We walked the Portuguese Camino north from Porto
With the Portuguese Camino gaining in popularity, we had to check it out for ourselves. So right after Easter this year, our daughter Maddy and I hopped flights to Porto and walked north to the Spanish border.
We had a wonderful time with great views walking along the sand dunes beside the Atlantic Ocean. The hotels were welcoming, the food fantastic and the towns we stayed in both historic and well equipped to host a group of Camino walkers.
And so we plan to add this walk to our future tours. The dates are not locked down yet, but we expect to do it in the second half of April 2023.
As you can see from the photos here, Portugal offered great walking each and every day of our trip.
We started with a walking tour of Porto. It is Portugal’s second largest city. This makes the place sound big, but it never felt overwhelming. Historic buildings lined both sides of the Douro River, with plenty of cafes and restaurants on terraces and balconies to help you enjoy the view.
We soon headed out north, up the coast. We cut inland one day to see the countryside, but most days we simply walked along the dunes on boardwalks. Then finally we reached Spain and spent a night in a monastery in the town of A Guarda. The next two days we followed along the banks of the Minho River before ending our journey in the walled town of Valença.
High point of the trip? In addition to being so close to the ocean, I’d have to say it was the wildflowers. There were dozens and dozens of sorts, all in full springtime bloom.
Stay tuned for more news about walking the Portuguese Camino in 2022.
