Camino Portugués
31.2 km, 223 m up and 213 m down, through 8 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 Vila Praia de Âncora. 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.
To find your way from Âncora, make your way to the waterfront. The camino follows the road adjacent to it, and where the yellow bike lanes begin you have the option of crossing to the right-hand side of the road, but keep an eye open for where the bike path turns left as you want to follow it to where it ends. From there continue along the dirt track, with the railway to your right for a short distance.
You will pass the Capela de Santa Isodoro on your left. The path will turn to a road as it enters the first suburbs of Caminha, and where the road ends at another turn right. You are at the beach now and a short distance later turn right and pass under the railway. Once back to the main road turn left and continue towards Caminha.
Where the camino arrives at a large roundabout with the N13, take the third exit along the Rua de Pombal (NOT over the railway). The road will eventually twist to pass over the tracks and from there it proceeds directly to Caminha, arriving at the main square, the Praça Conselheiro Silva Torres.
Moledo is a small beach village with views across the Rio Minho estuary to Spain. On clear days you can see Monte de Santa Trega -- the peak you'll be walking near after crossing into Galicia. The beach here is exposed a…
Caminha is the last town in Portugal. From here it's a short water taxi ride across the estuary to Spain -- or more precisely, to the point where the Atlantic meets the Rio Minho, a natural boundary that has separated th…
At the far end of town the road meets a roundabout and crosses a smaller river by way of a bridge. DO NOT CROSS THE BRIDGE unless Valença or Tui is your destination. Arrows here still exist, and if they do they are pointing the way to Tui along the Central Way. Instead, turn back towards the harbor; signed "Ferry Boat".
Several companies now offer the crossing from Caminha to A Guarda, and the ride takes around 20 minutes. The schedule varies with the tide, so you'll need to check locally or call ahead -- your accommodation in Caminha w…
From the ferry terminal in Camposancos you can choose to take an alternative route that circumnavigates the peninsula to the south, adding about 4km to the journey but adding some great views. Otherwise turn left from the ferry terminal to follow the water a short distance to the first road, turning right and uphill on the Camino del Palomar. Note that this is not the road that is marked A Guarda 2km. That road, marked red on the map, is a possibility though not the camino. The Camino del Palomar continues more or less straight uphill, turning only to pass around a large apartment block. At the top, it first crosses the road before turning left. A dozen meters on keep to the right along a smaller road, at which point you are heading south rather unnaturally. The camino turns itself around by turning right and then right again to follow a series of roads and trails around the Monte de Santa Trega. It eventually returns to the Paseo de Portugal road mentioned above and turns left into town. Entering this way means that you will stay at the upper half of the town, and a few variations exist which allow you to descend and then ascend.
Change the time on your watch/phone/sundial/wind-up alarm clock. Spain is one hour ahead, so assuming you wake up at the same hour as the day before you will find things to be darker than usual.
Leave A Guarda along the Rúa Puerto Rico, passing the municipal albergue. The arrows are poor here and the best way is to keep an eye out for a sign indicating the way to Playa Area Granda, a left turn off the Rúa Puerto Rico. Follow this road all the way to the sea and turn right. Ahead is a small beach, followed by a curve in the road, and then a slightly larger beach. This is the Area Grande.
From the Area Grande beach keep to your left and through the car park. Where the car park ends the path narrows, and a smaller trail to your left presents itself. Follow it along the coast. About 1.2km later the camino turns right at a large house, rising uphill to the main road but turning left just before reaching it. The idea here is to again keep off the busy road by means of a few side roads, twisting and turning a bit but eventually returning to the main road once more. When it does so you can follow along a dedicated bike/hike path. It will pass a car park/lookout point before turning left off the road and then right again to parallel the road all the way into Portocelos.
From Portocelos, continue along the same secondary road parallel to the main road. It will invariably return to the main road, once again following the dedicated bike/hike path adjacent to the road. Where the curb barrier ends the camino veers left away from the road and into Oia.
The path through Oia takes you past all of the important stuff; first the Casa Puerta, then the restaurant, and then the Monastery of Oia.
300m beyond the Monastery the camino turns left to follow a coastal footpath and always keeping to the shoreline. You will eventually return to the road, and when you do the familiar bicycle path is there once more, follow it to the left and into Viladesuso.
The Hotel Glasgow is the first building in town, and just beyond it is a Repsol station. Just beyond that the camino crosses the main road and turns right uphill. At then end of this short road it jogs right then left again to keep on the path that is marked for bicycles. Follow this path across a river, and then take the first right uphill and away from the main road. Where this uphill climb ends, turn left. Follow this road, eyes to your left to enjoy the view and so that you can spot the turn off to the left, marked only by a yellow and a red arrow on the road itself. It merges with another path and then reaches an intersection, where a left turn takes you back down in the direction of the main road. Just a few meters short of the main road turn right on a narrow lane parallel to it, saving you a few meters of the road and keeping you on the marked bike path which eventually returns to the road, crosses the road, and continues along it. Cross the bridge into Mougas and turn left towards the sea on the first road.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 854 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 31.6 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.