Camino Portuguese in Jan/Feb anyone ?

[Bunclody1]

Hi all, I am thinking of walking from Porto using the inland route. I will walk from the end of January and am wondering will any/many other people be around at that time ? Failing that have any member ms any info which might be useful ?
Buen Camino,
John.

 

[Anamya]

When we walked in April 2017, we would see max 5-6 other pilgrims each day on the way. Numbers have risen since then, but for the winter they will probably stay very low.

Central route is beautiful and even if albergues are closed for winter, there is a good offer of private accommodation. I loved the Portuguese Central and highly recommend it.

EDIT: the pilgrim office in Santiago says that 688 pilgrims arrived after waling CP in February 2018 (average 24/day), and only 478 in Feb 2019 (average 17/day). So you won't meet heeeaps of people,.

 

[Terry Callery]

The official pilgrim welcome office in Santiago de Compostela records the name and nationality of every pilgrim who receives the document of completion. As of the end of June 2017, the year’s group of pilgrims predominately followed the classic French route, with 63 percent starting somewhere along it.

I was among the 17 percent of pilgrims choosing the less-traveled Portuguese route, and most of these peregrinos started in Porto (7 percent). Tui is the first city in Spain on the Portuguese Camino, and 5 percent of the pilgrims arriving at Santiago de Compostela started there. I was truly in a minority, since only one out of a hundred pilgrims started at the beginning of the Portuguese route in Lisbon. I was also in a minority as far as the time of the year I walked. The pilgrim office in Santiago received 41,620 pilgrims in June of 2017 and 35,345 in May. Compare those numbers to the mere 1,696 pilgrims processed at the office in February and the 5,176 in March.

 

[hughb]

Hi all, I am thinking of walking from Porto using the inland route. I will walk from the end of January and am wondering will any/many other people be around at that time ? Failing that have any member ms any info which might be useful ?
Buen Camino,
John.

I walked the route in February this year. All of the Albergues were open and heated, there was quite a good number of pilgrims and I always shared the Albergues with other pilgrims.

I was also lucky with the weather. I walked the central route from Porto and never used my waterproofs once during the entire caminho. It was chilly in the morning and evenings but warm during the day, usually walking in a t-shirt. I would certainly walk at this time of the year again.

Bom caminho.

 

[surya8]

Hi all, I am thinking of walking from Porto using the inland route. I will walk from the end of January and am wondering will any/many other people be around at that time ? Failing that have any member ms any info which might be useful ?

I walked the Coastal + Variante Espiritual in Jan this year. Enjoyed it a lot! Will be walking in winter again if there is a chance! The route is popular, the infrastructure is very good after Porto, and even out of season there will be people on the way. Some of the buisnessness might be closed for the winter so if you see an open bar and you are hungry then take your opportunity. I posted about my walk here: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...r-those-who-consider-walking-in-winter.65099/ Make sure to take wanterproofs and also smth warm to chance into in the albergues as there heating might be tricky. Sleeping bag might be handy if you are staying in municipal albergues. Bom Camino!

 

[Former member 91017]

It is extremely wet this year, so go assuming pretty heavy rain on most days. We had flooding, washouts, and torrential rain, and closing of the coastal route for several days in November, making the Central route from Porto a little busier....
I loved the central route —- went from Coimbra and found it well supported, but Inrecommend that people sensitive to the damp avoid the off season months in Portugal.
I loved my relative solitude on the CP, waking solo every day and meeting up with just a handful of people in the evenings.... But I did not love ending up hospitalized with tonsillitis from a combination of bad weather, mildew exposure and a run down immune system from 17 days walking in rain.
So.... just know it’s a tough year out there this winter.

 

[RescueManny]

Hi all, I am thinking of walking from Porto using the inland route. I will walk from the end of January and am wondering will any/many other people be around at that time ? Failing that have any member ms any info which might be useful ?
Buen Camino,
John.

Hello. My name is Manny from Canada. I am thinking of walking the same route as well I should be starting somewhere around the 25 of January.. I haven’t decided yet if I want to Walk from Lisbon or Porto.. considering this year is very wet and it would be my first time on it I’m leaning towards Porto.

 

[Bunclody1]

Keep me posted though u will either be a few days in front or behind !

 

[RescueManny]

Will do!!