Camino Portugués
24.1 km, 530 m up and 610 m down, through 14 places, 8 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Labruja. 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.
A hamlet on the climb from Arco to the alto. No services. Keep climbing.
A hamlet 600 m beyond Labruja. No services. The alto is close.
The alto is at 400m elevation, a healthy climb from Ponte de Lima (5m).It is steadily downhill from here along parts of the old Roman road. You will pass through the small town of Agualonga (no services) shortly before São Roque.
A small village on the descent from the Alto da Portelo. No services. The old Roman road surface survives in sections here.
The camino leaves the road for the forest and passes the Romanesque church of Rubiães and the albergue.
From the municipal albergue, descend to the road and follow it downhill and on the left-hand side. You will pass Ninho – The Pilgrim Nest and then dogleg left.Another Roman bridge is not far ahead. Beyond the bridge the camino returns to the road and crossed directly over it, keeping the bar on your right. It will rejoin and depart the road twice more before arriving in Pecene.
A Roman bridge — or rather, a 13th-century bridge on Roman foundations. The reconstruction is solid but the original may have been more elegant. The camino crosses and returns to the road, crossing it twice more before r…
Straight through town, passing between the Capela and the Casa de Capela.
The arrows in town are not the best. To get through head to the church and turn left after passing it... after taking a rest in the bosky park in front. The camino keeps to the forest trails through Gontumil to Fontoura.
A hamlet in the forest between Sao Bento and Fontoura. No services.
The camino rejoins a paved road before Fontoura, and then a larger one as it passes through town. On the far end of town, it turns off this road to the left and towards Paços.
A hamlet between Fontoura and Valenca. No services.
A bridge crossing on the approach to Tuido. No services.
The camino crosses the busy N13 here, following the Rua da Viega past several Churrasqueiras, and turning left at the small chapel. Follow the signs to Arão.
Turn right past the Casa do Diogo (on your left, rooms available) and through Arão. There is not much to the town. Soon you will pass over the railway, and into the city limits of Valença. Turn right to follow the road (it is in a poor state for cars but suitable for pilgrims), turning right at the first roundabout and left at the junction shortly after. You are now walking due north towards Spain and directly into Valença.
When leaving Valença do so by following the signs through the citadel, or along the Avenida de Espanha, crossing the Tui International Bridge (often called the Valença International Bridge, but almost never the Tui Valença International Bridge). The rather quaint building nestled into the bridge on the opposite end is the original checkpoint that has long been out of use.TIP: Cross the bridge using the walkway that is on your right, not the more naturally accessible one on the left. You will have much better views of Tui this way.
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.
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.