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Reverse travel from Santiago to Porto as a pilgrim: Need advice!

C

Chris3

New Member
Time of past OR future Camino
The French Way 2018
Camino del Norte 09/23
Hi just wondering if anybody knows if you can still travel as a pilgrim in reverse. I am doing the Camino del Norte in Sept/Oct this year and then plan to cycle from Santiago to Porto. Does anyone know if you can still use your pilgrim passport and stay in the Albergues and get pilgrim meals etc. Thanks in advance. Chris.
 
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Hi there!

As I walked a month ago many pilgrims came towards me on their way to Fatima via Porto and Lisbon.
Met bicigrinos in Viana that rode like you plan. AFAIK as long as you dont get the end-stamp in your credential you can use it as you like.

Have fun!
 
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There are a couple of layers to this. If you get a Compostela at the end of the CdN, the Pilgrim Office will close your credential. You could, of course get another credencial at some point and use that for those places that need you to have one.

There are well established pilgrim routes to Fatima in Portugal. North of Porto, the route to Fatima is generally the reverse of the Camino Portuguese route. Unlike following other Camino de Santiago routes in reverse, this means that you can follow the Caminho de Fatima waymarking.

The question of whether you can 'still travel as a pilgrim' is one only you can answer. What would be your destination, the purpose of your pilgrimage? On the CdN it would be reasonable to expect that your purpose is to is to reach the place where St James is buried, Santiago. If you were planning to continue to Fatima, it would also be clear. But Porto raises the prospect that you are not travelling on a pilgrimage, even if this is a significant personal undertaking.

While none of us can answer this question for you, it is important that you do for at least one significant reason. There are many albergues along all the camino routes established and maintained solely for the use of pilgrims. They are managed and maintained by the contributions of local communities, other religious associations and volunteers from around the world that don't begrudge the significant costs involved. Using these if you weren't a pilgrim would clearly be inappropriate.
 
As long as you have a credencial you can stay in an albergue. Not too many pilgrims meals in Portugal though. I would recommend also using a waymarking app like Wise Pilgrim because I didn’t not find the CP as well marked as the CF.
 
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We did it in June 2023. We first walked the CF from SJPdP. We scheduled our flight back to USA out of Porto because we wanted to walk the CP costal route since we had never travelled that route. We had walked the CP central in 2017, so we started in Vigo rather then Santiago. We did not collect any stamps and never had a problem staying in the albergue's. The only thing that we really missed was the opportunity to spend more than one day with other pilgrims we met since we were heading in the opposite direction. As mentioned above - WisePilgrim app will keep moving in the correct direction. You will notice there are stretches where there are 2 path - one close to the ocean and the other a little in-land. We did some of both, but decided we liked to stick close to the water whenever there was a choice. We leave on Sept. 4 to walk the del Norte - maybe we will cross paths.
 
In March we hiked from Porto to Tomar to Fatima...after first hiking from Porto to Santiago. Walking in reverse following blue arrows to Fatima was amazing.
 
Or just walk to Fátima via Tomar.

The other routes are fine too, but that's the one with the best infrastructure and the more fellow pilgrims to come across (whether Central or Coastal to Porto).
 
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Hi Joe. Thanks for the reply. That’s really helpful. We don’t start the del Norte until September 17th. But once again thanks and Buen Camino.
 
Gumbolover said:
In March we hiked from Porto to Tomar to Fatima...after first hiking from Porto to Santiago. Walking in reverse following blue arrows to Fatima was amazing.
Click to expand...
Hello. Want to do thé same. But a lot off pilgrim in coastal way told me the part between lisbonne to porto was make in big part of hard Road with Many cars and not easy to walk. Difficult to find albergue too
You confirm ????
 
Julien said:
Hello. Want to do thé same. But a lot off pilgrim in coastal way told me the part between lisbonne to porto was make in big part of hard Road with Many cars and not easy to walk. Difficult to find albergue too
You confirm ????
Click to expand...
The worst is between Lisbon and Tomar, as I understand it from others. North of Tomar it starts to be more of some stretches of tarmac, and some of trail. Also, small tarmac roads not main roads with much traffic.

And between Tomar and Porto, it's not hard at all to find an Albergue ; and there are some great ones !!
 
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Finding yellow arrows going the opposite way is not easy .
December 2011 after finishing a CF I walked alone from Santiago to Tui/Valenca.This backwards blog might help you.

Good luck with your planning.
However/wherever you do go Buen camino!
 
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