Walking the Portuguese Route

[Robert Long]

My grammar school buddies and I finished the Camino Frances last year, all 500 miles. Last week was the one year anniversary of our arrival in Santiago.
We are considering another Camino, but this time the Portuguese Route. I am concerned about accommodations and the amenities we grew accustomed to on the Camino Frances. We are all over 70 so we enjoy a warm shower every night and choose to eat out rather than prepare our own meals. What are your collective experiences walking this route?

Buen Camino
Bob

 

[naplesdon]

Between Porto and Santiago there are comparable accommodations and amenities to the Frances including the Coastal Route, maybe just not as many. I have walked both and walked most of the Coastal last summer at the age of 71.

 

[wes]

My wife and I went from Porto to Santiago via the inland route last year, starting in mid-November. We averaged about 20 kms a day, always stayed in small hotels or B&Bs with our own room, and ate out every night. I think we were always able to find somewhere for a mid-day coffee, too.

It’s a beautiful journey, especially up to Tui, not too hard but enough exercise to make you really enjoy the hot shower and glass of wine at the end of the day.

I should mention that because of the late time of the year we walked (winter was approaching, although in fact the weather was perfect), B&Bs in a couple of small towns were going to close in a fortnight or so.

The whole thing was a wonderful experience.

Bom caminho.

 

[David from Freo]

Dear Bob, I would encourage you to do the Portuguese route. I'm in my early 60s and I walked with my adult daughter from Lisbon to Santiago in 2016 and loved it. We stayed in a mixture of alburgues and small hotels/BnBs. We paid close attention to our guidebook to make sure that each day's walking was a feasible distance, with decent accommodation at the end. I usually carried snacks and water every day, just in case there weren't cafes open when we needed them. But we rarely had any difficulty with such things. We certainly ate dinner out all the time, without any problems. There seemed to be cafes and services where we needed them. No, the Portuguese route is not as well serviced at the French Route, but with a bit of planning it is quite manageable. The pleasure is enhanced, of course, by the people you meet along the way. Enjoy it!

 

[caminobrit]

You will be fine if you only want to walk from Porto with amenities and accommodation. You are also fine from Lisbon, but to avoid long distances between some stages you may need to mix up alburgue style accommodation and hotels. I do like walking in Portugal, its cheap, people are friendly and its quiet from Lisbon. Sure its not perfect, there is plenty of road, bit of industrial area etc. A few months ago i met a 83 from Vancouver on the road from Lisbon and he was walking 15-20km a day, so it can be done with a Lisbon start!

 

[medalta]

My grammar school buddies and I finished the Camino Frances last year, all 500 miles. Last week was the one year anniversary of our arrival in Santiago.
We are considering another Camino, but this time the Portuguese Route. I am concerned about accommodations and the amenities we grew accustomed to on the Camino Frances. We are all over 70 so we enjoy a warm shower every night and choose to eat out rather than prepare our own meals. What are your collective experiences walking this route?

Buen Camino
Bob

Bob
My friend and I (both 62) just finished walking the Camino Portuguese October 2; we also walked Frances 2 years ago. The coastal route is beautiful- we started in Porto and walked out of the city meaning we didn't take the metro. We carried our packs which provided flexibility and we didn't have any problems finding accommodations. There are not as many albergues as you are used to but there were some nice little hotels ,(45 euro for 2). Also it is not as well marked as you are also used to so one morning leaving Apulia for Esposende we walked for 4.5 km and went in a big circle, or so it seemed, ended up on a busy roadway, saw a bus stop and hopped on...1.5 km down the road the markers began again, we hopped off and continued through Esposende. The walks are very different but both great experiences.

 

[jmcarp]

My wife and I (ages 72 and 73, respectively, at the time) walked the Portugués from Porto to Santiago in May of this year--2017. We stayed in a combination of albergues and hotels. You can see our itinerary and accommodations here: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/camino-portugues-itinerary.48539/#post-522607.
Bom Caminho!

 

[Walking Lover]

My grammar school buddies and I finished the Camino Frances last year, all 500 miles. Last week was the one year anniversary of our arrival in Santiago.
We are considering another Camino, but this time the Portuguese Route. I am concerned about accommodations and the amenities we grew accustomed to on the Camino Frances. We are all over 70 so we enjoy a warm shower every night and choose to eat out rather than prepare our own meals. What are your collective experiences walking this route?

Buen Camino
Bob

Did the Francis in '16, Portuguese in'17. The Portuguese is much different; about 80% on paved roads. The pavement and the 4x4 blocks of granite are killers. With that said, the only place we couldn't find a bed was in Azambuja. We waited for 3 hours and no one ever showed up to open the albergue. We then took a train to Santarem. We had no issue with food/coffee places.

 

[pipello]

My grammar school buddies and I finished the Camino Frances last year, all 500 miles. Last week was the one year anniversary of our arrival in Santiago.
We are considering another Camino, but this time the Portuguese Route. I am concerned about accommodations and the amenities we grew accustomed to on the Camino Frances. We are all over 70 so we enjoy a warm shower every night and choose to eat out rather than prepare our own meals. What are your collective experiences walking this route?

Buen Camino
Bob

My husband and I are just over 70 as well and plan to walk the Portuguese this spring. We've walked the Camino Frances twice and have cycled the Norte (more or less). We ended up pushing our bikes for parts of many days! I will be interested in following this thread as we also like our privacy, our showers, and our meals out!

 

[Deleted member 56069]

My wife and I are in out late 50's and walked from Porto to Santiago in April this year via the central route.. Although the terrain is not especially hilly (except for a couple of stages) we found the abundance of cobble stones and granite setts were tougher on the feet. We started to refer to the cobble stones as hobble stones!
That said, the accomodations were plentiful, the food was great, but more importantly the Portuguese people were wonderful and welcoming.
We really enjoyed Portugal and will look at doing the coastal route down the road at some point.

 

[PapaSmurf76]

You won't have a problem finding a bed, hot shower and a meal (with much better food and wine than the usual C.F. pilgrim meal). We walked all the way from Lisbon to Santiago in April. We used mostly albergues but the odd cheap hotel occasionally. There's enough facilities on the CP, just sometimes you have one bar instead of three.
Think of it this way;
Frances = second bar is always best.
Portuguese = there is no second bar.
Maybe a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea.

I recommend staying in Alpriate about 20km out of Lisbon the first night.

You can check out our experience on our FB page....
https://www.facebook.com/Jackie.Craig.Adventures/

 

[Robert Long]

Did the Francis in '16, Portuguese in'17. The Portuguese is much different; about 80% on paved roads. The pavement and the 4x4 blocks of granite are killers. With that said, the only place we couldn't find a bed was in Azambuja. We waited for 3 hours and no one ever showed up to open the albergue. We then took a train to Santarem. We had no issue with food/coffee places.

Which route did you take, the coastal or inland?

 

[Robert Long]

Thank you everyone for your insights. Next step is to buy plane tickets.

 

[Rowena]

Bob
My friend and I (both 62) just finished walking the Camino Portuguese October 2; we also walked Frances 2 years ago. The coastal route is beautiful- we started in Porto and walked out of the city meaning we didn't take the metro. We carried our packs which provided flexibility and we didn't have any problems finding accommodations. There are not as many albergues as you are used to but there were some nice little hotels ,(45 euro for 2). Also it is not as well marked as you are also used to so one morning leaving Apulia for Esposende we walked for 4.5 km and went in a big circle, or so it seemed, ended up on a busy roadway, saw a bus stop and hopped on...1.5 km down the road the markers began again, we hopped off and continued through Esposende. The walks are very different but both great experiences.

Could you recommend the best guidebook for the coastal route? I’m planning for September 2018, from Porto to Santiago.
Thanks,
Rowena

 

[Miroslaw]

You won't have a problem finding a bed, hot shower and a meal (with much better food and wine than the usual C.F. pilgrim meal). We walked all the way from Lisbon to Santiago in April. We used mostly albergues but the odd cheap hotel occasionally. There's enough facilities on the CP, just sometimes you have one bar instead of three.
Think of it this way;
Frances = second bar is always best.
Portuguese = there is no second bar.
Maybe a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea.

I recommend staying in Alpriate about 20km out of Lisbon the first night.

You can check out our experience on our FB page....
https://www.facebook.com/Jackie.Craig.Adventures/

In case Alpriate is closed there is an obvious shortcut to Alverca. I marked it in caminhomap.com

 

[Julie C Thacker]

Thinking about the Camino Portuguese. This year i walked from Leon to Santiago on the Camino Frances. Food was an issue as i have wheat and egg allergies. I really appreciated the kitchens in the alburgees as the pubs seemed to serve me the same food regardless of which one. That was my evening meal. Breakfasts and lunches consisted of lots of yogurt, peanuts and fruit as the pubs had nothing to offer that was safe except hot chocolate -- they did that well [i only wanted tuna ensalada once a day]. So my question is -- Could i feed myself -- what is available to eat without eggs and wheat? do the alburgees have kitchens?

 

[annali]

My husband and I are also planning to do the Portuguese way next year Sept. Both in our 70's. We have done the Francis twice before. We prefer to stay in albergues as we are on a tight budget and like staying and eating with the other pilgrims. We would prefer to not walk more than 15\17 km a day. Will this be possible on the Portuguese? How far apart are the cheaper acommodations/albergues? And also, will we be able to take public transport if it is too far apart?

 

[Julie C Thacker]

i used a women's Tempset 16 Osprey, top loading on the Camino Frances Sept/Oct 2017. It was adequate and light. I really appreciated the space for the water bladder. My spare shoes fit in the outside 'water bottle' pockets. Top pockets inside and out carried much of the stuff i needed during the day like my rain poncho. I had modified it with two pieces of reflective tape on the the edge of the top lid. Being lazy i had only sewn the ends. This resulted in loops that i could tie a nylon grocery bag to when i picked up food on the trail so i didn't need to open my backpack. I saved space by carrying a polar fleece poncho that i used for sweater/jacket. at night i used it as a blanket with my silypoly rain poncho for the outside to create a warm sleeping bag.
I calculated weight i should be carrying using ideal Body Mass Index -- not actual. i figured the overweight part was enough additional weight -- using it to add more weight in my pack and thus carry even more weight was not going to help my knees.
My 16 litre pack was big enough for the few things i choose to carry [about 14 pounds loaded]. That included about five pounds of various 'medical stuff': if i wouldn't have needed to carry that my pack would have been less than ten pounds and i'd have had tons of room. As it was, the 16 litres was enough room - it was well stuffed.

 

[PapaSmurf76]

My husband and I are also planning to do the Portuguese way next year Sept. Both in our 70's. We have done the Francis twice before. We prefer to stay in albergues as we are on a tight budget and like staying and eating with the other pilgrims. We would prefer to not walk more than 15\17 km a day. Will this be possible on the Portuguese? How far apart are the cheaper acommodations/albergues? And also, will we be able to take public transport if it is too far apart?

Take a look at the resources section of this website.
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/resources/
These two documents will interest you;

Short Stages from Lisbon to Porto

All places to sleep in one .pdf - Route Portugues - Route Monacal/Coastal

The longest stage was Tomar to Alvaiazere.

Check out the Facebook group for up to date info....
https://www.facebook.com/groups/311970852538865/

 

[Samantha Davies]

My grammar school buddies and I finished the Camino Frances last year, all 500 miles. Last week was the one year anniversary of our arrival in Santiago.
We are considering another Camino, but this time the Camino Portuguese Route. I am concerned about accommodations and the amenities we grew accustomed to on the Camino Frances. We are all over 70 so we enjoy a warm shower every night and choose to eat out rather than prepare our own meals. What are your collective experiences walking this route?

Buen Camino
Bob

The Camino Portugues is my favourite by far, better than the French (in my opinion) There are plenty of albergues and accommodations on the way so you don't have to worry about it, although if you do it in summer I'd recommend booking some in advance in popular stages such as Lisbon and Porto. And about eating out, Portugal has the best and cheapest food, lots of good fish and meat all along the way.