Camino Portugues Road Walking

[Rossco]

I was planning on starting the Camino Portugues from Lisbon in April but after reading a few blogs recently I am having secon thoughts. Apparently there's quite a lot of sections where I will have to walk on roads and highways. Is this correct? It was also stated that it wasn't very pleasant until you reach Porto. Now I am leaning towards starting in Le Puy and finishing in St Jean. Maybe some of the info in the blogs has been exaggerated. Would appreciate anyone's past experience. Thank you.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Apparently there's quite a lot of sections where I will have to walk on roads and highways. Is this correct? Now I am leaning towards starting in Le Puy and finishing in St Jean.

There is walking on highways in Portugal. The Le Puy route also has a lot of walking on roads. In both cases, it has been hard to find routes that are unoccupied. France does a good job of pedestrian safety, so the path can be very convoluted!

 

[Texas Walker]

Very few of the road bits in Portugal were really scary. There were a few, though! And a walking trail in the fairly-new nature area may not be highway or even back road, but in near-100F weather and the complete lack of shade, it is a challenge. Nothing is a free skate in life. The Camino is going to challenge you, no matter which route you follow.

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, Rossco,
This is a question that has gotten a lot of discussion on the forum and there are many different opinions. I have walked from Lisbon, but it was in 2008, I think. Things have changed dramatically since then -- Accommodations, numbers of pilgrims, and the efforts by the Via Lusitana to get the caminho off-road. I may be biased because I love Portugal, but I really enjoyed the part between Lisboa and Porto. To be fair, not everyone does.

Take a look at Maggie's blog from a few years ago. https://magwood.me/my-caminos/camino-portuguese/

And there are a lot of threads on this topic, you can find them by searching for "start Lisbon." Here's one I particularly like: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/why-start-in-lisbon.29651/

But there are lots more, e.g., https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...where-to-start-from-lisboa.45562/#post-480615
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...-santiago-what-not-to-miss.44823/#post-470851

 

[Margaret Spencer]

There are roads to walk along. Not much in the way of "highway". The roads are generally country roads and almost always there is a little sandy track along side the Tarmac. The scariest bits of road I came across we're coming into Tomar and then again in Spain coming into and out of Vigo. Two trails though forest were rough and steep but perfectly doable. I also "worried" about the reported road walking but it wasn't an issue. I guess it is what you are used to same as hills.

 

[gittiharre]

Too much road walking between Porto and Santiago for my liking. The coastal path ftom Porto was nice with some lovely fishing villages. The portuguese small towns and people very warm and welcoming. From Tui on not so great and much more expensive. The towns run down and more industrial.

 

[Kiwi-family]

There was more road walking than I had expected from Porto. Perhaps if I had known it would be like that and that the Portuguese drivers are not as considerate as Spanish ones, I might have been better prepared for it and not taken so much by surprise!