hike camino

A little research will provide the answers you’re looking for. You could start with any of the Camino groups on Facebook. You could also search on Camino de Santiago starting in Porto. The first thing you need to decide is whether you want a company to plan it out for you or whether you’re going to make your own reservations.

I have not done the Portuguese section, but I did the English Way (from Ferrol Spain to Santiago de Compostela) last October.

You can find a lot of the information online, however you still have decisions to make (where to start, the exact route to take, what to do for lodging, what to pack, using a service of some type, etc.).

I found the iPhone app Buen Camino to be helpful since it gives stage recommendations and descriptions, and it lists lodging options for each overnight. It helped me turn the general idea into an actual plan. I did it completely self planned, but met others that had used a planning service or a luggage forwarding service.

My lodging varied, 10€/night for public auberge (first come first serve, no reservations), 20€/night for private auberge, 40-80€/night for a hotel. I was able to find lodging along the route, some of my fellow travelers ended up taking a bus, uber, or shuttle from their hotel if they had to book a place off of the route.

Overall it was an excellent experience. I did it solo, but it can be as social as you would like. There were a lot of opportunities to meet, walk, and dine with other travelers. You might also want to spend some time in Santiago de Compostela, I found it to be a very fun city with a great atmosphere. I was also planning on doing the walk between Fisterra and Muxia but the weather turned and visited both by bus instead.

We (4 adults 60’s and 70’s) walked from Porto to Santiago (via the Spiritual Variant) on the coastal route in May 2024. We made all our own arrangements. Both couples had walked the Camino Frances previously. We planned our stages reserving private rooms and bag transfers in advance. The planning was fun and relatively easy.
We took 15 days but built in 2 rest days in places we wanted to explore.
It was very different from the Frances but we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The coastal route is really only near the water the first few days then you are above looking down on it much of the time.
The Camino Ivar website is a great place to ask questions.
If interested in our plan PM me.

thanks for all your info. We will skip the camino for 2027 because of the potential large crowd for the Holy Year.