Camino Portugues

[HBew]

Hi, I enjoyed walking the Camino de Santiago, Camino Frances, so much last year that this year I am planning to walk the Camino Portugues. Last year I walked alone and loved the experience of meeting new people and re-connecting with other walkers as our paths crossed throughout the six weeks of walking. The large roomed Albergues were a great place to meet people from all nationalities and the shared meals delicious and relaxing at the end of a long day. So of course I would like to repeat the magical experience but know that a different Camino may been interesting, informative and beautiful in other ways.
My plan is to start walking in Lisbon and walk to Santiago do Compestela. A friend plans to meet me in Porto and walk the last two weeks with me. Probably I will start the walk in mid April.
My questions are:
From reading John Brierley's Camino Portugues, I see that the first part of the Camino from Lisbon to Porto is not widely walked. Whilst I am happy to walk alone, I am wondering about safety, accommodation availability and generally a feeling of community around this first part of the walk?
Secondly would people who have walked this route, recommend taking walking poles as this complicates baggage on flights but now doubt poles can be purchased in Lisbon.
I do like the already known differences of this walk, longer walks so I plan to factor in some additional rest days in the early part and also that I have already visited both Lisbon and Porto and found them beautiful, welcoming cities so feel that this walk is going to be another amazing experience, just wanting a bit of reassurance!
Many thanks for any advice
Heather

 

[jungleboy]

Bom caminho Heather!

My questions are:
From reading John Brierley's Camino Portugues, I see that the first part of the Camino from Lisbon to Porto is not widely walked. Whilst I am happy to walk alone, I am wondering about safety, accommodation availability and generally a feeling of community around this first part of the walk?

1) There have been some safety issues around Sacavém on the first day out of Lisbon. I haven't seen any reports of problems for about two years now but before that at least two women were attacked at the same spot. A new route which skips this section is currently being prepared but I'm not sure if it will be ready by April.

2) Accommodation is not as widespread as the Francés but there is still enough of it. One accommodation issue is that there is no longer anywhere to stay, as far as I'm aware, between Azambuja and Santarém since the passing of Paula, the owner of the Quinta da Burra farmhouse/albergue. This is about a 32km day and if especially if it's hot, it's quite dusty and shadeless and it's a long day.

3) You will indeed see a lot fewer pilgrims than on the Francés. Luck plays a part but I would guess that around 0-6 people will leave Lisbon the same day as you. So yes, you might not feel much sense of community but on the other hand if you do have a small group of people walking more or less the same stages as you, that can result in a nice and perhaps more intimate feeling of community as a counterpoint to the overwhelming numbers on the Francés.

Secondly would people who have walked this route, recommend taking walking poles as this complicates baggage on flights but now doubt poles can be purchased in Lisbon.

You can easily get walking poles in Lisbon, most obviously at Decathlon. The most central branch is here (Google Maps link/location): https://goo.gl/maps/Vb233hb1i7Nm2vdM7. It's not a mountainous camino so walking poles aren't strictly necessary but if you like using them, go for it.

I do like the already known differences of this walk, longer walks so I plan to factor in some additional rest days in the early part and also that I have already visited both Lisbon and Porto and found them beautiful, welcoming cities so feel that this walk is going to be another amazing experience, just wanting a bit of reassurance!

Santarém, Tomar and Coimbra are the three historic cities between Lisbon and Porto that could serve as rest days. If you can only choose two, Tomar and Coimbra have the most to offer, although if you do the long day into Santarém you might deserve a rest day there!

 

[dougfitz]

To add to @jungleboy's comments, I planned to deal with the long section from Azambuja to Santarem by detouring at Porto de Muge into Muge, and catching the bus from there into Santarem. I then intended to return to Muge the following day and walk back to Santarem from there. It is on one of the Camino Routes to Fatima, and I expected that there would be a waymarked path to follow.

As it turned out, I caught the bus from Porto de Muge to the railway station near Cartaxo, the Apeadeiro de Sartano-Cartaxo, and then got the train to Santarem. The following day I took the early bus to Muge, and things went pretty much as I expected with the waymarked route very easy to find and follow.

I was also doing somewhat shorter days compared to others, which meant that it was rare to find the same people where I was staying on subsequent nights. I walk alone in any case, and wasn't fussed by this. If that is particularly important to you, you might want to stick to a pattern similar to that suggested by Brierley.

I took rest days in Tomar and Porto. This year I will be going back to stay with my wife in Coimbra for three months. I think they are all good choices for more exploration.

 

[HBew]

Hi, I enjoyed walking the Camino de Santiago, Camino Frances, so much last year that this year I am planning to walk the Camino Portugues. Last year I walked alone and loved the experience of meeting new people and re-connecting with other walkers as our paths crossed throughout the six weeks of walking. The large roomed Albergues were a great place to meet people from all nationalities and the shared meals delicious and relaxing at the end of a long day. So of course I would like to repeat the magical experience but know that a different Camino may been interesting, informative and beautiful in other ways.
My plan is to start walking in Lisbon and walk to Santiago do Compestela. A friend plans to meet me in Porto and walk the last two weeks with me. Probably I will start the walk in mid April.
My questions are:
From reading John Brierley's Camino Portugues, I see that the first part of the Camino from Lisbon to Porto is not widely walked. Whilst I am happy to walk alone, I am wondering about safety, accommodation availability and generally a feeling of community around this first part of the walk?
Secondly would people who have walked this route, recommend taking walking poles as this complicates baggage on flights but now doubt poles can be purchased in Lisbon.
I do like the already known differences of this walk, longer walks so I plan to factor in some additional rest days in the early part and also that I have already visited both Lisbon and Porto and found them beautiful, welcoming cities so feel that this walk is going to be another amazing experience, just wanting a bit of reassurance!
Many thanks for any advice
Heather

To add to @jungleboy's comments, I planned to deal with the long section from Azambuja to Santarem by detouring at Porto de Muge into Muge, and catching the bus from there into Santarem. I then intended to return to Muge the following day and walk back to Santarem from there. It is on one of the Camino Routes to Fatima, and I expected that there would be a waymarked path to follow.

As it turned out, I caught the bus from Porto de Muge to the railway station near Cartaxo, the Apeadeiro de Sartano-Cartaxo, and then got the train to Santarem. The following day I took the early bus to Muge, and things went pretty much as I expected with the waymarked route very easy to find and follow.

I was also doing somewhat shorter days compared to others, which meant that it was rare to find the same people where I was staying on subsequent nights. I walk alone in any case, and wasn't fussed by this. If that is particularly important to you, you might want to stick to a pattern similar to that suggested by Brierley.

I took rest days in Tomar and Porto. This year I will be going back to stay with my wife in Coimbra for three months. I think they are all good choices for more exploration.

Thank you both so much for your advice. I have now decided to walk from Porto to Santiago with my friend but then walk on to Finistere on my own afterwards as know there will be many more pilgrims walking this stretch.