A Ramallosa to Vigo Route

[Kev&Kath]

Will be walking the CP in Aug/Sep with planning clearly focused to staying (for the most part) on the Litoral. However, (using Brierley's Guide) the stage from A Ramallosa to Vigo sets up quite a few walking options - the 'da Costa', in particular, has a marked detour to Freixo. For those CP veterans - is the move 'inland' (particularly for the visit to Freixo) recommended? Thanks in advance for any advice. Cheers!

 

[jungleboy]

Will be walking the CP in Aug/Sep with planning clearly focused to staying (for the most part) on the Litoral. However, (using Brierley's Guide) the stage from A Ramallosa to Vigo sets up quite a few walking options - the 'da Costa', in particular, has a marked detour to Freixo. For those CP veterans - is the move 'inland' (particularly for the visit to Freixo) recommended? Thanks in advance for any advice. Cheers!

I took the coastal alternative as (IIRC) it was recommended in Gronze. I haven’t walked the inland route so I can’t compare the two, and Freixo doesn’t ring a bell for me. But here’s my entry for that day anyway, if it helps.

Day 7: It’s foggy again as I set out this morning but it isn’t nearly as thick as yesterday, and at this point the fog has become an inseparable part of this camino — and of this mystical land. By 11am, the fog clears and it’s sunny for the rest of the walk.

This is the last day of my camino, and that’s usually accompanied by a sense of excitement at approaching Santiago. But today I’m only going to Vigo, a large and unattractive city whose best feature might be its good transport connections with Lisbon. On one hand, this will be a somewhat anticlimactic end to this little camino; on the other, I can enjoy the walk without being consumed by my impending arrival, because, really, I don’t want to arrive. And I’m not the only one; at one point today, I see a pilgrim laying on the beach, propped up by her backpack, reading a book.

From A Ramallosa, I take the coastal route, as do quite a few others. It’s a nice path, passing a few local, low-key beaches and some cruzeiros to remind me where I am.

As I approach Vigo in the early afternoon, the city is fortunately hidden by coves and bays and I don’t actually see it until I’m basically in the outskirts. And then I have to walk through an urban jungle for an hour, but it’s not bad and there’s some street art to look at and before I know it, I’m at my accommodation and my camino is over.

As for the question I’ve been pondering throughout this pilgrimage — ‘Does this feel like a camino?’ — I think the answer lies inside each individual pilgrim more than anywhere else. If you take the Senda Litoral at every opportunity and stay overnight in the touristy beach towns, I suspect it doesn’t feel much like a camino. And if you’re just here for the ocean, you’d be better off on the Rota Vicentina, which is both more remote and more spectacular.

But if you look for the camino here, you’ll find it — in the monastery of Oia, where monks fired canons at pirates from the patio that also served as the pilgrim route; in the 9th-century church inscription mentioning Santiago in Castelo do Neiva; and in those quintessential and special markers of Galician culture: the cruzeiros and the shells and the hórreos and, yes, even the fog.

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[Kev&Kath]

I took the coastal alternative as (IIRC) it was recommended in Gronze. I haven’t walked the inland route so I can’t compare the two, and Freixo doesn’t ring a bell for me. But here’s my entry for that day anyway, if it helps.

jungleboy...yes that does help...thank you. I sense it will be Litoral (and Espiritual) to Santiago! Thank you again!

 

[jsalt]

Hi, I've walked both routes, but not the Freixo detour. I preferred the inland route, as it has less built up areas. Inland has more variety, with a few paths into forested areas. It's all pretty much a big suburb of Vigo though.

 

[Kev&Kath]

Hi, I've walked both routes, but not the Freixo detour. I preferred the inland route, as it has less built up areas. Inland has more variety, with a few paths into forested areas. It's all pretty much a big suburb of Vigo though.

Thanks Jill...appreciated!

 

[Elle Bieling]

Hi @Kev&Kath I have done both routes and they are distinct, separate choices and each are lovely, depending on your own preferences. I have not done the Freixo route, but you will see turnoffs for it along the coastal. Here is my complete documentation of each, the Coastal Route and the Senda Litoral, for you to compare! Happy discernment, on which is best for you!

 

[Elle Bieling]

I also meant to say that the Senda Litoral is by far the more crowded, at least for us in September, so if finding fewer pilgrims are your focus, then the Coastal would work better. The Coastal is harder, with more climbing, but also more history, walking on Roman roads and past muiños (old mills). The Coastal is definitely cooler in the forest as well! If you have had enough beach walking, consider the Coastal. More food for thought....

 

[Kev&Kath]

Elle..thank you so much! I just opened your website...so much to explore. I'll read both route reports and see where that leads my planning. Certainly hoping to stick fairly closely to the Litoral, but a break from the coast, at some stage of the pilgrimage, might be welcomed. Again...thanks for your guidance!!