trip from Porto to Santiago de Compostela

There appears to be a train from Campanha Station in Porto to Santiago de Compostela that leaves at 8:15 and arrives in Santiago at 14:03 ( 2:03 Pm) this includes a transfer with 55 minute layover at Guixax Station in Vigo. This is not a high speed train but would afford you the chance to see many of the cities and towns in Portugal and Spain that are part of the Portugese Camino. Specific train information can be found on the DB site, which is the German train sight that provides train schedules for most of Europe and is quite user friendly. Hank, Novato, CA

There dosen't seem to be any train leaving Porto and getting to Santiago that I can find. The closest on Rome2rio is a bus to Vigo, a taxi or bus to the train station and a train from Vigo to Santiago. Rick's book says the best is a bus from Porto, but there is only one a day.

I had the same thought you did, when we were in Porto, with a car, yet. But these two destinations are not well-connected. We put off Santiago to a later trip to Spain. I'll add that because of Santiago's location, we decided to fly home via London. But we don't like connecting at Heathrow, and we didn't have a particularly easy time.

We really liked Santiago, and I would guess that, not counting the Guggenheim, that it's nicer than Bilbao. But I haven't been to Bilbao since before the museum was built. We stayed in the large luxury hotel built into the pilgrim's hospital.

Jerry & Stelly, in late May 2017, I did this trip by guided day van tour. We drove directly to Santiago, had a nice local lunch, and visited the church during services, etc. Then had some free time to poke around. On the way back, we stopped for a while at the town of Viana do Castelo in Portugal. I found the whole day worthwhile, enjoyable, but not particular special. Lots of time on the road.

Thanks for all the info. We think we found a bus leaving at between 6:30 and 6:50 from Porto. However not a lot of information on where the bus stops are in Porto. It arrives in Santiago in about 5 hours. Pretty sure it stops at every small town along the way. The tour bus is nice but we are staying in Santiago so there would be no ride back, just the cost of the ride back. Worst comes to worst we will take the tour and stay in Santiago. But we are still looking at our options and hoping the Flixbus works out. Just wish someone else had done the same ride.

What's the date you're trying to get to Santiago de Compostela? Perhaps people are seeing different information online because they are looking at different dates. Schedules can vary by day of week.

We will leave Porto on April 19th, which is a Thursday.

Should have said we are leaving Porto on Thursday April 19th and have reservations in Santiago de Compestela on the 19th.

I'm not sure why, but the very good rail connection I see on the schedule for next Thursday, February 22, is not on the schedule for April 19. However, the first leg of that journey, the 8:15 AM train from Porto to Vigo-Guixar is still showing for April. I suspect Renfe just doesn't load the local train schedules for Vigo-Santiago de Compostela very far in advance.

In any case, by taking that 8:15 AM train you can get across the border and to Vigo by 11:35 AM. It's that cross-border leg that's the challenge. The Renfe website confirms (though not yet for April) that there are local trains running between Vigo and Santiago deC approximately hourly. Some of those trains depart from Guixar Station; others, from Urzaiz Station. I would expect there to be taxis available to get you from one station to the other. Otherwise, the distance is walkable at less than a mile.

Unfortunately, Vigo is not a particularly interesting city. There's an historic area down near the port, but it's quite small. You can spot it on the map I've linked to, west of Guixar Station.

Check out goeuro.com. We used this for the bus going from Porto to Tui; it continues on to Vigo.
On our return, we took the train from Santiago to Vigo and flew to Lisbon. Yes, the bus stops everywhere on the trip north, but the train is direct and the station is pretty close to the Bascilica. WE walked the Compestella from Tui. The bus to Tui was €10 and the train from Santiago was €8. Make your reservation as as you know your schedule as the bus fills quickly in Porto. IMO there's not much to do or see other than the area around the church; it was our 2nd visit there, and the first time we spent 2 days which was more than enough. Porto, on the other hand, is well worth 4 days.

Thank you all for your help. And acraven, we looked on Renfe and did not find anything going to Santiago leaving from Vigo either.
We decided to go with FlixBus and take 4 hours to go the 140 miles. There has got to be 50 stops between Porto and Santiago, but we got tickets for $25.00 total for the both of us. We will let this site know how it goes. At least they have a toilet on the bus. Not all of them do, in Spain, we learned traveling in 2013.

Yes, the local train data doesn't get loaded very early. It does tend to cause confusion. I'm sure the bus will be fine. I appreciate not having to drag my suitcase up the steps onto a train and try to find a place to put it.

We had a great day trip from Porto that we booked with Viator.