Coastal Camino from Lisbon

[Lisa-W]

I am starting the CP on 22nd April from Lisboa. I will be taking the coastal route from there. I understand that there are not too many albergues on that section until you get to Porto. Therefore I plan to stay in small hostals and surf hostels etc.

 

[Lisa-W]

Are you sure ? From Lisbon to Porto along the coast ? There is no waymarked route so far ! Interesting. If , please publish your experiences here on the forum for just another variation of the caminho Português.
Bom caminho.

Albertinho, there is a well mapped route and I believe the usual yellow arrows are continually being put in place. There is a public forum on Facebook "Trilho ou Caminho Das Areias pelo littoral". Check that site out. Under the heading "files" there is a page that takes you to detailed maps of the whole "trail of the sands". Unfortunately for me it is in Portuguese, but the maps are easy enough to to follow. They have even wheelchair and bicycle routes.

 

[anniethenurse]

Are you sure ? From Lisbon to Porto along the coast ? There is no waymarked route so far ! Interesting. If , please publish your experiences here on the forum for just another variation of the caminho Português.
Bom caminho.

Yes, there is a camino (along the coast) from Lisbon to Porto. It is 18 stages. On my bucket list.

 

[Former member 22438]

There marked the "The Sea Way" (Caminho do Mar), that runs from Estoril (Santo Antonio Church) to Fatima connecting the East Way (Caminho Nascente) to Tomar.
Estoril-Sintra-Mafra-Torres Vedras-Bombarral-Caldas da Rainha-Alcobaça-Fatima-Tomar.
http://movimentocaminhosperegrinos.blogspot.pt/2014/02/caminho-do-mar.html
http://www.cnc.pt/artigo/3126

There are a turistic way (Lisboa to Porto) "Trail of the Sands" (Trilho das Areias), which goes along the coast.
http://trilho-das-areias.webnode.com/

Maybe our beloved moderator Peregrina2000 can make a subforum so the experience of pilgrims who walked it can be shared.
I will have a look next May when we go to Cascais to camp and try to find out some more. Definitively it is on my bucketlist by now.
Thanks for the answers I got on my post

 

[amsimoes]

Maybe our beloved moderator Peregrina2000 can make a subforum so the experience of pilgrims who walked it can be shared.
I will have a look next May when we go to Cascais to camp and try to find out some more. Definitively it is on my bucketlist by now.
Thanks for the answers I got on my post

I hope that in May we will meet in Lisbon.

I and my wife soon and slowly we begin to doing the "Caminho do Mar" from the cathedral of Lisbon to Tomar.
We're thinking of doing:
Lisbon - Estoril and return by train.
Estoril - Sintra and return by train.
Sintra - Mafra and return by bus.
Mafra - Torres Vedras and return by bus.
Torres Vedras - Bombarral (sleeping) - Caldas da Rainha and return by bus.
Caldas da Rainha - Alcobaça (sleeping) - Fatima and return by bus.
Fatima - Tomar and return by train.

 

[anniethenurse]

http://m.trilho-das-areias.webnode.com/

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, everyone,
I think I've selected all the posts on the other thread that have to do with this route/these routes. I have asked for help in creating a new sub-forum. I'll also take a look to see if there are other threads that should be moved into a new sub-forum "Coastal Route From Lisbon", but if you can think of any, would you bring them to my attention?

Thanks, Laurie

 

[anniethenurse]

http://test.bable.de/trilho-ou-caminho-das-areias-lisboa-porto/

 

[Former member 22438]

Hi, everyone,
I think I've selected all the posts on the other thread that have to do with this route/these routes. I have asked for help in creating a new sub-forum. I'll also take a look to see if there are other threads that should be moved into a new sub-forum "Coastal Route From Lisbon", but if you can think of any, would you bring them to my attention?

Thanks, Laurie

Thank you Laurie. An other step to the perfect Portuguese caminho.
Look forward to walk a part.
As I feel now I will choose this one instead of walking the Francès in May next.
Bom caminho

 

[peregrina2000]

Thank you Larie. An other step to the perfect Portuguese caminho.
Look forward to walk a part.
As I feel now I will choose this one instead of walking the Francès in May next.
Bom caminho

I am not surprised, Albertinho -- when you said you were going to walk the Francés, I was a bit perplexed, since I view you as our number 1 Portugal fanatic on the forum!

 

[Former member 22438]

I am not surprised, Albertinho -- when you said you were going to walk the Francés, I was a bit perplexed, since I view you as our number 1 Portugal fanatic on the forum!

I am very honoured Laurie but there are more experts here on the forum. We do it together.
I can imagine you were shocked by reading Nel and I should walk the Frances and since we have been at Fernanda's the other day, my heart again was in Portugal and as from heaven sent appeared all posts about the caminho do mar. And there was no doubt anymore. Viva Portugal and the caminho Português
Grande abraço
Albertinho

 

[amsimoes]

I'd like to mention again that the "Trilho das Areias" is not a way to Santiago, as you can verify on the credential.
The "Caminho do Mar" is a route historic. It was marked with reference to historical facts by the Centro Nacional de Cultura (National Culture Centre) (CNC). But it is only officially marked until Pedreiras (then continue to Fatima) that is the closest place of Batalha locality.

 

[Lisa-W]

I have arrived in Germany and fly to Lisboa on the 20th and will start walking the route as described by Luis Frexis 2 days later, after I explore Lisboa.
If I were to describe my experiences here would that be of interest or help to other pilgrims. There is enough unnecessary verbiage on the Internet without me adding to it.
If there are any other pilgrims in the vicinity I would love to meet up.

 

[peregrina2000]

I have arrived in Germany and fly to Lisboa on the 20th and will start walking the route as described by Luis Frexis 2 days later, after I explore Lisboa.
If I were to describe my experiences here would that be of interest or help to other pilgrims. There is enough unnecessary verbiage on the Internet without me adding to it.
If there are any other pilgrims in the vicinity I would love to meet up.

Hi Lisa. I for one would love to read of your experiences on the coastal route from Lisbon. I confess I'm not totally clear on the options from Lisbon. I've walked the central route but I think there is a caminho do mar, which is actually on the coast, and the coastal route, which didn't seem to have much coast walking at all. Is that right? Which one are you going to walk?

I will be in Lisbon on the 26-29 and will be meeting up with some other forum members. Looks like we'll just miss each other. Bon caminho, Laurie

 

[Lisa-W]

Hi Laurie
It is unfortunate that we shall miss each other, as I have enjoyed reading your posts.
My partner and I will be walking Lisbo/Porta pela Costa. The first night will be Estoril, then Orbitour Guincho and the third night Praia Grande. After that it will be God's will.
Lisa

 

[Ekelund]

This is very interesting! I'll watch your postings, Lisa, since I would love to walk the Camino do Mar after reading your post.
Buen Camino to you.

 

[Lisa-W]

We have arrived in Lisboa and have made a little tour of this fascinating city. During this tour we visited the cathedral and a beautiful church called Our Lady of Grace. We have our Credentials and they are stamped ready for when we start on our pilgrimage proper tomorrow.
But I have a warning to all peregrino's, if it is important to you that you display the shell of St James then make sure that you buy one from the Confraternity before you arrive in Lisboa, because they are unavailable here. The lady in the office at Our Lady of Grace said that she had tried to get some but was unable to do so.

 

[Lisa-W]

Today we have walked from Lisboa to Estoril. Basically it is a long (30.7km) walk along cobbled pavement beside the N6. Which is an extremely busy road. Sometimes you are walking on very narrow footpath and feel like brushing the cars off your elbow. Other times there is a nice coastal promenade. I thought the suggested stage to Cascais was too long, especially for the first day and therefore elected to stay at the Blue Boutique hostel in Estoril. There is a warning here. The N6 divides into east and west lanes divided by a block of houses. We were walking along the west bound lanes. Unbeknown to us the hostel is on the east bound lanes and could not be seen. It was not until we had walked over a km beyond the hostel that we realised our mistake.
It is a very comfortable place and the hosts are very friendly and helpful. I have no hesitations in recommending it to others.

 

[Lisa-W]

Estoril to Orbitour Guincho is pretty straight forward. We found our first yellow arrow in Cascais. It was such a thrill. The way was very well marked after that. The N247 out of Cascais has a red coloured path on the right side of the road. It is supposed to be shared equally with pedestrians and cyclists. Guess who wins our. So we crossed the road onto a yellow painted footpath, keeping an eye out for the arrows on the other side of the road. The Orbitour chain of camp sites offers discounts to all peregrino's.

 

[Ekelund]

Thanks, Lisa, for taking the time to post an update on your walk. I'll be in your footsteps next year.
All the best to you.

 

[Lisa-W]

To make sense of this blog you need to have access to the maps suggested for day 3 of the Trail of Sands. We left Orbitur Guincho this morning and soon crossed the trail marked with the yellow arrows. We intended to walk to Biscaia and on to the road to Cabo da Roca from there to Praia Das Macas. It was on the road to Cabo da Roca that we took a wrong turn and ended up right on the coast. We were rewarded with spectacular scenery but at considerable cost in energy expenditure as we had to go down and up very steep gullies with rocky trails. I am sure a mountain goat would have had trouble with them. But adhering to my mantra of keeping the ocean on the left and the sun on our back we followed along the coast. However we got concerned and climbed up to Almocageme to ask for directions. A very helpful lady put us on the right track and we eventually arrived in Praia Das Macas.
As tomorrow is Portuguese Independence Day most of the hostels are full. But we found somewhere to stay. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier and we discover some yellow arrows.

 

[Lisa-W]

It is all too hard and expensive for peregrino's. I will not go into a detailed explanation on this public forum. But we started this morning at 0740 hrs. At that time nothing is open so we did not have breakfast. The aim was to stop after 6-10 km for breakfast at a cafe. But the route was so rural we were not able to get anything to eat until 1530hrs. And that was an ice cream and a piece of cake. In total we covered 33.8km in 10 hours. We are now sitting in Ozzys Pizzaria in Ericeira - fair dinkum.
The plan is now to catch a bus back to Lisboa and walk the central route.

 

[Lisa-W]

OK, we are now in Vila Franca de Xira. It is amazing to think that the distance we covered in 5 days was reversed in 11/2 hrs in a bus that was stopping at "all stations".
Some reasons why we changed Camino routes
- we were told that the coast from Ericeira had innumerable coastal gullies. The coastal cliffs are at least 100m high. Scrambling down and then up over eroded rocky paths (if you can find one) is not fun and that is in good weather. In the wet a lot of the paths we were travelling would be impassible and the gullies full of water.
- We needed to continually refer to the maps we had down loaded onto an iPad. Often streets were not labeled in the maps or in real life. Again in the rain it could have destroyed an iPad.

-because of the above there was no time for reflection or self introspection. This is a pilgrimage after all.
-the ilial tibial band in my left knee was playing up and it was extremely painful walking down steps, as in a rocky path. Walking on the flat or down a slope was OK.
-finally Sabine at times was very fearful of the situation.
We have just gone for a walk around town and already found a number of yellow arrows, so I do not think that even us can go get lost.

 

[unadara]

Thanks to Lisa-W for all written so far and honesty re the trials and tests surmounted. I intend to return to Lisbon and walk "the coast" to Porto and may now look more closely at what others do this year, I want to see the traditional Pilgrimage sites on route so a variation is called for. Having met Amsimoes in Lisbon in April I will look to his posts and advice also. A route involving some buses/trains into or out of sites may be in order too. I look forward to all the valuable information to be had here. I hope for Oct this year....

 

[Lisa-W]

I am sitting in SDC having completed the Portuguese Camino 2 days ago. From Porto I followed the coast again and it is extremely well marked and quite spectacular.
South of Porto is a different matter. There is a dearth of arrows. Also there is a financial penalty. I can only comment on the Ericeira region as I did not make it further north of there. If you stay one night in a hostel or camp ground in that region there is a 25% loading onto their daily fee which takes it over 60 E for a hostel. The part owner of the Blue Buddah hostel said he would try to make it cheaper for peregrino's. Tourist authorities and local governments will need to address these issues if they want to increase pilgrim numbers.
However the area appears to want to attract surfing tourists, so that may not be a priority.
The different routes in Portugal all have a lot to offer and I hope that they have increased patronage. I loved Portugal. There is so much potential.
As an aside, I am already missing pastel de nata for breakfast.

 

[TeknoHead]

Hello All,

I’m currently on the Camino do Mar on the way to Bombarral. Does anybody know of a pousada or albergue at the end of this stage?

Also looking for the same at Caldas do Rainha and Alcobaça.

When reading about this Camino I didn’t realise there were so many mountains.

Thanks