Day trips on the Central out of Porto?

[Prentiss Riddle]

We have moved to Porto (hooray!) and are looking forward to our first Caminho Português in the spring. Meanwhile we'd like to get started with some one-day walks accessible at both ends from Porto (preferably by transit but we could do a transit + Uber combo).

Are there any nice segments of the Central near Porto which are easy to do as day trips?

By the way, we have walked pieces of the Litoral along the beach out of Matosinhos and as far as Pôvoa de Varzim, and that is a gorgeous walk easily accessible from Porto (between Leça and Vila do Conde you might need to Uber to a metro station but it's quite doable). We're looking for similarly easy-to-reach bits on the Central.

Obrigado!

 

[jungleboy]

Is the CP you’re walking in spring also the central? Or if not, do you have plans to walk the central continuously one day? If so, just wondering why you want to do day trips on the camino that you will walk later. Maybe I misunderstood, but it seems that day walks off the CP might make more sense to ‘save’ the CP itself.

It would require an overnight stay to do it justice but you could travel east from Porto to Lamego and walk the Torres (not the CPI) through the Douro Valley to Peso da Régua. This is the best part of an absolutely amazing stage through the vineyards, and Lamego also has a lot of things to see.

Otherwise, Barcelos, Ponte de Lima and Valença on the CP central should be easily reachable by public transport from Porto, so you could walk full or partial stages from one of those places and, if nothing else, take a short Uber back to them to then return to Porto using public transport.

 

[Vacajoe]

Definitely check out the Camino Torres route for some day hikes accessible by transit from Porto. Guirmaraes and Braga are excellent places to visit and the CT passes through both of them