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Question about routes on the Portuguese Camino de Santiago (Porto to Padron)

Posted by (Tucson, Arizona USA) on

I have a question about routes on the Portuguese Camino de Santiago. Does anyone have specific suggestions for a good itinerary? Here's ideally the sequence I'd like:

I want to leave from Porto, Portugal, and follow the coast to Via de Conde. From there, I want to head inland towards Barcelos. And from there, follow the route north to Pontevedra, taking the Spiritual Variant route to Padron.

I would like to travel about 10 miles per day.

Does anyone have specific suggestions for a good itinerary?

I've downloaded the AllTrails app, hoping to have a real-time map on-hand with my iPhone. But it doesn't allow me to search from town-to-town (like, say, MapQuest would). So if you have any further tips to help avoid getting lost from trail section to trail section, that'd be really welcome, too!

I have 'A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Portugues" by John Brierley, but I'm not really good at reading maps so the book has been confusing to me.

Posted by
9249 posts

We walked pretty much this same route in April last year. Flew Ryan Air from Frankfurt to Porto, took a train to the area of the cathedral, went inside and then walked to Matosinhos where we spent the first night. Stayed in Via de Conde 2nd night, and in Fao the 3rd. Continued along the coast until we got to Viana do Castelo. Our original plans were to continue the coastal route but we didn't enjoy it very much after the first couple of days. We then took a train to Valenca and continued our walk from there. Most days were under 20km. and we stayed in albergues most of the time. If I was to walk the Portugal Camino again, I would choose the central route the whole way from Porto. The high rises all along the coast were depressing in a way and the coastal route has you walking through lots of little towns that aren't very charming or attractive where you don't even see the ocean.

Recommend downloading the Wise Pilgrim app as well as spending some time on this website:
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/forums/camino-portugues.13/

If you are on FB, there are Portuguese Camino FB pages.
We spent 3 days in Santiago, did a 1-day bus tour to Muxia and Finisterre and then took a bus back to Porto where we spent another 2 days before flying home.

Message me if you have any questions.

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