Camino Portuguese

The Camino Portuguese is now the second most popular route to Santiago de Compestella.

The official route can be started from Lisbon or Porto with Porto being the most popular. Those interested in walking the last 100 kilometers can start in Vigo if following one of the coastal routes, or in Tui if traveling the Central route.

The central route is exactly as you would expect running North through the middle of the country. The costal routes vary. The Senda Litotal is the route that spends the most time on or near the beach when leaving Porto. The Coastal route touches the coast but is generally a kilometer or more from the coast. The two routes cross each other often. There is another variant available called the Espiritual. This route takes you through the middle of a forested peninsula, returning to the combined routes, via ferry passage.

We had intended to walk as much as possible on the Littoral route. As the way progressed in front of us we often found ourselves back on the Coastal to reach our accommodations.

Lisbon

In 2016, after completing the Camino Frances with two of our daughters we spent a week relaxing in Porto. We knew we wanted to see more of the splendid country of Portugal so we started with 3 days touring in Lisbon. Lisbon turned out to be a marvelous place to start our adventure.

During our time in Lisbon we spent a day walking, seeing the sites, and concluded with a food tour.

From Lisbon we caught the three hour train to Porto. Porto once again held its place as one of our favorite cities.

From Porto we began our eleven day journey on the Camino Portuguese.

*just a note above the relive videos. There are videos where I listed the to and from cities, others, the to and from accommodations.

After pressing too hard over the previous two days a rest day was necessary to prevent injury.

The first half of this next section of the Espiritual route is probably the most lovely I have walked in Spain and Portugal. It follows down a hill past old stone water mills through lovely forests along the tumbling stream.

The final day started with showers and finishing with heavy rain. We walked into an empty square in Santiago de Compestella.

I wouldn’t recommend eleven days for this route. Take a full 14, or even longer so you can spend the three nights that are required to stay at the A Armenteira monastery.

If you can’t get to Portugal or Spain find a trail near your home and start exploring The onfoot.life.