I will be walking the Portuguese Costal Route (Senda Litoral) the first 2 weeks of September. I wore Keen mid hiking boots while walking the
Camino Frances, which worked out well. Given everything I've read about the Portuguese Costal Route, I'm planning to toss the boots and switch to Keen hiking sandals. What do you think? I'd appreciate advice from those of you who have walked this route before in the late summer/fall. Thanks!
The facts that everyone's feet, and weight (including pack and water), and level of fitness, and walking style, and the degree of need for arch support, and the exact terrain to be walked upon are unique, etc., etc., make footwear a particularly personal choice.
I will offer no advice but provide the following information for your evaluation and disposal.
I used one particular model of factory-made leather hiking boots made by an Italian boot manufacturer called Zamberlan, for all of my 3 very long pilgrimages and 2 shorter ones (CF, SdC-Muxia-Finisterre-SdC, CP, Inglés, CF again).
BTW my weight varies between 175 and 195 pounds and I was carrying a 13 kg pack too, i.e. my feet and the boots were under some load.
I vaguely recall getting one small blister on the first CF pilgrimage, 5 years ago, which I taped up immediately, and no blisters whatsoever on any subsequent pilgrimages or local walks.
The model of boot that I use has sides that are about ankle-high. That prevents most pebbles and dirt from entering the boots. That is important to me because stepping down hard on a pebble can injure the heel pad.
I used the first pair of those boots for about 2000+ kilometres before the heel-strike areas started to wear out. After that I retrofitted new heel-strikes to that pair of boots and downgraded them to local use only. I am on my second pair now. They have carried me about 1000 km and they are nowhere near to being worn out.
These boots have provided me with excellent arch support. I attribute that to high quality materials and construction around a shape of last that happens to be just right for my feet. As you know, a last is a physical model of a foot around which footwear is constructed. There are many different shapes (and sizes, obviously) of last.
To my regret the model of boot I used is no longer made.
I inquired of Zamberlan to know what model they might recommend as a substitute. Their customer service representative (CSR) in Italy explained that one of the most important considerations is the last around which the boots are manufactured, helpfully provided me the identification number of the last that they used to make my model of boot, stated that that last is one of their standard ones and that they plan to continue using it indefinitely on future models, and explained how to decode their boot model numbers to determine which last was used to make which model. That was very helpful and considerate of their CSR.
I give full marks to Zamberlan for the quality of their boots and for their customer service.
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I paid full retail price for all of my boots and equipment, am not being paid in any way for this post, and have no financial interests in any providers of Camino-related goods or services.
I did have Meindl shoes but never really took to them. Sizing doesn't help either as half sizes seemed to have disappeared in that an 8 is too tight and a 9 too loose. Metric sizes have also fluctuated with 42 being an eight and a 43 a half up. A 43 is now regarded as a 9 ! Yet my Meindl boots are 43 and I use hiking socks with them. No problem, except for the weight! Hence, I would like to try shoes again. I cant see myself on any really demanding terrain in the future as my love had her breast cancer op yesterday and is still in hospital. Methinks It could be a bus and train kind of camino in the future with me hitting 85 and her 69 
), but I have met people who happily wore their sandals sans socks without blisters. Just another very personal thing about footwear.
