Questions about Caminho do Mar from Lisbon

[Parksville]

Last I heard, the new route is scheduled to be ready shortly after World Youth Day in Lisbon in early August, so hopefully it will be finished in time for your camino.

Thanks so much! My husband and I are currently looking at your recent pilgrimage on the Caminho do Mar as a potential option. Your posts on that are fabulous. We are a bit hesitant to do 30 km days (22km is good for us). Are there ways to shorten those days and still have reasonable places to stay at night?

 

[jungleboy]

Thanks so much! My husband and I are currently looking at your recent pilgrimage on the Caminho do Mar as a potential option. Your posts on that are fabulous. We are a bit hesitant to do 30 km days (22km is good for us). Are there ways to shorten those days and still have reasonable places to stay at night?

Thank you!

Shortening the stages was something we tried to do as well. It's manageable in the second half but tricky in the first half. To avoid the long Cascais-Sintra day, if you walked from Lisbon the previous day you could stay at Estoril or before the first night (up to 24km), and then at Praia do Guincho the second night (there are at least two hotels there but they could be expensive), then Sintra the third night. Sintra-Mafra is 24km, then the next day we couldn't find an obvious place to break up the 30km day from Mafra to Torres Vedras. After that it's manageable, with a couple of short detours off the camino.

Here are our stages and accommodation:

1. Lisbon - Cascais (26km) - Wine Inn €61
2. Cascais - Sintra (28km) - Vale do Sol €54
3. Sintra - Mafra (24km) - Mafra Hotel €87
4. Mafra - Torres Vedras (30km) - Quebra Costas €49
5. Torres Vedras - Granja MG (23km-ish) €55
6. Granja MG - Óbidos (20km-ish) - Senhor da Pedra €48
7. Óbidos - Alfeizerão (21km-ish) - Tir Na Nog €45
8. Alfeizerão - Alcobaça (16km-ish) - Hostel Rossio €38
9. Alcobaça - Porto de Mos (21km-ish) - Quinta de Rio Alcaide €51 kitchen
10. Porto de Mos - Fátima (21km-ish) - Santo Antonio de Fátima €80 (festival price)

 

[Parksville]

Thank you so much! Your information is greatly appreciated, incredibly helpful, and has confirmed that this is the Camino trail that we will take this September. We will post our results.

 

[jungleboy]

Thank you so much! Your information is greatly appreciated, incredibly helpful, and has confirmed that this is the Camino trail that we will take this September. We will post our results.

Great, bom caminho!

A very quick comparison between the Caminho do Mar and the standard CP route Lisbon-Tomar is: the Caminho do Mar is longer, has better 'sites' in my opinion (esp. early coast, Sintra, Óbidos and Alcobaça), more asphalt, and less pilgrim infrastructure (e.g. no albergues).

For a longer discussion, we posed this question -- is the Caminho do Mar to Fátima and then the link Nascente route to Tomar a viable alternative to the standard CP to Tomar? -- at the end of the second episode of our podcast series on the Caminho do Mar (ep 4.2).

 

[Parksville]

Great, bom caminho!

A very quick comparison between the Caminho do Mar and the standard CP route Lisbon-Tomar is: the Caminho do Mar is longer, has better 'sites' in my opinion (esp. early coast, Sintra, Óbidos and Alcobaça), more asphalt, and less pilgrim infrastructure (e.g. no albergues).

For a longer discussion, we posed this question -- is the Caminho do Mar to Fátima and then the link Nascente route to Tomar a viable alternative to the standard CP to Tomar? -- at the end of the second episode of our podcast series on the Caminho do Mar (ep 4.2).

Thank you. I greatly appreciate this succinct comparison. (This also explains why you did not stay in Albergues ). I have bookmarked your podcast and greatly look forward to listening to it.