Hi! I am planning to walk from Lisbon to Santiago in June.

[Jesse]

My last camino was put together by Mac Adventures. I want to try to figure this one out on my own. Any suggestions regarding accommodations will be welcomed. I will also need a luggage transfer company. And I want a private room for most of my trip. Thanks! Jesse, from NY and living in California

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, Jesse, and welcome to the forum!

There is a pretty solid group of people who have walked from Lisbon, are active forum members, and have lots of information to share, including magwood, almorfati, diogo, amsimoes, albertinho, Stephen Nichols, MichaelSG, and undoubtedly more I've forgotten.

I'm sure you will have tons of questions, but I can also point you to some resources that should help you.
For starters, check out Maggie's blog, http://magwood.me/camino-portuguese/ It will give you a real sense of what the Caminho from Lisbon is all about.

There are also a couple of resources in the resources section of this forum.
A short guide from Lisbon to Porto: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/resources/the-caminho-portugués-–-lisbon-to-oporto.123/
A short guide from Porto to Santiago: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/resources/the-camino-portugués-–-oporto-to-santiago.124/
A document that helps you figure out how to cut some of the longer stages, if you are not inclined to walk 30+: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/resources/short-stages-from-lisbon-to-porto.133/

I am handling revisions to these documents and hope to have updated versions by early 2015. But they are a good start.

I would also recommend the ViaLusitana's website. They are the Portuguese Caminho group that has really promoted the walk from Lisbon and taken it out of obscurity. They have the most up to date listing of albergues, http://www.vialusitana.org/en/albergues_eng/, but if you are only interested in private lodging you will need to find more information -- the online guides have a lot, as does John Brierley's hard copy guide (at least I've been told that, I have actually never seen his guide).

And I would also peruse the many posts in this section of the forum, because you will find a lot of interesting and helpful comments and suggestions by the people I've mentioned above, and others of course.

As far as luggage transfers, it will require some careful planning. Mario of Santarem Hostel and other owners of properties south of Porto have a service in connection with their lodging offerings. A taxi is always an option, and the charges tend to be about 1 euro a km, so that could be kind of steep. Once in Spain, it's easy. See this recent thread: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...portugues-between-valenca-and-santiago.30082/

Anyway, I'm sure this is a bit overwhelming, so I'll stop now and just say that you should feel free to ask your questions because we are a pretty friendly group here, very opinionated on certain things perhaps, but very friendly. Bom caminho, Laurie

 

[wayfarer]

Welcome Jesse, happy planning and Buen Camino.

 

[MichaelSG]

Hi Jesse, I have just a couple of initial comments for you. These are based only on my walk from Lisbon to Santiago in September. You and other people may have completely other experiences / opinions and that is fine by me.

Your walk from Lisbon will be very, very different than your walk from Sarria in many ways. When walking from SJPdP to Santiago in 2012, I averaged about 27km for day easily. I figured the "suggested stages" for the Portuguese route which included a bunch of 30 - 35km days should be easy because it is flat. It is doable but it took too long each day so we had to break up one two-day section into three. We also needed to add, effectively, three rest days that we never would have considered on the French route. That said, the extra days were well worth it in Tomar, Coimbra and Porto. Strongly consider Laurie's suggestion about breaking up some longer stages unless you are sure you can do the longer walks.

There are several versions of the routes that at first can be confusing. The coastal route, interior route, Caminho Norte, some combinations of each, etc. The alternate routes are mostly north of Porto. I walked the "traditional" way from Lisbon through Santarem, Tomar, Coimbra and Albergaria-a-Velha. Out of Porto, I didn't want to walk on what many people described as a dangerous walk along a highway so I started to walk the coastal route to Matosinhos then Vila do Conde. From there, I cut over to Rates then up to Barcelos to reconnect with the "normal" Caminho. That route is almost impossible to get lost before you get to Vila do Conde (partially waymarked) then well waymarked to Rates & Barcelos. We really enjoyed that route and I recommend it.

Some people suggest taking a train / metro / taxi /bus out of Lisbon, Porto and through O Porrino industrial area. I suggest walking the whole way. City walking is different than rural but I think it can be just as enjoyable. I did take the "green detour" around Porrino though and liked that too.

You'll need to carry more water that the French route. There are not nearly as many usable places to replenish as you walk. Some days, I carried more than two liters and still needed to beg for water at private houses because of the lack of fountains, bars, stores. Only one day on the French route did we need to carry more than more than .75l.

North of Porto, I found the suggested stages were often too short but I suggest doing them anyway. Most of the towns you stop on that route are awesome stops. Also, it's a fairly lonely walk south of Porto so you will enjoy a bigger Caminho family north of Porto who really prefer the traditional stops. Bom Caminho!

 

[Camembert]

Hi Jesse, I have just a couple of initial comments for you. These are based only on my walk from Lisbon to Santiago in September. You and other people may have completely other experiences / opinions and that is fine by me.

Your walk from Lisbon will be very, very different than your walk from Sarria in many ways. When walking from SJPdP to Santiago in 2012, I averaged about 27km for day easily. I figured the "suggested stages" for the Portuguese route which included a bunch of 30 - 35km days should be easy because it is flat. It is doable but it took too long each day so we had to break up one two-day section into three. We also needed to add, effectively, three rest days that we never would have considered on the French route. That said, the extra days were well worth it in Tomar, Coimbra and Porto. Strongly consider Laurie's suggestion about breaking up some longer stages unless you are sure you can do the longer walks.

North of Porto, I found the suggested stages were often too short but I suggest doing them anyway. Most of the towns you stop on that route are awesome stops. Also, it's a fairly lonely walk south of Porto so you will enjoy a bigger Caminho family north of Porto who really prefer the traditional stops. Bom Caminho!

Jesse. Welcome on the forum.
There are different meanings and experiences.
Indeed as @michael SG writes the leg Lisbon to Porto has long stages but especially this year Mario from the Santarèm hostal has-in cooperation with some other owners of albergues/hostals- set up a refined network so there are many opportunities to walk less on the longer stages. Maybe you like shorter stages as we did and still do.
On the Porto to Santiago leg we liked the shorter stages and enjoyed a.o.to stay another day in Barcelos to visit the famous church Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga which is on the world heritage list.
I personally do not like the overcrowded walk like the Sarria one and can tell you that the last 100 km walk from Valença/Tui to Santiago is much more relaxed.
My wife and I took 32 days walking from Lisbon to Santiago Having an "off day " in Coimbra and Porto and as said the one in Braga. Quiet and easy. It is no race. Anyway not for us.
Bom caminho

 

[Jesse]

Hello!
In planning the camino, do most of you make lodging reservations along the Way, or in advance? I'm in California-if I wanted to plan some of it in advanced-I suppose email would be the easiest. When in Portugal/Spain-what is the best phone service to have in order to make local phone calls.
Thank you and Buen Camino!
Jesse

 

[scruffy1]

Shalom Jesse and Greetings from Jerusalem!
You are going to love the Camino Portugues! Where do you want to start? I walked from Lisbon, a wonderful city for sightseeing try and catch the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, ride the 28 tram, and play tourist better than fighting jetlag walking on the Camino! Up through Tomar and the Convento de Cristo then unconventionally, I cut across through Fatima, Bathala, and rejoined at Coimbra-a great university town. Porto is another site to play the tourist, wonderful little town. From Barcelos a short bus ride to Braga off-Camino to Bom Jesus a most important Portuguese shrine and back is well worth a morning. The bridge into Spain at Valença/Tui is lovely I loked the Spanish Tui better as a place to stay, less so in a pouring rain with wind! Just before Santiago in Padron inside the Igrexa de .Santiago is an important relic from the trip of Saint James, the mooring post from his arrival. There is usually a priest there expecting a small contribution to his allowance to open the covering, the mooring post outside in the park is a replica. The CP invites side trips, walkabouts, and wanderings ask at any open tourist info office about local sights, river walks, AND markets there are several beautiful ones along the Camino. Phone service? Orange is just about everywhere but I never called to reserve or even thought about it. Another consideration, how is your Portuguese? The language can be quickly decoded when written since much is close enough to Spanish, spoken Portuguese is a totally different story(!) over the phone forget it(!!), if its not your mother tongue or if you have not studied forget it and fall back on your English! The Portuguese are a wonderful and welcoming, warm people, their food is marvelous, those in contact with tourists can handle English, most others not so well, try your Spanish.Bom Caminho it's going to be fantastic!

 

[Camembert]

Hello!
In planning the camino, do most of you make lodging reservations along the Way, or in advance? I'm in California-if I wanted to plan some of it in advanced-I suppose email would be the easiest. When in Portugal/Spain-what is the best phone service to have in order to make local phone calls.
Thank you and Buen Camino!
Jesse

Jesse. On the Portugese caminho there is no need to make reservations in advance a bit depending on which time of the year you walk and where you start.
Sometimes a phonecall ahead to your next stop in the morning of the particular day will be enough. Don,t forget to stay at the Santarèm hostal if you'll start in Lisbon and if you start in Porto at casa da Fernanda between Barcelos and Ponte de Lima. The best places to stay at the entire caminho Portuges. You'll find enough information about these places on this forum

Bom caminho

 

[Camembert]

Shalom Jesse and Greetings from Jerusalem!
You are going to love the Camino Portugues! Where do you want to start? I walked from Lisbon, a wonderful city for sightseeing try and catch the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, ride the 28 tram, and play tourist better than fighting jetlag walking on the Camino! Up through Tomar and the Convento de Cristo then unconventionally, I cut across through Fatima, Bathala, and rejoined at Coimbra-a great university town. Porto is another site to play the tourist, wonderful little town. From Barcelos a short bus ride to Braga off-Camino to Bom Jesus a most important Portuguese shrine and back is well worth a morning. The bridge into Spain at Valença/Tui is lovely I loked the Spanish Tui better as a place to stay, less so in a pouring rain with wind! Just before Santiago in Padron inside the Igrexa de .Santiago is an important relic from the trip of Saint James, the mooring post from his arrival. There is usually a priest there expecting a small contribution to his allowance to open the covering, the mooring post outside in the park is a replica. The CP invites side trips, walkabouts, and wanderings ask at any open tourist info office about local sights, river walks, AND markets there are several beautiful ones along the Camino. Phone service? Orange is just about everywhere but I never called to reserve or even thought about it. Another consideration, how is your Portuguese? The language can be quickly decoded when written since much is close enough to Spanish, spoken Portuguese is a totally different story(!) over the phone forget it(!!), if its not your mother tongue or if you have not studied forget it and fall back on your English! The Portuguese are a wonderful and welcoming, warm people, their food is marvelous, those in contact with tourists can handle English, most others not so well, try your Spanish.Bom Caminho it's going to be fantastic!

well spoken Scruffy !

 

[MichaelSG]

For our Caminho, we called ahead two times to make reservations in the next town but unless you are really keen to stay in a particular small or popular B&B, casa rural, pension, etc., I would not call further advance than that. My Caminho plans were written in very light, erasable pencil because I fully expected them to get changed as needed. For me (others are different), I'd hate to walk knowing that I had to be in x town in 3 days, this other town in 6 days and that town in 8 days. That said, a phone with a local SIM card did come in handy on those two days. Sorry but I can't remember which carrier it was.

 

[Camembert]

For our Caminho, we called ahead two times to make reservations in the next town but unless you are really keen to stay in a particular small or popular B&B, casa rural, pension, etc., I would not call further advance than that. My Caminho plans were written in very light, erasable pencil because I fully expected them to get changed as needed. For me (others are different), I'd hate to walk knowing that I had to be in x town in 3 days, this other town in 6 days and that town in 8 days. That said, a phone with a local SIM card did come in handy on those two days. Sorry but I can't remember which carrier it was.

Last year I bought a Vodaphone prepaid card at the Lisbon airport, value € 15 and at the end I had left 8€ . Mind after half a year you will loose your credit .
For a prepaid card you'll need a simlock free mobile phone.

Now this year during our Camino Ingles I used an app at my Iphone called Ringcredible . I deposited an amount of 10€ and could phone very cheap to foreign phonenumbers with my own mobile phone. For example I phoned to a Portugese phonenumber of the Portuges Toll Roads company -We were in Portugal with our car and did not know how to use the automatic toll system between the north and Porto- I called 30 minutes to them and it costed me 0,59€
My wife called to her cousin in San Gabriel California ,18 minutes for 0,12 €
Phoning with Ringcredible works by wifi. So you need a wifi connection somewhere on your way !

Bom caminho

 

[MichaelSG]

Vodaphone! That's the one. They have a store right near the exit door of Lisbon's airport. Another useful use of the phone is the Lusitania help line in case you get lost. On many stages south of Porto (and leaving Redondela), we had trouble following arrows. We just walked our way out of the problems but it may be useful to have their help line number in your phone. BTW, when we flew out of Lisbon, I went back to the Vodaphone shop at the airport and passed the SIM card and password to person in the back of the queue. It would have been useless to me as soon as I got on the plane so I traded it for a smile.

 

[ourgirl]

Hey there—I'm a bit torn here. I was considering either getting an international plan for my iphone (ATT) or buying a cheap local phone to make calls. Which one makes more sense?

 

[Camembert]

Take care your cellphone is"simlockfree" and buy a prepaid simcard in Portugal at f.ex Vodaphone 15€ credit and see how far you come.
Use wifi for whatsapp. And or download the Ringcredible app ,buy acredit of 10€ and you will act in the cheapest way.
Bom caminho

 

[Stephen Nicholls]

15€ credit and see how fat you come. Bom caminho

WHAT?! Albertinho - after walking for a couple of days with a backpack, you'll lose all your fat
Steve.

P.S. Looking forward to that beer in 21016 ...

 

[Camembert]

WHAT?! Albertinho - after walking for a couple of days with a backpack, you'll lose all your fat
Steve.

P.S. Looking forward to that beer in 21016 ...

winners have a plan Stephen . Losers only an excuse. I changed my typo directly. Thanks for that.
I hope you'll like a Newcastle Brown !

Um abraço deste lado do mar grande dentro de nós ambos !