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No pressure though!Tagging @jungleboy
This part of the Torres has a lot of asphalt so I wouldn't recommend it in this case.Read some of @jungleboy 's walks over towards Braga and Guimaraes with a finish in Porto. There are rail links out towards there going north east from Porto that might suit. But there will be some hills.
Thanks, Steven. We are in fact working with a local walking tour company, the same folks we did our Douro self-guided tour with (and liked very much!) However, I was finding that the info they are giving me was frequently contradicted by reports here on this forum. Confused by this, I thought the best thing to do was to just ask y'all.Because you are not looking to do a traditional pilgrimage ending in Santiago, I would suggest doing an online search for hiking in Portugal. There are plenty of companies out there that you can see where they go. Unless you are set on carrying a pack on a hike through, you may be able to find hikes you can do that allow you to return to the same lodging every night.
Thanks! We'll be in the Algarve earlier in our trip and will definitely be hiking there.Nick, aka jungleboy, told me about a route along the southern Portuguese coast named the Rota Vincentina, The Fisherman's Trail. St. Vincent is the patron saint of fishermen and this trail is four days along the Algarve coast. I had to do some quick research to refresh my memory and found several other Portuguese hikes mentioned on a site called Moon & Honey Travel..
This route sounds magical! We have some mobility issues with our group this time but I'm putting your suggestion in my notes for future walks!I loved the Espirtual Variante.
Please, it wasn't intended as a chastisement, but as an acknowledgement that IMO it's not really a camino and certainly not a pilgrimage in the traditional sense that you seem to be planning with such an exhaustive list of very detailed requirements:I had to chuckle at the comments about my "exhaustive" list of requirements!
Part of what we loved about our first Camino experience was the walking from place to place, the ephemeral arriving-and-leaving, if you will.Please, it wasn't intended as a chastisement, but as an acknowledgement that IMO it's not really a camino and certainly not a pilgrimage in the traditional sense that you seem to be planning with such an exhaustive list of very detailed requirements:
quiet country roads and forest paths, small villages and historic sites, nature, great food and good company, we'd prefer shade to hot sun, not too much elevation gain, days 20km or less AND... we need to walk from north to south, we would like to avoid long monotonous stretches (especially in glaring sun), we're open to taking land transport if necessary etc...
Forgive me, who am I to judge, but I chuckled too..
Edit:
FWIW, Steven Dwyer' s suggestion about finding a single lodging place seems to make good sense logistics-wise, given the size of your group and the extremely limited window you have for walking.
Besides the Rota Vincentina, another option in the Algarve you might consider is the Seven Hanging Valleys trail: https://www.walkalgarve.com/algarve...n-hanging-valleys-trail-lagoa-western-algarveThanks! We'll be in the Algarve earlier in our trip and will definitely be hiking there.
Thanks for this tip! I’ll be walking the central in mid-April. I’m tagging @wisepilgrim so Michael will take a look at the comments in this part of his app and perhaps update the map.There seems to be a new route (it sounds like it's a rerouting of the camino rather than the variant you mentioned?) that avoids at least some of the road. Here are two recent comments on the Wise Pilgrim app (keeping in mind that this is south to north):
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