Camino Portugués
27.3 km, 40 m up and 15 m down, through 10 places, 5 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Foz do Douro. Most are too small to sleep in — a fountain, a chapel, a bar that may or may not be open — but they are what the day is actually made of.
Foz do Douro sits where the Rio Douro empties into the Atlantic, and it marks the true beginning of coastal walking. The Jardim do Passeio Alegre, a shaded garden near the river mouth, makes a pleasant first stop. Beyond…
The camino enters town along the beach-front, and turns inland when it reaches the harbor, making a zig zag path to the bridge over the Río Leça. At the end of the bridge you will turn left at the large roundabout, to follow the Rua Hintze Ribeiro back towards the waterfront.
Passing the lighthouse, keep your gaze to the left, where you can enjoy a sea view far superior to the oil refinery to your right. Between here and the Obelisk you will follow off and on a walkway, passing several food options.
From the Obelisk, keep on the beach-side walkways straight ahead. You will pass several bar/restaurants along the way to the Angeiras Sea Houses. The camino follows a pedestrian promenade alongside the sea.
At the end of town, leave the road and rejoin the familiar wooden boardwalk, it will soon cross the Río Onda to rejoin the road into Labruge.
At the end of town is the Avenida Da Libertade, turn right here to get to the albergue or continue straight along the beach walk. Arrows are sparse, but a few point the way to the Castro of Sampaio.
The camino leaves the familiar beach setting but follows close to the shore while it climbs to reach the chapel and castro of San Paio. From here follow the walkway along the dunes to reach Facho - Vila Chã.
At the start of town the camino turns away from the shore and passes through the village, gone is the wooden boardwalk. It will stay some distance from the shore until Povoa de Varzim.
There are two ways from Mindelo to Ávore, one along the waterfront and one inland. In recent years the waterfront option has become sand-swept, making it difficult for cyclists.
The new boardwalk out of Mindelo has been completed and you no longer need to take the red alternate route.
From Ávore the walking is entirely along paved roads.
Between Azurara and Vila do Conde flows the Rio Ave. Once over the bridge, turn left and walk along the park and Plaza de la Republica. At the end of the park follow straight (along the waterfront) until the next side street (the Rua do Lidador) where you turn right and uphill. At the top of hill there is an intersection of the old-town style, which is to say many directions all difficult to describe. Keep straight here, if somewhat to the right, and head towards the Igreja Matriz.
The Metro of Porto Line B (Linha da Póvoa) passes through Azurara. To stop here, disembark at the Azurara station, but note that one more stop takes you to Vila do Conde’s Santa Clara station.
Distances are the sum of the town-to-town measurements in my data, not a straight line on a map. Climb and descent come from the altitude of each place listed above, so they under-read where the path goes over a hill between two of them.
Esta entidad ha sido beneficiaria de una ayuda del Programa de incentivos a la movilidad eficiente y sostenible (MOVES III), gestionado por la Xunta de Galicia a través del Instituto Enerxético de Galicia (INEGA) en el marco del Real Decreto 266/2021, y cofinanciada por la Unión Europea — NextGenerationEU, dentro del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia.