Camino Portugués: 620 km in 25 days

Scenic coastal route from Portugal to Santiago

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Stops on this route

Lisbon or Porto, Portugal

Lisbon is Portugal's capital, built across seven hills on the north bank of the Tagus estuary. Its pastel facades, black-and-white cobbled pavements, and yellow trams have made it one of Europe's most photographed cities, while its Age of Discoveries monuments recall the era when Portuguese ships set out to chart the globe.

Porto

Porto is Portugal's second city, spread across steep granite slopes on the north bank of the Douro River, where it meets the Atlantic. Its historic center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a dense stack of tiled townhouses tumbling down toward the riverfront Ribeira district, and its name gave the world port wine, still aged in warehouses across the water in Vila Nova de Gaia.

Barcelos

Barcelos is a town on the Cávado River in Portugal's Minho region and a stop on the Camino Português, the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. It is best known for the legend of the Galo de Barcelos, in which a roasted rooster is said to have crowed to prove a wrongly condemned pilgrim's innocence, and the ceramic rooster that grew out of the story has become one of Portugal's most recognizable folk symbols.

Ponte de Lima

Ponte de Lima is the oldest chartered town in Portugal, built along the Lima River and named for its Roman-medieval bridge that still carries pedestrians across the water. It is a stop on the Camino Portugués da Costa, the coastal branch of the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, and pilgrims pass through its arcaded riverside promenade on the way north.

Valença

Valença is a fortress town on the Minho River directly across from Tui, Spain, known for its massive star-shaped bastion walls built to defend the border. It is the last Portuguese stop on the Camino Portugués before pilgrims cross the international bridge into Galicia, making its fortified old town a natural gateway point on the pilgrimage route.

Tui

Tui is a border town on the Camino Portugués, facing the Portuguese city of Valença across the Minho River, and pilgrims arriving from Portugal enter Spain here before the final stretch to Santiago. Its steep, granite old town is crowned by a fortress-like cathedral with battlements, reflecting the town's history as a frontier stronghold.

Padrón

Padrón is a riverside town on the Camino Portugués in Galicia, tied by legend to the arrival of the apostle James's relics by boat and to the stone mooring post, the pedrón, that gave the town its name and now sits beneath the church altar. It is the last significant stop before Santiago de Compostela, about a day's walk or a short drive to the north.

Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Santiago de Compostela is the spiritual endpoint of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage network that has drawn walkers to the tomb of Saint James for over a thousand years. Its granite old town, centered on the Romanesque cathedral, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the great pilgrimage cities of Europe.

Road charges and rules along the way

Portugal

No motorway vignette or environmental sticker is required for passenger cars in Portugal; motorways are free or distance-tolled.

Mandatory equipment: Safety vest (reflective, high-visibility), Warning triangle, Spare bulbs (headlights)

Spain

Mandatory equipment: Safety vest (reflective, high-visibility), Warning triangle, Spare bulbs (headlights), Snow chains

Driving in Spain: full guide →

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