Imagine yourself walking along the boardwalks of the Portuguese Camino Coastal Route, heading north, with the Atlantic Ocean to your left and beautiful seaside towns to your right.
Then, picture yourself doing it day after day while you meet incredible people from all over the world.
Imagine sitting down at an Albergue picnic table after a long day of walking and learn to live together in bunk beds with vinyl mattress covers. You think you won’t like it until you’re there and you feel the magic.
That’s where you know you made the right decision in choosing to hike the Portuguese Camino Coastal Route.
I hiked it with my Mom and my partner in 2024, and it was a dream. Let me help make your dream come to life by sharing everything you need to know about the Portuguese Camino Coastal Route, from maps and layers to phone apps. This post even shows you two different-paced itineraries: one for those who enjoy the slow life and one for those who want to test their physical limits.
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List of Contents
Portuguese Camino Coastal Route at a Glance
Let’s start with some quick facts:
🌇 While the Portuguese Camino can also start in Lisbon, the Coastal Route starts from Porto.
🇵🇹 You’ll start in Portugal but end in Spain. 🇪🇸
👣 You can walk the Coastal Route from Porto to Santiago at a leisurely pace in 17 days or a fast pace in 10 days.
🌁 The Portuguese Camino Coastal Route meanders from Porto to Redondela, where it connects with and continues on the central route. You will always finish on the central route.
🌨️ If you get bad weather, you can cut inland earlier from the Portuguese Camino coastal route in Caminha.
👣 Depending on which way you connect back to the central route from Porto to Santiago, it is either 160.9 miles (259 km) or 168.6 miles (271.3 km).
🛏️ There are many accommodation options, including municipal and private albergues (what’s an albergue?), hostels, guest houses, private rooms, and hotels.
Portuguese Camino Coastal Route Map
I saw this map at an Albergue and took a photo because it clearly depicted the overall Portuguese Camino coastal route.
Don’t get spooked by the marked distances! Those indicate the suggested “stages” that usually start and end in larger towns. There are often albergue gems in between stages. You do not have to follow the stages in the apps.
This map also clearly showed the two main ways to reconnect with the central route: inland from Caminha and continuing up the Spanish coast.
Good Clothing Layers for the Coastal Route
Having different layers is KEY on the Portuguese Camino coastal route!
That does not mean you need 2-3 of anything besides underwear and socks. One of the following hiking layers is enough, plus your town/sleep clothes (which should be the same!)
Hiking Layers:
- Short-sleeve shirt
- Long-sleeve shirt
- Mid-Layer (fleece)
- Rain Jacket (also for wind!)
- Shorts
- Leggings/light pants
When you’re gathering your layers, make sure you prepare yourself for wind and rain. Even in the fall, it was not outrageously cold, but it would get cool. I often hiked in my dress with a long-sleeve sun shirt and my rain jacket while saving my fleece for the albergue.
Despite the wind, my ultralight umbrella was the star of the show. I would not hike another Camino without it! If it was only a lighter rain, I often only pulled the umbrella out instead of my rain jacket.
Remember that when it’s sunny and warm, you won’t want those extra layers to be very heavy since you’ll be carrying them.
You should have enough layers…however, less is more. If you really need it, you can often find a small store with an extra layer.
Before You Leave Porto, Make Sure…
Here’s a small checklist before you leave Porto on the Portuguese Camino coastal route.
- 🛂 Get a pilgrim passport (credential)! You can get these at the Porto Cathedral if you didn’t get one online ahead of time.
- 💟 Get a starting stamp on your pilgrim passport. You can get this at the Porto Cathedral or the Tourism Office next to it.
- 📱 Check that your digital app maps are downloaded on wifi before you leave wifi. When in doubt…get an eSIM for data in between wifi locations!
- 🙆♀️ Lightly stretch! Most bodies are not used to walking all day, every day. Give yourself at least 5 minutes to warm your muscles up with light stretching. There is such a thing as overstretching, so don’t go too hard at the beginning.
- 🔌 Double-check your bed area before leaving your accommodation! It’s easy to accidentally leave things behind until you get your rhythm. Always check the electrical outlets!
What Phone Apps You Need to Hike
Hiking apps have taken over paper maps on the Caminos de Santiago, and the Portuguese Camino coastal route is no exception.
I juggled multiple apps for our Portuguese Camino hike because they all offered something a little different.
- Wise Pilgrim: Portuguese Camino
- Buen Camino
- Camino Ninja
- Google Maps
- Booking
- eSIM for Data
- NordVPN
When I first started hiking Caminos in 2008, I could only navigate and plan from guidebooks. Since the Camino communities are still transitioning, sometimes these guidebooks are still helpful.
While hiking, we brought a very thin and light guidebook to help with extra planning. We used it a few times, but overall, the apps were easier to work with.
The larger, older guidebooks have a lot of fascinating history, but IMO, they’re all printed on thick, heavy paper and not worth carrying. We did purchase a larger guidebook to learn a little beforehand, but due to its weight, we left it behind.
Portuguese Camino Coastal Route Itineraries
After hiking the Portuguese Camino from Lisbon to Santiago and over to Finisterre and Muxía, I created two different itineraries.
These are excellent guidelines to help you with your planning…especially the time you need to purchase flights. You can also bookmark them to help with your albergue bookings on the go! (I never recommend booking more than 1-2 nights ahead so you can stay fluid. It’s nice to have that flexibility for weather and hiking with others.)
Slower Pace Itinerary
- 9-14 miles per day (14.5-22.5 km)
- 17 days
- Offers both Coastal Route options
- Great for those who want to explore more of the towns, those who need more rest, and those folks who have more years on their feet.
Fast Pace Itinerary
- 17-23 miles per day (27-37 km)
- 10 days
- Offers both Coastal Route options
- Great for those who have thru-hiked before, those in fantastic physical shape.
- Also includes from Lisbon to Porto…just skip to Porto for the 10-day itinerary.
Debating about adding the extra 227.9 miles (366.8 km) from Lisbon? After hiking it, I wrote: Lisbon to Porto…is it worth it?
If I Hiked the Portuguese Camino Coastal Route Again, I would…
When my Mom, my partner, and I hiked the Portuguese Camino coastal route in the fall of 2024, we had a rainier-than-normal season.
In our planning, I did not take hurricane season into account. I naively thought they were only a problem in the Gulf of Mexico and the Southeastern U.S.. While we hiked, one category-one hurricane hit Northern Portugal and Northwestern Spain (aka the Portuguese Camino coastal route). Then, a second was downgraded to a tropical storm, which also hit a week later.
Due to the first hurricane, we headed inland from Caminha. I loved this experience because of the gem of an albergue in Vila Nova de Cerveira and because Valença, Portugal, was such a cool town.
However, I feel like it would have been fun to continue up the coast if the weather was a little better.
Final Thoughts
The Portuguese Camino coastal route is a rewarding experience in views, culture, food, and unique albergues.
Because of the ocean views, I would have a harder time hiking the central route from Porto.
Even if you don’t have as much rain as we did, you’ll more than likely have a few rainy days. Over all four of my Camino experiences, I’ve always had at least two downpour rainy days in Galicia. Have the right gear and embrace the literal sheets of rain!
