I´m planning my next Camino and I choosed to do the Interior one. I only have 9 days to do it, in June. What is the best starting point for this amount of time? I was planning to start in Chaves but it seems that this will mean a lot of kms per day and that´s not what I want (when I say a lot of kms I mean more than 30 kms per day). In my last (and first) Camino the goal was to not walk more than 20/25 kms per day. The objective was to leave early, walking during the morning, arrive in the albergue at lunch hour at have all the afternoon to walk around and know the city/place we were sleeping.
So I´m planning doing the same this time, but my searches on were should be the starting point that meet this criteria are not very accurate.
I walked CPI in June 2018, we started in Viseu and made it to Santiago in 16 days without much effort. Wish there were longer stages available as some felt too short for me, for me the mountains felt not that streghnious there. These are our stages from Chaves, possible to walk in 9 days for sure:
Chaves-Verin, 29km, both towns are interesting to explore
Verin - Albergueria, 33km, nothing to see there, so possible to walk longer stages
Albergueria - Xunqueira de Ambia, 20km
Xunqueira de Ambia - Ourence, 22km, very interesteresting town for sightseeing
Ourence-Cea, 22km
Cea - Estacion de Lalin, 27km
Estacion de Lalin- Ponte Ulla, 35km, possible to stop in between in Bandeira
Ponte Ulla -Santiago, 21km
Frankly speaking I enjoyed walkking CPI to Chaves much more then Sanabres, and for me that would feel a waste to miss most of CPI starting at the end of it, in Chaves. If I had only 9 days to walk I'd most probably start at the begining, in Viseu and walk till Verin or smth like that, and continue next time from there. CPI still feels off the beaten path, Sanabres is much more popular, but if you are there for the company of other pilgrims and for sightseeing the towns then Sanabres might suit you best. Bom Caminho!