how known and crowded is the camino Portugeus

[aysun]

Hi! just wonder how crowded is the camino Portogues. Is it nessecery to book the albergues, or is it just to show up like in camino Frances.

Iam travelling alone, lonely women so it doesn´t feel so comfortable if there will be no accomandations.

will start my camino on 20 or 21july

bueno camino

 

[mariposa627]

Hello, my husband and I just finished the camino portugues from Valença. There were not a lot of people but you will be walking closer to the Saint's day so it may be busier. One night it was just my self, my hubby and one other woman in the albergue in Briallo. I do recommend that you bring a cellphone to be able to call, as in this case I needed to call the hospitalero to find out where the key was! Miguel was wonderful and the night was one of the best! Bom camino!

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Camino de Santiago Forum mobile app

 

[miguel_gp]

The Portugues is second to the Frances in terms of popularity. I am on the Portugues at the moment and although I am staying in hotels the word from others is that the municipal Albergues in Galicia are full each night and very warm, it is +35℃ so early starts.

 

[Albertinho]

Depending where you start. We just ended up in Santiago june 7th ,started 6 th of May in Lisbon.
Mind there are not many albergues . We were in the Albergues in Santarèm, Mealhada ,são Pedro de Rates and Redondel. Mind in Portugal you can sleep at the bombeiros volontarios. Volontairy firebrigade offers places to sleep. So we did in Tomar
Furthermore we slept at a schoolground in Cernache nearby Coimbra look at ths forum about it and just outside Albergaria a Velha at a place with nuns. Very nice to be there
The best place to be is Casa da Fernanda in Vitorino de Piaes. Look at this forum about it and do not forget to stop by. It was our best experience to stay overnight
For the rest we slept in hostals,residencias and one poussada de juventud in Moscavide just outside Lisbon. A youth albergue. And of course the albergue in Santiago
From Lisbon to Porto you will wAlk almost alone. from Porto you see more fellow peregrinos and from Tui you will meet the most. The last 100 km !
To us it was a great walk all away to Santiago through Portugal
If you are in Barcelos and have time visit the city of Braga one day Go there by bus
Without backpack. Great ! Well. Bom caminho

 

[robventures]

In general, the only albergues you can book are private, and there are very few private ones on the Camino Portugues.

If you want to book, you're going to be in hostales and pensiones, which will cost more and have less of a social aspect.

This may or may not be a problem (or possibly even an advantage.)

 

[aysun]

so they have albergues like in camino frances, communal ones.Sound good.

Now i decide, i will start my camino Portogues from Porto, 20july and since i like ocean so much i would walk the coastal route, from Porto to Ville de Conde, following the river. Now the question is since its in the coast do i have to book ahead.

anyone who did this walk, any experience during this time of the year, crowded, accomandations......

thank you all for helping me, its not my first camino but still its a new place and iam little nervous.

bueno camino

 

[Albertinho]

Starting from Porto direction Vila do Conde you can divide into two parts. From the Sé cathedral follow the beautiful walk along the river Douro and later at the Atlantic coastline to Matosinhos. Is about 12 kms. In Matosinhos we stayed in Hostal Central Just a few minutes from the bridge. the Matosinhos bridge over the port of Porto you walk over the bridge left to the oceanside and follow the boardwalk to Via Cha. From there the yellow arrows direct you from the coastside away through a kind of naturepark. The arrows are poorly indicated but as long as you'll keep the ocean at your left hand you are o.k. We found a campingsite just outside the nature area about 2 kms before Vila do Conde but Iam afraid they do not have bungalows for rent in july as they rented to us for one night.
What you could do is take the metro from Porto to Vila do Conde Or Povoa de Varzim where is an albergue. You'll miss the coastline but arriving there you could easily walk to São Pedro de Rates to the next albergue and avoid the crowds and the expensive hotels and hostals who maybe have no vacancies during the time you will be there.

What we did was taking the metro to Matosinhos and walked from there to the campingsite I wrote about

After finishing in Santiago we took the bus back to Porto and stayed in hostal Central in Matosinhos for 3 nights and did the walk to Porto along the ocean and riverside .from there we flew back home.

Bom caminho

 

[aysun]

i wanted to take the coastal route to vila do conde, but if there is no albergue there and i was ready to book a hotel online in vila do conde just for one night but all the hotels were fullbooked. So i gues i maybe take realroute walking out of Porto and so on.

Another thing i can do is take the coastal route and walk all the way to Povoa de varzim, but the question is how far is it to Povoa de Varzim from Porto??

aysun

 

[Albertinho]

i wanted to take the coastal route to vila do conde, but if there is no albergue there and i was ready to book a hotel online in vila do conde just for one night but all the hotels were fullbooked. So i gues i maybe take realroute walking out of Porto and so on.

Another thing i can do is take the coastal route and walk all the way to Povoa de varzim, but the question is how far is it to Povoa de Varzim from Porto??

aysun

From the Matosinhos bridge Povoa de Varzim is about 25 kms.Add about 12 kms if you start from the Sé Cathedral in the center of Porto.
If you have the book Camino Portuges of John Brierley (http://www.caminoguides.com) you can read about it all. We bought it online at Amazon.com and was a great help during our caminho !