My husband and I will be visiting Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto in late October for a week before heading to the Azores. I recently read an article about the Schist Villages but can not find much detailed information. Has anyone visited any of the 27 villages and could recommend which to choose and possible hikes. Thank you!
Posted by
Cascais, Portugal
1796 posts
Take a look at Julie Dawn Fox. She gives details of some of them. I also just googled schist villages and a map came up. I do know none of them are accessed very easily. You would need a car. And, with just a week, visiting the places you mention will leave you with zero time to drive to them. If you want to drop one of your destinations and rent a car, then it would be doable.
Posted by
Lake District, England
7653 posts
This is the official Visit Portugal website for the villages- https://www.aldeiasdoxisto.pt/en/
Posted by
2730 posts
I too have become interested in the Schist villages while researching for our trip next month. I will tell you what I have found out.
Lousa is an hour by bus from Coimbra so it is possible to get into this area by public transportation. No less than 10 trails from Lousa show up in All Trails when I entered hiking from Lousa. Many go through different Schist Villages. Talasnal is supposed to be one of the prettiest villages but it is further away and you need a car to get there. But there are trails from Talasnal as well.
It seems to me you could get a taste of this area if you had a day to devote to it. That is what we intend to do. There are places to stay in many of the villages and I am sure you could plan a holiday around that. We plan to stay, however, in Coimbra and do a day trip.
Posted by
9 posts
We are staying in Lousa for 4 nights as I type. We have rented a car in Porto believing that to be the easiest way. We are hikers but as we age we found that bringing hiking poles helps a great deal. We have so far hiked down and back to the Castelo in Lousa. May I recommend the restaurant O Bourgo next to the castle, reservation necessary. We drove to Candal, a mountain road and Cerderia, a one lane winding road. Both great to hike around. There are many paths to make full circuits but it has rained every day and many are muddy and slippery. Folks we met hiked to Talasnal but could not continue as they felt unsafe. They were lucky to get a ride back to there starting point. Tomorrow we drive to Gois and Arginal where there is a weekly market. The area is fascinating but we want to be safe.