Bom Dia, pilgrim. Welcome to the threshold of the Portuguese Camino, which – like the Camino del Norte (if you’re not sure which route to choose, more about that camino here) – is also mostly coastal. Walking the Camino Portugal from Porto to Santiago is impressive, beautiful and demanding all at once, and this article is exactly where you’ll find the most essential information.
The Camino Portugal: walking from Porto to Santiago
There are several ways to get to Porto. If you want to set off from Czechia, the best option is to fly from Prague. If you don’t mind hopping over to our Austrian neighbours, you can fly direct from Vienna. If you find a suitable connection, you can fly early in the morning and have the whole day to explore this beautiful city. Otherwise, you can head straight out onto the camino! A spare day always comes in handy. 🙂
As the starting point of our walk from Porto to Santiago, we chose the Porto district of Matosinhos, which lies about 10 km from the centre. This lets you skip the urban part of Porto, which isn’t quite so “magical”. It also means you start your camino right by the sea. Why not use the time saved for a first dip?
You can get to Matosinhos on bus number 500, which drops you at the Ponte Móvel stop. Alternatively, you can get there by tram via the Senhora da Hora station all the way to Matosinhos.
Before you set off, though, it’s worth taking a moment for some practical preparation too. Portugal is one of the safer European destinations, but on a multi-day trek anything can happen – from minor health issues to lost luggage or the need to arrange medical care. So it pays to go over the basics about travelling in Portugal, local customs and traveller recommendations. You’ll find them clearly laid out in AXA’s travel guide to Portugal, which sums up the most important tips before you leave.
Coastal route vs. Central route
This question is hard to answer, because almost every pilgrim has asked it (we had the dilemma too). Even though there are thousands of reviews, everyone has different preferences, and you should really decide based on what you like more. Are you a mountain person who doesn’t need the sea so much? Take the Central route. Do you see the Camino as a holiday, and does the sea belong to a holiday for you? Take the coastal walk.
But what if we told you that you can mix the two? That’s exactly what we did. We love mountains and all kinds of crossings. But we also love the sea, because a pond and the sea are not the same thing. 😀 So for the first part of the walk from Porto to Santiago we took the coastal route, and for the second part we joined the central route. See the map below.
Camino Coastal route
Any sea lover will enjoy the coastal route from Porto to Santiago! Be prepared that you won’t get much shade, but there’ll be an abundance of seaside cafés and bars. You can combine the coastal route, just as we did. 🙂
Camino Central route
A pilgrimage on which you won’t see the sea (not entirely true – you’ll see it in the form of the bay near the town of Redondela). It might seem the route will be demanding, but you’ve nothing to fear. The highest point of the route is at 361 m above sea level. Combining it with the coastal route would be a detour.
Our route – walking from Porto to Santiago along the coast
We’ve already shown you the entry point. From there we continued along the coast to the town of Caminha, where we turned towards the Central route to enjoy a few hills too. The map is shown above. The individual stages are listed below.
- Porto (Matosinhos) ➡️ Póvoa de Varzim – 27.5 km
- Póvoa de Varzim ➡️ Marinhas (26.5 km)
- Marinhas ➡️ Carreço (33.1 km)
- Carreço ➡️ Seixas (24.4 km)
- Seixas ➡️ Tui (34.5 km)
- Tui ➡️ Redondela (33.6 km)
- Redondela ➡️ Portela (31.5 km)
- Portela ➡️ Padrón (30.5 km)
- Padrón ➡️ Santiago de Compostela (28.8 km)
Our pilgrimage to Santiago isn’t over – we’re off to the end of the world!
Our goal wasn’t Santiago itself; above all we wanted to go further, all the way to that end of the world. There’s a saying about Santiago – it rains like in Santiago. And it really does! The very second day after we arrived in Santiago it started to rain, and it kept raining for another week. Hopefully we didn’t cause it, but who knows? 🙂
In Santiago we rested, recharged and, above all, soaked up the atmosphere around the cathedral. We stopped at “our” favourite café and the next day we set off again! You’ll find more about the journey to the end of the world in this article.
Our experience with accommodation
When we first walked the Camino de Santiago in the covid year of 2021, we had a narrow idea of how many pilgrims you can meet on the way. Thanks to covid, the number of pilgrims was THREE TIMES lower than in 2022. To give you an idea:
- In the covid year (2021), when we walked the camino, a total of 160 thousand! pilgrims reached Santiago.
- Before covid (2019) it was 348 thousand!!
- In 2022 it was a record 439 THOUSAND pilgrims.
I’m writing this because in the first days we were taken aback by the number of pilgrims we met. I remember we even counted pilgrims over the first kilometres, wondering how many we’d reach the finish with. No surprise there – after the first day we stopped counting and reached the finish with none of them. Be prepared that the Portuguese route is very popular and a relatively high number of pilgrims walk it – a number that grows even more before Santiago!
Would we walk the Camino Portugal from Porto to Santiago again?
Probably yes. Because we walked the Camino de Santiago in the covid year, we had a very distorted picture of just how popular this pilgrimage is. Until you see the sheer number of people, you can’t imagine it. In 2023, over 1,300 people arrived in Santiago in a single morning. The same number didn’t arrive in the whole of 2021.
Overall, though, the pilgrimage was very lovely. Once again there was plenty of meeting people. This time we met two people from Slovakia and, even though we said goodbye about three times, we always randomly ran into each other again. That’s what’s amazing about the camino – it brings people together, and maybe that’s exactly why we enjoy it so much.
On top of that, I experienced something like a real enlightenment. 🙂 Over the past year I’d been acting like a hypochondriac, running to the doctor and googling at every little ache (even though I get a proper telling-off from Zdenička for it). Even when I find out I’m fine, I always find something new. During one shower it was as if something passed through me, and suddenly a thought struck me – “Pišta… this really can’t go on like this. You’ll always find something anyway, and you’ll be forever unhappy.” That thought was so powerful that I’ve lived by it ever since, and I have to say the quality of my life has risen dramatically. I mention it because a lot of people ask me whether I encountered anything spiritual. Maybe I did?
And not only that… we strengthened our relationship. We drew mental strength (walking 8 hours a day without a phone might sound boring, but it isn’t – it’s a great catalyst for the brain :D). We stretched our bodies. So, will you set off?
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