First time Camino Walker

[eletpotgieter85]

Good day my fellow Camino-lovers,

My husband and I are going to walk the Camino from Porto to Santiago de Compostela in Sept to October 2025.
I looked at the routes and we want to do the Coastal way - Litoral route. I cant seem to find the route now any where.
Route is as follow:
Day 1: Porto - Matosinhos
Day 2: Matosinhos - Vila do Conde
Day 3: Vila do Conde - Esposende
Day 4: Esposende - Viana do Castelo
Day 5: Viana do Castelo - Vila Praia de Ancora
Day 6: Vila Praia de Ancora - A Guarda
Day 7: A Guarda - Oia
Day 8: Oia - Baiona
Day 9: Baiona - Vigo
Day 10: Vigo - Arcade
Day 11: Arcade - Pontevedra
Day 12: Pontevedra - Caldas de Reis
Day 13: Caldas de Reis - Padron
Day 14: Padron - Santiago de Compostela

Do any of you have a GPX file for this route perhaps?

Then what are your thoughts about doing this route in 8 days? Do-able?

Looking forward to positive feedback and support!

 

[dick bird]

Porto - Labruge | Camino Portugués de la Costa | Gronze.com

La jornada inicial plantea una disyuntiva: seguir la orilla del río Duero y las playas del litoral atlántico, en un recorrido variado y entretenido, o bien optar por el trazado interior por Padrão da Légua y el aeropuerto, sin alicientes y donde no veremos el mar en ningún momento. Tratándose de...

www.gronze.com

I think this might be what you are looking for. The link is to stage 1. The website is in Spanish but will translate into English if you access it via Chrtome.

 

[wisepilgrim]

That route is included as the Coastal Route in the Camino Planner section. See menu link above.

 

[Roland49]

Then what are your thoughts about doing this route in 8 days? Do-able?

Looking forward to positive feedback and support!

Doable?
Yip, think so! But is it fun? Don't think so!
Walked Porto-SdC in 9 days, but from Caminha upstream to the central variant (Valenca / Tui).
The coastal/litoral should be fun in 11+ days, with IMHO many days 30+ km!

HTH

 

[dougfitz]

Then what are your thoughts about doing this route in 8 days? Do-able?

Are you suggesting you will walk the ~250 km from Porto to SDC in eight days, or do you have some other start point in mind? I had a quick look at how that might work, and given you have to average a bit over 30 km/day, at that top level it probably doesn't look too bad. The rub will come when you try and find accommodation, and I suspect this is where you will come undone. You will only have to have one day where there is nothing at this sweet spot, and you either have to stop short or push out much further, and you will be very quickly into having to walk a couple of 40 km days.

I suggest you try and map out a pattern using the planner here as a first cut to see if you can get accommodation options that will work for you.

 

[peregrino_tom]

As dick says above - Gronze is really useful for planning the route and checking/booking accommodation.
Also look at Mapy.cz online maps. If you select the outdoor layer you can see the camino path/s including coastal/litoral and central options. You can plan online on a big screen. I recommend the free downloading of the necessary map/s and then you can use them data-free on the app on your phone when you are on the ground (if you so choose).
Doing it all in 8 days is a bit pointless IMHO. I think it is actually 290km on the route you show, which is an average of more than 36km per day - and accommodation intervals will mean a few 40+km stages.
You are coming all this way, across the world, so why not take the opportunity to breathe it all in, sample the local culture, atmosphere, perspective, food etc. Stop, chat and explore - and be open to going with the flow...

 

[natefaith]

Welcome to the Forum @eletpotgieter85 !

There are some stunning towns in your itinerary, so like others I would not recommend that you try to do the walk in 8 days. Take your time and plan for plenty of time to kick around in the afternoons/ evenings in these ocean and river towns. I haven't walked this route but I have visited Matosinhos, Viana do Castelo, A Guarda, Baiona, Vigo, and Pontevedra and they are all so beautiful!

For me, too, I know that I can comfortably walk 20km a day. Anything more than that, and I start getting grumpy and my feet are in pain with every step. Does this happen to be your first Camino? If so, giving yourselves more time will help you get familiar with what you're comfortable with and settle in to a good rhythm, and have margin to meet and chat with fellow pilgrims. In my opinion it would be better not to plan on doing so many 30+ km days. If you build up your rhythm and end up pounding out a lot of 30+ km days, great! But it would put pressure on you both to actually be planning for so many of them.

Having said all that, enjoy all the planning and Buen Camino!

 

[Come Walk With Us]

It is a beautiful route - consider the espiritual variant. Just about to post my itinerary for this route which I trekked last spring.

 

[eletpotgieter85]

That route is included as the Coastal Route in the Camino Planner section. See menu link above.

Thank you so much for this - helped us alot!

 

[eletpotgieter85]

Welcome to the Forum @eletpotgieter85 !

There are some stunning towns in your itinerary, so like others I would not recommend that you try to do the walk in 8 days. Take your time and plan for plenty of time to kick around in the afternoons/ evenings in these ocean and river towns. I haven't walked this route but I have visited Matosinhos, Viana do Castelo, A Guarda, Baiona, Vigo, and Pontevedra and they are all so beautiful!

For me, too, I know that I can comfortably walk 20km a day. Anything more than that, and I start getting grumpy and my feet are in pain with every step. Does this happen to be your first Camino? If so, giving yourselves more time will help you get familiar with what you're comfortable with and settle in to a good rhythm, and have margin to meet and chat with fellow pilgrims. In my opinion it would be better not to plan on doing so many 30+ km days. If you build up your rhythm and end up pounding out a lot of 30+ km days, great! But it would put pressure on you both to actually be planning for so many of them.

Having said all that, enjoy all the planning and Buen Camino!

Thank you for your reply. We are aware of the challenge, but we are up for it. We have a roadtrip in Portuagal before we start the Camino from Porto and also relaxing a week in Spain after the challenging 8 days. We are both long distance runners and hoping that this will help us with the distances each day.

 

[David Tallan]

Thank you for your reply. We are aware of the challenge, but we are up for it. We have a roadtrip in Portuagal before we start the Camino from Porto and also relaxing a week in Spain after the challenging 8 days. We are both long distance runners and hoping that this will help us with the distances each day.

Just to note that being long distance runners doesn't always track to being a successful long distance walker.

It is great to read that you have an extra week planned in Spain. I would advise considering this extra week a cushion. So, certainly aim for 8 days if that is what you want. But leave yourself open to the possibility that it might take longer and you find yourself eating into that week in Spain afterwards.

 

[Damien Reynolds]

@eletpotgieter85​

If you are hardcore, walk to Finisterre after and have a picnic at the end of the world as you watch the sunset.

I think I did the stretch you are describing in like 10 or 11 days... It is pretty flat except for the end. Could I have made it faster? yes.

 

[dougfitz]

Just to note that being long distance runners doesn't always track to being a successful long distance walker.

I would have a similar concern. There are occasional comments on the forum to this effect, and my personal experience, not as a runner, but as a leader of longer walks, is that even strong runners can have difficulty on long walks. My own view is that mixing in some longer walk preparation in your training will go a long way to address this.

 

[Damien Reynolds]

I would have a similar concern. There are occasional comments on the forum to this effect, and my personal experience, not as a runner, but as a leader of longer walks, is that even strong runners can have difficulty on long walks. My own view is that mixing in some longer walk preparation in your training will go a long way to address this.

Yes. And make sure you are used to walking on asphalt, and tougher in your case, cobblestones.