Info and a photo video from Variante Espiritual

[bjorgts]

In April we walked the Camino Portugués por la Costa, choosing the Variante Espiritual on the last part. There were a great many walkers on the main route, and also surprisingly many on the variant, but considerably fewer than on the main route. The weather was perfect and we had a nice last part of our camino.
The most common is to divide the Variante into three; Pontevedra - Almenteira, Almenteira - Vilanova de Arousa, boat from there (almost) to Padron plus a bit further or a long leg all the way to Santiago.
We divided the Variante into four, and thought it was a good solution for us. Not least because the accommodation situation is uncertain in Almenteira. You can book at the hostel, but the number of walkers is now so high that it is very often full even when people try to book. You cannot book with the nuns.
The first night we spent in Combarro. The tiny town is turistic, but nice. Stayed in Casa Mariña. I think we paid 55€. It's steep up from Combarro and it's nice to get that climb at the beginning of a day rather than at the end.
Second night we spent in Os Castaños, Hospedaje Rústico - Rastaurante Os Castaños. They are not on Booking.com. I'm not sure, but I think we paid 66€ with a good breakfast.
The third night we spent in Vilanova de Arousa at the Hotel Bradomin (about 50€) before taking the boat.
It was a very nice Variante and we were glad we chose it, even though it is said to have been created by local tourism interests.
Here is the photo video from Variante Espiritual. There will be a video of our entire camino as well, but it will take much longer to make.

 

[Becky 59]

I second that itinerary; we did almost the exact same thing last fall. We even added an extra night, stopping 10 km past Padron, so that we would have a short last day into Santiago, which felt very good. We also found the number of pilgrims to be much smaller than the main route (some perigrino friends who stayed on the main route messaged us about "elbowing their way" through the crowds).

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

What a wonderful record of the journey! Thanks.

 

[bjorgts]

I second that itinerary; we did almost the exact same thing last fall. We even added an extra night, stopping 10 km past Padron, so that we would have a short last day into Santiago, which felt very good. We also found the number of pilgrims to be much smaller than the main route (some perigrino friends who stayed on the main route messaged us about "elbowing their way" through the crowds).

We also stopped 10-12 km past Padron. Perfect for elderly people like us. We are in our seventies.

 

[frannie z]

In April we walked the Camino Portugués por la Costa, choosing the Variante Espiritual on the last part. There were a great many walkers on the main route, and also surprisingly many on the variant, but considerably fewer than on the main route. The weather was perfect and we had a nice last part of our camino.
The most common is to divide the Variante into three; Pontevedra - Almenteira, Almenteira - Vilanova de Arousa, boat from there (almost) to Padron plus a bit further or a long leg all the way to Santiago.
We divided the Variante into four, and thought it was a good solution for us. Not least because the accommodation situation is uncertain in Almenteira. You can book at the hostel, but the number of walkers is now so high that it is very often full even when people try to book. You cannot book with the nuns.
The first night we spent in Combarro. The tiny town is turistic, but nice. Stayed in Casa Mariña. I think we paid 55€. It's steep up from Combarro and it's nice to get that climb at the beginning of a day rather than at the end.
Second night we spent in Os Castaños, Hospedaje Rústico - Rastaurante Os Castaños. They are not on Booking.com. I'm not sure, but I think we paid 66€ with a good breakfast.
The third night we spent in Vilanova de Arousa at the Hotel Bradomin (about 50€) before taking the boat.
It was a very nice Variante and we were glad we chose it, even though it is said to have been created by local tourism interests.
Here is the photo video from Variante Espiritual. There will be a video of our entire camino as well, but it will take much longer to make.

Beautiful thanks for sharing!

 

[Grousedoctor]

What a wonderful photo show. It brought back to many good memories.

We walked the more traditional route of three days which, to our very good fortune, included a night at the Monestario in Armenteria in 2022 off-season. However, were we to walk the VE again, which I hope we can, we’d take a short day out of Pontevedra and overnight in Combarro before going up the hill. As we were able to catch an early boat out of Vilanova de Arouza and because we had stayed in Padron on a previous Camino, we walked on about 10km past Padron to make a shorter day into SdC. Had we not been told that the Botafumeiro would swing at the 11 am Pilgrim’s Mass, we might have stayed again in Padron since it’s a most pleasant small town. However, we wanted to make sure we got to the cathedral in time for mass.

 

[Steven Dwyer]

I will be walking the Spiritual Variant in October. My plan is to take the boat from Villanova de Arousa and then walk towards Santiago where I have a reservation for that night. If I can’t comfortably reach Santiago that day, I will take the bus that runs along the N-550 when I get tired, then bus out the next morning to finish the walk.

 

[Me Fein]

Lovely to see it in the sunshine. I walked early November 2023 in very bad weather (rain ,wind, storms). The boat trip was cancelled so walked from Vilanova de Arousa to Padron.

 

[Ellen Gotts]

In April we walked the Camino Portugués por la Costa, choosing the Variante Espiritual on the last part. There were a great many walkers on the main route, and also surprisingly many on the variant, but considerably fewer than on the main route. The weather was perfect and we had a nice last part of our camino.
The most common is to divide the Variante into three; Pontevedra - Almenteira, Almenteira - Vilanova de Arousa, boat from there (almost) to Padron plus a bit further or a long leg all the way to Santiago.
We divided the Variante into four, and thought it was a good solution for us. Not least because the accommodation situation is uncertain in Almenteira. You can book at the hostel, but the number of walkers is now so high that it is very often full even when people try to book. You cannot book with the nuns.
The first night we spent in Combarro. The tiny town is turistic, but nice. Stayed in Casa Mariña. I think we paid 55€. It's steep up from Combarro and it's nice to get that climb at the beginning of a day rather than at the end.
Second night we spent in Os Castaños, Hospedaje Rústico - Rastaurante Os Castaños. They are not on Booking.com. I'm not sure, but I think we paid 66€ with a good breakfast.
The third night we spent in Vilanova de Arousa at the Hotel Bradomin (about 50€) before taking the boat.
It was a very nice Variante and we were glad we chose it, even though it is said to have been created by local tourism interests.
Here is the photo video from Variante Espiritual. There will be a video of our entire camino as well, but it will take much longer to make.

Just wonderful, so many memories. Thank you for sharing.

 

[ArleneLaskey]

Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed the Spiritual Variant, but did it in 3 days and found that second day was beautiful to start but a tough slog at the end. You have a good plan to break it up like you did. Maybe next time, lol.

 

[chinacat]

Beautiful video, thank you!

That is a lovely quote at the end from @VNwalking (who has a way with words )