
- 04
AdapSorties, for organising outings and events between members. Part of the information about each outing is public and visible to everyone, but only registered members can organise one — it’s the organiser who then decides who can join: open to everyone, or limited to registered members. Since the community is present all over Portugal, AdapSorties only works if members themselves take the initiative to organise an outing where they are, rather than waiting for one to already exist.
- 05
AdapAteliers, member-run interest groups built around the real, concrete problems members face — not a programme decided from the top. An IT workshop, for instance, starts from the actual questions members have about their digital use, rather than imposed content; a reading group will naturally take a different shape, depending on who runs it.
- 06
AdapVeille, a watch on news that has a real impact on life in Portugal — starting with civic monitoring, its first branch, with more topics to follow.
- 07
AdapMarket, a coming space for classified ads: open and public browsing for everyone, free listing reserved for registered members.
- 08
AdapRetex, a space dedicated to members’ shared experiences — about a service provider, a procedure, a place — so that what each person learns benefits everyone.
- 09
AdapPartenariats, partnerships with institutions and professionals, designed to make your life easier in Portugal. Reserved for members.
- 10
AdapVigilância, a citizen photo wall, open to everyone, to report and document everyday problems (waste, bins, roads, infrastructure…).
These tools are built over time, always with the same logic: meet a real need of the community, without unnecessary complexity.
How we work
Access to the blog is open. Access to the community space requires registration under one’s real identity and manual approval — because on ADAP, we care about always knowing who we’re talking to.
ADAP is a multilingual site: French is the reference language, but the site is also available in Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, German, English and Russian.
Our approach
ADAP runs on a simple principle: build what’s genuinely useful to the community, without spreading too thin or over-promising. No membership fees, no intermediary capturing value without redistributing it: the goal is for mutual help in Portugal to stay direct, free, and transparent.
The spirit of the community
ADAP aims to be a place where you can ask a question without fear of being judged, and share a different opinion without it turning into hostility. Kindness isn’t optional here, it’s a condition of access: everyone can disagree, but always respectfully. Sharp comments, unkind remarks, or exchanges that turn into score-settling have no place on ADAP.
This spirit is detailed in the Petit Pacte ADAP (PPA), which every member accepts upon registration. If it doesn’t match what you’re looking for, ADAP is probably not the right platform for you — and that’s fine, others exist.
Join us
Living in Portugal, moving soon, or just thinking about it? ADAP’s community space is open to you.