Itinerary assistance

kittykat3 said:

We are looking to walking from Porto to Santiago Early part of May 2020. Looking at flights we are most likely arriving in Porto early in the morning after an overnight flight from NYC. We have 15 days for the whole trip. We wanted to walk along the river from the Cathedral and turn inward to the Central . We were thinking of starting our walk the same day and walking hours.

We have a few questions where is good place to stay the first night? Where should we turn in towards the central route? We want to stay at Casa Fernanda so trying to plan the first few days so our walk could be comfortable. Any suggestions is greatly appreciate.

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Hi Kittykat
So much info on this forum that I couldn’t hope to give you better info -
Start with checking this similar thread by @trecile
It has some great staging ideas.

Also look at gronze as it also gives you info on booking ., distance , profile maps etc etc

Happy planning - I know this doesn’t answer all your questions but will make a good start. Others who have walked the Portuguese more recently than I may give you good advice on all your other questions.
& Bom caminho / Buen Camino
Annie

Hi Kittykat!

The Portuguese is an awesome itinerary. I highly recommend that you spend a day or two in porto, the city is quite phenomenal and the food and Porto wine are a unique experience.

Casa da Fernanda in on the Central route, so if you want to start by walking on the coast, I'd suggest:
Porto - Labruge
Labruge - Arcos (or Rates)
Arcos - Barcelos
Barcelos -Casa da Fernanda
And so on...

I was going to mention Trecile's itinerary, which @OzAnnie kindly linked above.

We came off a flight from London, arrived early afternoon. Metro from airport to se Bento metro station, a quick look at the magnificent se Bento train station, walked down to cathedral for a stamp on the credencials and then followed the river and sea to Matosinhos where we'd booked a room at Hotel des Reis .

The central route typically takes about 10 days walking. Add two days / nights for Santiago (minimum). That fits within your timetable.

Also, having grown up in New Jersey and now living in Florida, seeing the same Atlantic Ocean from the other side is not very exciting or enticing for me. I have tried the coastal route up to Villa do Conde, before cutting in toward Rates and the Central Route. On my second go from Porto, I rode the local train / Metro to before Vilarinhos and walked from there. I stayed at a very nice private albergue called Casa Laura. See below...

This is also about two days walking before Casa Fernanda. As regards staying at Casa Fernanda, please, please reserve a place early. She is very popular, and with good reason. So, her beds fill up fast. While she operates, or did, as a donativo, DO be as generous as you can.

Consider spending one night in Porto to rest up and prepare before heading north to Santiago. You may need / want to post things ahead to Ivar at Santiago to await your arrival. The Portuguese post office is called CTT. Here is their website: https://www.ctt.pt/home/index.html

To have time to mail stuff ahead, you will need that extra time. Also, in my experience, you will be exhausted from being cramped in the airplane for 9+ hours. Don't push it.

Plus, Porto is a beautiful, historic city and well worthy of spending time there. If pressed for time, consider the hop on-hop off tourist bus for a good view and tour of the important places in the city.

Also, Porto, like most other large cities has an industrial belt of light industry, warehouses, trucking distribution centers and big box stores surrounding it. This is true of Lisbon, Madrid, Leon, Burgos, and even Santiago to a lesser extent.

You can choose to walk across this distance, OR opt to ride public transportation to effectively leap-frog, saving most of a day's walking. This is 'legal' as only walking the final 100 km before Santiago is what qualifies you for a Compostela. Anything beyond that is for your benefit and pleasure.

Here is the Metro Porto website: https://en.metrodoporto.pt

Also, here is the Portuguese Railways website: https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en

I cannot recall if I actually rode the Metro or CP train, and then walked, but I know I did take one for perhaps a 30-minute ride, before getting off to walk. The scenery enroute convinced me that I made the right decision for me. Having grown up in northern New Jersey, seeing industry does not exactly make my spirit soar, and it is no way IMHO to start a Camino.

In this case, I chose to ride the train / metro out past the urban belt, and then walk to Vilarhino. There I stayed at Casa Laura. Here is their Facebook page:


I highly recommend this private albergue.

Lastly, even in the off-season, DO NOT arrive in Santiago without a reservation. Forewarned is forearmed... I recommend two nights. The night of arrival and the next, to provide enough time to handle business at the Pilgrim Office and see Santiago. You will not be sorry you did this.

Hope this helps.

You can checkout the stages here:

I was reading a blog recently from someone who walked from the Cathedral in Porto to Vila do Conde, they walked along the Douro then up the coast, from that I realised there is a tram which runs parallel from near the Cathedral to near Foz do Douro which is at the mouth of the river, it's 6km from the Center. If I was doing a transatlantic flight and wanted to hit the ground running then that might be place I would look at as the destination and place to stay. I am going to be flying from Bristol in the UK in December to Porto and have planned on walking on my 1st day but from past experience it's best to give yourself a short day and recover from your travels on the rest of it.

Buen Camino