Portuguese or VDLP

Waka said:

I'm starting to put together a plan for next years camino, I've already completed the CF.
I have all the info from the forum and the guide books for both the Portuguese and the VDLP, but just can't make up my mind.
So for those pilgrims that have done both of these routes, which one would you recommend?

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peregrina2000 said:

I've walked both and very much enjoyed both, and I think you should just plan to walk them both -- then making the decision for 2016 becomes easier.

But here are a couple of considerations
-- how many days do you have to walk this year? The Portugues is shorter from Lisbon than the Vdlp from Sevilla.

-- what time of year are you walking? I would avoid the Vdlp in summer or even September, starting in Sevilla, but from Lisbon to Santiago in summer you will not likely get those killer temperatures.

--do you want to visit a lot of monumental cities? If so, then Vdlp probably wins out, with Sevilla, Merida, Caceres, Salamanca, Zamora, and Ourense. The Portugues has its share of great stops -- Lisbon and Porto are both very enjoyable places to spend a few days, the old university town of Coimbra is very nice, the Roman ruins in Conimbriga are definitely worth a visit, the Convento to Cristo in Tomar is wonderful.

-- does asphalt really bother you? The amount of asphalt on the Portugues has been decreasing as the local groups are opening up new alternatives but there is more asphalt on the Portugues than the Vdlp, I would say.

-- are you monolingual? Many more people in Portugal speak English than in Spain, but in small towns in both countries you are likely to have to rely on hand gestures and google translate if you don't speak Spanish or Portuguese. (If you speak Spanish, you can make yourself understood in Portugal, but you will probably not understand a word of the response when they speak Portuguese back to you).

-- do you want a stretch along the coast? The Portuguese north of Porto has that option, but the Vdlp doesn't.

Here are ways in which they are pretty similar.
-- Fewer people than the Frances (though the Portugues on the last four or five days from Tui onward gets crowded, whereas I think there are rarely crowds of any sort on the Vdlp/Sanabres)

-- Not too much in the way of elevation gain, though the Portugues has one well known ascent north of Porto and the Vdlp gets hilly after Puebla de Sanabria

--Lots of small towns, agricultural areas, and very nice and helpful people (though I don't want to fall into stereotypes, I do think it's hard to find a country where you will be helped by more kind people than in Portugal).

No bad decision here, IMO! Buen Camino/Bom Caminho, whichever you decide! Laurie

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High Endeavours said:

Waka, my turn to add a thought or two. The Plata is something special and it remains my favourite Camino experience. Walked it in early May and well into June 2014, and it was very special indeed! I have walked in the fall several times, but the opportunity to walk the Plata in the spring with the flowers lining the path was very memorable. Photography is something of a passion for me. As I travelled south to north the spring season moved right along with me as did the fields of flowers, the many storks in their wonderful nests, the green fields and ripening grain crops and of course the warm sun. For sure there were a few hot days along the way, but most days were good walking weather (only 2 hours of intense rain that soaked me). I found very little paved road walking along the route with many sections on narrow country trails. For me it was much better than the Frances which I'd walked the prior fall. Many fewer people and those people I met along the way were Europeans who I have remained in close contact with ever since. I met only 3 others where English was their native tongue and there was little english spoken along the way by the locals. This route is not for everyone. You need to be comfortable within yourself as you will often not see another pilgrim most of the day, sometimes not until you finish at an albergue. Personally I loved that as I had opportunities to meet many locals and to work on my quiet mechanical Spanish. Long soulful days of very pleasant walking with time to reflect and to think new thoughts. I met quite a few folks from France and Germany on the route and had to polish up my rusty and very poor French, but this encouraged me to walk from Le Puy this past fall where my poor French improved considerably. The locals see fewer walkers and as such are extremely welcoming in a very genuine way, unlike sections of the Frances where they are often inundated with pilgrims passing by...even perhaps immune. The albergues were for the most part very good and quite new as more people discover this Camino. The places to visit along the way and to take rest days were wonderful and are covered elsewhere in the forum. I sometimes wonder if I'll find this experience again, but then I read about the Levante Camino which I'm planning to experience in 2017 or 2018.

I will be walking the Camino Invierno and the Camino Dos Faros at the beginning of my 2016 walking season and if all goes well I'll finish by meeting friends from Oz who I met on the Frances in Coimbra to walk the Portuguese. Many of the seasoned Europeans I met on the Plata and others who walked this past year have warned me about the Portuguese road walking. I understand it is mostly along busy roads from Lisbon to Porto and pretty much 50/50 road and trail after Porto. My cousin walked this past fall and told me that he very much disliked the portion to Porto because of all the roads and the injuries caused by walking on the hard road surface. What he did like was the close friends he made along that stretch because there were far fewer walking the southern portion, to my mind a nice trade off. I'm very much looking forward to this Camino route, but will make sure I walk some roads before I go!!

Let us know what you decide, but as Laurie says...walk them both!!

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