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Where to spend a week

S

Scott Peters

New Member
Time of past OR future Camino
del Norte - late May (2017)
I'll be in Porto for business in early September and can probably swing about a week of Camino time. I walked 250km on the Norte in 2017. What would be the best part of the Portuguese on which to spend ~7 days? Train to Povoa de Varzim and walk from there? Go all the way to Tui and then to Santiago? Some other hidden gem?
 
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From my experience on the central I would suggest either transport to Tui and walking to Santiago (including the Variante Espiritual) as you suggested (i.e. the 2nd half of Porto-Santiago), or walking from Porto to Valença just before the border (i.e. the 1st half). Either would be about six walking days depending on your pace. Alternatively, if you're interested in the coastal route or weighing up between the two, we have a podcast episode about that topic that may be of interest to you (Episode 1.4 - Central or Coastal?). Bom caminho!
 
Variante Espiritual is amazing - I'd definitely include that!
 
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It would totally depend on what your preferred scenery would be. Personally we tremendously enjoyed walking the Porto-Caminha stretch. Walking out of Porto along the River was golden.
It had everything I liked, from seeing the ocean and beach with many picturesque historic towns and villages. It was less crowded then when we met up with the stream of pilgrims from the central route.
Mind you tho, we walked the stretch around Sept 8-12 and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. But as said it’s would depend on personal preference.
we thought it was beautiful.
 
I would probably walk along the river out of Porto (Coastal), but only as far as Vila do Conde. Then take public transportation to Valenca (cool town inside a fort, right on border of Spain, Tui). Then walk to Santiago (still gives you the 100k for Compostela, if that's an issue for you). You will miss walking through Ponte de Lima, Portugal, which I thought was great (but maybe a stopover, if you have the time). Pontevedra is also a great little city (La Pelegrina is there), and don't miss the Peppers in Padron (they'll have them that time of year), and THE Padron itself. No matter what you end up doing, you will love any part of it that you can do. Bon Camino! Bob
 

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Hi Scott, I once read that the town of Fatima is a more symbolic pilgrimage location for the Portguese opposed to Santiago and is located almost half way between Porto and Lisbon. No personal experience, just another suggestion.
 
Fatima - I would not recommend unless you are deeply religious and can overlook the boring modern architecture, and shops selling every tacky religious souvenir imaginable.
 
Another option is taking the train from Porto to Pontevedra and then picking up the Spiritual Variant, rejoin the main route at Pontecesures and then proceed to Santiago. That would be a leisurely stroll. If you wanted to cover more ground and fulfil the 100-km requirement, take the train to Vigo and then proceed to Redondela and Pontevedra and then either pick up the Spiritual Variant or continue on the main route through Caldas de Reis. That would require hustling a bit to stay within 7 days (you might encounter wet weather in early September), particularly if you included the Spiritual Variant. All the suggestions above are good so it depends on your personal preferences in terms of scenery.
 
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I cannot recommend the Tui to Santiago option highly enough although I would recommend doing it in 5 days - doing the Tui to Redondela stages in one go. O Porrino is very industrial and charmless whereas Redondela is beautiful. It's 33km but it is basically flat except for a nasty spike with about 5km to go. Pontevedra is lovely too and Caldas de Reis has the biggest and best Pilgrim Menu ever at Bar Castro 9 euros and if you can walk afterwards you are not human. Padron is superchilled and has a great Albergue and of course those peppers.
 
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