Walk from Portuguese Border to Santiago

Jccu04 · 2024-12-16T19:46:52+0100

I'm going with a group to walk from the Minho River to Santiago along the Coastal Route. Almost all of our trek will be in Spain. I've read that locals in that area speak both Portuguese and Spanish. I can communicate pretty well in Spanish, but I don't consider myself fluent. Would it be better for me to focus on studying and improving my Spanish, or should I try to learn some Portuguese?

Pelegrin · 2024-12-16T20:27:47+0100

Jccu04 said:
I'm going with a group to walk from the Minho River to Santiago along the Coastal Route. Almost all of our trek will be in Spain. I've read that locals in that area speak both Portuguese and Spanish. I can communicate pretty well in Spanish, but I don't consider myself fluent. Would it be better for me to focus on studying and improving my Spanish, or should I try to learn some Portuguese?

If your trek is almost all in Spain ( Galicia) you don' t need to learn Portuguese. In this part of Spain there is a local language called Galego similar to Portuguese but you don' t need to learn it. Spanish will be enough.

BROWNCOUNTYBOB · 2024-12-16T20:34:57+0100

I hiked Camino Portuguese from Porto to Santiago in Sept-Oct 2023, hiking the coastal route, then crossing inland to Ponte de Lima. Then hiked from Tui to Santiago. I'm semi fluent in Spanish and had no issues communicating with locals at stores, restaurants, etc.

Bob

Jccu04 · 2024-12-16T21:29:25+0100

Pelegrin said:
If your trek is almost all in Spain ( Galicia) you don' t need to learn Portuguese. In this part of Spain there is a local language called Galego similar to Portuguese but you don' t need to learn it. Spanish will be enough.

Thank you,

That is very helpful. I read that the majority of residents speak both Galego and Spanish, and about half spoke Spanish primarily in the home and half spoke Portuguese/Galego primarily in the home. I was worried I'd speak broken Spanish to someone who spoke Portuguese, and I'd offend someone.

Thanks for your help.

dougfitz · 2024-12-16T21:29:40+0100

Even if you start on the Portuguese side of the Rio Minho at Caminha, almost the first thing you will be doing is crossing into Spain. You won't find much, if any, Portuguese spoken from that point. Although you might hear Galego, my experience is that Spanish will be used when engaging with pilgrims.

dougfitz · 2024-12-16T21:33:17+0100

Jccu04 said:
I was worried I'd speak broken Spanish to someone who spoke Portuguese, and I'd offend someone.

If you were to do that in Portugal, at worst you might get a smart reminder that you are speaking in Spanish. My take - use English if you can. You will find most Portuguese have a good working knowledge and would prefer you do that than speak to them in Spanish.

Pelegrin · 2024-12-16T21:56:04+0100

Jccu04 said:
Thank you,

That is very helpful. I read that the majority of residents speak both Galego and Spanish, and about half spoke Spanish primarily in the home and half spoke Portuguese/Galego primarily in the home. I was worried I'd speak broken Spanish to someone who spoke Portuguese, and I'd offend someone.

Thanks for your help.

Portuguese and Galego have many coincidences in vocabulary but pronunciation and writing are quite different.

Denzil · Wednesday at 7:33 AM

Does anyone have a spreadsheet of the distances and the different villages or towns from Porto to Santiago de Compostela on the Portuguese coastal Camino Thank you

Jccu04 · 2024-12-16T19:46:52+0100

I'm going with a group to walk from the Minho River to Santiago along the Coastal Route. Almost all of our trek will be in Spain. I've read that locals in that area speak both Portuguese and...

Walk from Portuguese Border to Santiago

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