Camino Portugués
27.9 km, 120 m up and 116 m down, through 11 places, 6 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.
There exists an unofficial route that allows you to leave the Coastal route in Vila do Conde to join instead the Centralroute in Saõ Pedro de Rates. It is marked with two sets of arrows; one set is newer and brighter, and the other is faded and can be difficult to see at times. They do not always agree, but both will get you to where you want to go. There are two occasions where they need a bit of extra explanation, and the latter is drawn on the map as a red trail and is further explained below. This route is predominantly road walking, with less than 1km along woodland trails.
To begin, you should know that there are no arrows in Vila do Conde that will get you onto this route. While this may be a bit frustrating, it does ensure that nobody will accidentally follow arrows in the wrong direction. Finding the way is fairly straightforward, and once you do, the arrows will slowly emerge.
The best way to get your bearings is from the bridge over the river as you enter Vila do Conde. Visible from the bridge up high and on your right is the Monastery of Santa Clara. 300 years ago, the monastic community that lived here got started on a 999-arch, 4km long aqueduct to bring fresh water from a spring in a nearby town. It is exactly this aqueduct, and the arches that remain, which will guide you out of Vila do Conde. There are no arrows at this point, but they will gradually emerge.
Follow the aqueduct to the first immovable barrier, namely a fenced-in pasture. Here you must turn left, and then at the first opportunity turn right again. Keep your eye on the aqueduct and aim for it when you see the opportunity. It is around here that you will begin to see the yellow arrows.
The "official" arrows keep you adjacent to the aqueduct all the way to a point where you must cross the road at a point where there is no crossing. I have marked on the map a different route, which is safer but a bit longer. It requires you to turn left at the first big roundabout, and to cross over the main road, heading more or less towards the Renaultdealership. This route turns right not long after passing the said Renault dealership and arcs widely to the right to head back towards the aqueduct. When it finally reaches it, turn left to follow in its shadow once again.
Keep on along the aqueduct until once again you bump into a wall. You will know you are there by the pretty plaque in front of the arches which gives you a history of the marvel you have been using as a guide. Here you need to turn left, and pay close attention to the arrows. They will bring you all the way to the main road (Grocery store!) at which point you turn right to follow the road. By now you will have learned that the aqueduct is never far away, and sure enough, this road will bring you right back to it.
By now you may have noticed that the arches are getting progressively lower. Your path to Rates takes you uphill, and the source of the water is an underground spring. If you are excited to finally get to the point where you are taller than the aqueduct, I must be the bearer of bad news: the camino abandons it before you get the chance.
Keep on with the arrows to pass underneath the highway. The aqueduct here is long gone but may appear depending on which route you take next.
This is the first of the red routes mentioned at the beginning. The official arrows turn left along a super straight, slightly industrialized road with a bar at the other end and the aqueduct newly in sight. There is nothing wrong with this route, apart from more traffic. An alternative route is mapped in red. It follows a windy path through a few small villages. To describe this route would be an exercise in futility, as there are simply too many turns. It is not hard if you have the map, but otherwise, keep to the arrows.
From here on out, the arrows are much more visible, and you are 1/3 of the way to Rates. There are no further points of confusion, keep on with the arrows. They will bring you to the entrance to Rates, but here you must take care not to go back to the Coastal route. Aim for the church, and avoid any arrow near the bike/hike/no-longer-a-train-track path... that way will bring you to Esposende on the Coastal route. From the Church, the arrows will take you deeper and higher into town towards the albergue and the safe-to-follow Central route arrows.
The Metro of Porto Line B (Linha da Póvoa) passes through Vila do Conde. To stop here, disembark at the Santa Clara station.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 556 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 28.1 km.
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.