Coastal meets central route?

[arleneo]

At which town/village can I leave the coastal trail and join central route to Santiago? Also is the coastal trail soft sand for long stretches? Trying to avoid metatarsal injury to foot thinking coastal trail will help me avoid cobblestone trails in central.

 

[KariC]

I think the vast majority of the people who switch in from coastal to central do it a Vila do Conde. There are roads, however, between coastal towns and central route towns all along the way (Brierley's guide shows them at Eposende and Viana do Castelo)- one could walk, taxi, or bus those routes even if they're not "official camino."
I went in at Vila do Conde, and don't recall stretches where the camino itself was sand, although there would have been opportunities to get off it and walk on the beach. DNK re farther north. I took the variante espritual, which was wonderful and cobblestone-less - also DNK if there are cobblestones on the regular central route, but that's in Spain, so I suspect not.
There have been extensive talks on the forum about what shoes/boots, if any, can mitigate the cobblestones - I had great boots and still was in pain at night from the stones. You could search that topic in this forum for ideas of how to minimize the effect of the cobblestones.
Bom caminho!

 

[arleneo]

VERY helpful. Thank you.

 

[Utgaard]

I went up the coast to Caminha before joining the Central route. You can follow the coast into Spain until Vigo and join up there. There was no need to walk on sand, but the granite paving stones are still present.

 

[Walking Lover]

At which town/village can I leave the coastal trail and join central route to Santiago? Also is the coastal trail soft sand for long stretches? Trying to avoid metatarsal injury to foot thinking coastal trail will help me avoid cobblestone trails in central.

There is a boardwalk at least to Espinode.

 

[arleneo]

Great advice, help, and options from all. Thank you.
We are all set for a September Camino!

 

[Charlotte Helbig]

Take a look at followingthearrows.com, a blog by Kat Davis. Scroll down to Camino Portugués and click on the link. She has some excellent advice on this very topic. She also lists three "link" routes you can take.