My friend and I are celebrating a 50 year friendship this year!
My friend wants to meet me either in Spain or Portugal. I am departing Canada next month and hope to walk (my first camino) del Norte in September as summer heat not my thing. I have as long as I need so no hurry at all.
My friend wants to join me and walk a week and has a leaning towards Portugal. We both love water and so the coastal route is more appealing although the historical component is also enticing.
QUESTION: If we only have one week together - in October - what is best route to research?
All opinions welcomed.
PS: friend open to Spain too but if I've been on the del norte already then it might be good to dip my tired toes into Portugal?
There are a few factors that go into the "best route", chief among which is: how important is it that you end up in Santiago and your friend receives a Compostela? If that is important, even on the "Camino Portugues" there won't be that much experience of Portugal as the last week or so of that Camino is in Spain, walking north from the Portuguese border. Another thing to consider is how far you want to walk each day. If your friend hasn't done much in the way of long-distance walks and hasn't done a lot of training, you might want to look at a more leisurely pace for your week.
A few options:
If ending in Santiago is important:
- Start in Caminha, on the Portuguese side of the rio Minho, on the Coastal route and follow it through Baiona and Vigo on the coast before uniting with the Central at Redondela and, depending on your timing, possibly taking the Variante Espiritual to Padron and then Santiago.
- Don't worry about the Camino Portugues (since you will spend so little time in Portugal) and walk the Camino Ingles, so your friend can walk a "complete" Camino.
- Don't worry about the Camino Portugues (since you will spend so little time in Portugal) and walk the last 100 km or so on any Camino. I hear the last 100 km of the Sanabres from Ourense is very nice, although it isn't coastal.
If ending in Santiago is not important, you can pick anywhere on a Camino and start walking for a week. I might suggest starting in Porto, a lovely little Portuguese city. You could start with the Senda Litoral, along the river to the coast and up the coast along the boardwalks. A day or two would take you the 33 km to Vila do Conde. From their you could continue up the coast until time ran out. Or you could head in to join the Central and, in four or five days, make it to the border with Spain, through Barcelos and Ponte de Lima, a couple of lovely Portuguese towns.
For what it is worth, I did my Camino Portugues (From Porto to Vila do Conde on the SL, and then over to the Central) in October (2016) and the weather was fine. Quite hot the first few days cooling as we went north, with only a couple of day's rain at the end in Galicia.