Tomar to Alvaiázere

[AJGuillaume]

We're planning our Caminho Português for 2020.
For medical reasons, we are aiming at doing 15km stages, 20km maximum.
On the stage from Tomar to Alvaiázere, which is Nearly 32km, there is a half way point at Vila Verde, with the Heart Way Pilgrim House.
A comment on Gronze says: "Mejor asegurarse que esta abierto, antes de décider quedarse allí".
So I contacted the lovely Liede, asking her if her place would be open in May 2020.
One has to love her answer: "Hi Andrew! I don't know anything yet about may 2020, neither About tomorrow. So I can just say that universe/ god Will provide all with what they need perfectly. With this knowledge I live. I know you can too with love, Liede"
Unfortunately, and again because of medical reasons, I can't just wait for the universe to provide, so I am looking for alternatives in case Liede has no space or is not open.
I have yet to find alternative accommodation around the half way point of this stage, so I need to find transport options along the stage.
We could skip this stage completely by taking a bus from Tomar to Alvaiázere, but would prefer not to do so.
I am having trouble finding info about busses along that stage, so was wondering whether anyone here might have more info, or used a bus on this stage.
Also open to any other suggestions.
Obrigado!
Bom Caminho

 

[peregrina2000]

How about a detour to Ferreira de Zezere, it’s about halfway and there are places to stay. Just a thought.

Rome2Rio shows buses between the two towns, too. Rodoviaria do Tejo is the bus line.

 

[Anne&Pat]

Hi, Pat & I walked the Camino Portuguese from Lisbon, April/May 2016. We stayed in Tomar for 3 nights, so we could explore and had hoped to go to Fatima by bus, but because of the 1st May public holiday we weren’t able to. So we explored one day and the next day we walked to Calvinos, 11.01kms. Our Tomar accommodation helped us arrange a taxi to pick us up in Calvinos at the Cafe/ Mercado. We called the taxi when we arrived at the Cafe. The next morning the taxi took us back to Calvinos and we walked on to Alvaiareze. I think the taxi cost us 16 Euros, one way. But we also didn’t want to walk the distance between Tomar and Alvaiareze, especially having walked from Golega to Tomar, 31kms!
With some of the other longer stages on the Portuguese especially early on we were able to use the trains to reduce the stages we walked, for example, we walked 12.8kms to Sacavem train station, then got the train back to Lisbon, next day got train back to Sacavem and walked on to Povoa de Santa Iria.
Hope this helps, please ask any other questions, happy to help.
Bom Caminho,
Anne & Pat

 

[AJGuillaume]

How about a detour to Ferreira de Zezere, it’s about halfway and there are places to stay. Just a thought.

Rome2Rio shows buses between the two towns, too. Rodoviaria do Tejo is the bus line.

Thank you Laurie!
Ferreira do Zêzere looks like a good option. I'll try to find a track on Wikiloc.
I had found the Rodoviaria do Tejo through Rome2Rio, but I couldn't find a timetable or a route on the website.

 

[AJGuillaume]

Hi, Pat & I walked the Camino Portuguese from Lisbon, April/May 2016. We stayed in Tomar for 3 nights, so we could explore and had hoped to go to Fatima by bus, but because of the 1st May public holiday we weren’t able to. So we explored one day and the next day we walked to Calvinos, 11.01kms. Our Tomar accommodation helped us arrange a taxi to pick us up in Calvinos at the Cafe/ Mercado. We called the taxi when we arrived at the Cafe. The next morning the taxi took us back to Calvinos and we walked on to Alvaiareze. I think the taxi cost us 16 Euros, one way. But we also didn’t want to walk the distance between Tomar and Alvaiareze, especially having walked from Golega to Tomar, 31kms!
With some of the other longer stages on the Portuguese especially early on we were able to use the trains to reduce the stages we walked, for example, we walked 12.8kms to Sacavem train station, then got the train back to Lisbon, next day got train back to Sacavem and walked on to Povoa de Santa Iria.
Hope this helps, please ask any other questions, happy to help.
Bom Caminho,
Anne & Pat

Thank you Anne & Pat,
The taxi option is interesting. Especially if the taxi can be organised from Tomar.
We will have arrived walking from Fatima.
Obrigado!
Bom Caminho!
Andrew & Rachel

 

[lindam]

Just had a quick look for possible options in Vila Verde on Airbnb. There appear to be several listings in this small town. You might want to take a look, if you wanted to keep to your original itinerary. Hopefully there is something suitable for you that would be available at the time you plan to be there.

 

[peregrina2000]

Thank you Anne & Pat,
The taxi option is interesting. Especially if the taxi can be organised from Tomar.
We will have arrived walking from Fatima.
Obrigado!
Bom Caminho!
Andrew & Rachel

Well, duh, why didn’t I think of that! If you’ve seen the Resource “Short Stages from Lisbon,” you’ll see that the owners along the way (and I remember Tomar and Alziazare are definitely involved) had “organized” a service for doing just that. So I am sure they will help you out with arranging it. If you have trouble getting in contact with the relevant people, just try Mario at Santarem Hostel — he was the grand organizer of this.

 

[jsalt]

We could skip this stage completely by taking a bus from Tomar to Alvaiázere, but would prefer not to do so.
I am having trouble finding info about busses along that stage, so was wondering whether anyone here might have more info, or used a bus on this stage.

Hi, if you decide to take the bus, there is one in the morning (about 10:30), and one late afternoon (about 17:30), from Tomar to Alvaiazere. It takes about an hour. I took the morning bus once, and a camino buddy took the afternoon bus. http://www.rodotejo.pt/interurbanas/

 

[AJGuillaume]

Just had a quick look for possible options in Vila Verde on Airbnb. There appear to be several listings in this small town. You might want to take a look, if you wanted to keep to your original itinerary. Hopefully there is something suitable for you that would be available at the time you plan to be there.

Airbnb is an option, indeed, @lindam , thank you!
Only one listing for our travel dates, but as the saying goes: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

 

[AJGuillaume]

Hi, if you decide to take the bus, there is one in the morning (about 10:30), and one late afternoon (about 17:30), from Tomar to Alvaiazere. It takes about an hour. I took the morning bus once, and a camino buddy took the afternoon bus. http://www.rodotejo.pt/interurbanas/

Thank you @jsalt !
I was hoping to find a bus schedule with intermediate stops between Tomar and Alvaiázere, but no such luck. The idea was to walk from Tomar, and catch a bus somewhere on the bus route after about 15km.

 

[jsalt]

Thank you @jsalt !
I was hoping to find a bus schedule with intermediate stops between Tomar and Alvaiázere, but no such luck. The idea was to walk from Tomar, and catch a bus somewhere on the bus route after about 15km.

The bus does not run near the walking route, so you can't walk a bit and bus a bit. Taxis are not expensive so you could walk a bit and taxi a bit (or vice versa, which would be much easier to arrange).

It IS a long day (I walked it once, which is why I took a bus the next time!) By getting there early I thoroughly checked out the town and found the coolest bar on the camino, so when my 2 camino buddies arrived (one walked, the other explored Tomar and got the later bus), we spent the evening there putting the world to rights. It was far from the albergue, but we were the only ones staying so could arrive back late.

Back to the bus: have you clicked on the link in my previous post? You can enter the start point and destination and get the bus times. Click on one and you'll get all the stops.

 

[AJGuillaume]

Well, duh, why didn’t I think of that! If you’ve seen the Resource “Short Stages from Lisbon,” you’ll see that the owners along the way (and I remember Tomar and Alziazare are definitely involved) had “organized” a service for doing just that. So I am sure they will help you out with arranging it. If you have trouble getting in contact with the relevant people, just try Mario at Santarem Hostel — he was the grand organizer of this.

Thank you Laurie! I keep forgetting about the Resources available on this forum!

 

[AJGuillaume]

The bus does not run near the walking route, so you can't walk a bit and bus a bit.

That's the info I was looking for, and now that I followed your instructions by clicking on one of the items in the schedule, I can see that the bus solution is not going to work.