Route from vila de conda to sao pedro de rates

I see you put a longer question in your profile post, asking about starting in Porto as well. But I guess most people won't have seen that. So I'll attempt to answer the whole question here. I'd say:
There are quite a few threads about this on the forum.
Opinions about where to start from in Porto tend to be divided along the lines of how far you want to walk. There are a couple of options for walking out of Porto - the longest route is from the centre, round the mouth of the river Douro until it becomes the coast. You can also walk through town (about 4km less) starting on the camino and then turn left down the long straight Avenida da Boavista and go directly to the coast (easy to see in google maps - or any other map).
With that option you'll hit the sea just before Matosinhos. Matosinhos is probably the most popular starting point on this forum, as you just get out of the metro there and start walking!
Walking up the coast is easy enough. A few km before Vilar do Conde there's a lot of scrubland and fewer markers (when I did it) but it's pretty straightforward to head for the one bridge over the rio Ave (about 800m inland).
Try and get to Vilar with enough time and energy to climb the hill above to the convent and amazing Roman Aqueduct where you can look back miles along the coast and see your day's work behind you.
Back in the mists of time there was little signage from Conde to Rates. Early threads about this refuse to die, and keep coming back to concern new pilgrims. But it's all fine. And if you ever hesitate at a junction a friendly local will be only too happy to assit.
Finally, try and get the pilgrim stamp from the shop in Rates as it's a good'un.

Check out the TrailSmart (Trekopedia) app...it shows the route.

If you reach Vila do Conde by day, it might be worthwhile to (pack-less and in daylight) scope out the way out of town - back three years ago ("in the mists of time"?) several of us had a problem finding the arrows pointing the way, and that early, there weren't all that many local people around - as I recall, not everyone even agreed where it was. I remember excitedly finding an arrow painted on the street - we'd been thinking they'd be on building walls.

KariC said:

If you reach Vila do Conde by day, it might be worthwhile to (pack-less and in daylight) scope out the way out of town - back three years ago ("in the mists of time"?) several of us had a problem finding the arrows pointing the way, and that early, there weren't all that many local people around - as I recall, not everyone even agreed where it was. I remember excitedly finding an arrow painted on the street - we'd been thinking they'd be on building walls.

Click to expand...

The tourist office in Vila do Conde gave us a very helpful map/ handout that showed the route clearly. ( and hello KariC! I met you at Fernandas and several places after that, we were the 4 women from Canada)

Great information!