Come and live an unforgettable experience with our adapted services!
We propose you a complete program that, in any case, can be adapted to the desired length and distance depending on your availability of time and desire for adventure! A shorter period of time is perfectly possible, but will not allow you to obtain the Compostela (unless you wish to return later to finish the path).
Enjoy the beauty of the Portuguese central Way to Saint James.
This fascinating journey is in your hands. You can enjoy it without worries and with the guarantee and peace of mind of travelling through paths previously analysed and tested. Your only function will be: Enjoy it!
The non-accessible sections of the route are made in a support vehicle.
PACK DEMANDING PILGRIMAGE – LEVEL 3 (high – Difficulty 3); deaf people, mute people, people recovering from injuries, seniors with good mobility and others.
You’re going to start at the Monastery of Vairão and you will pass through several bridges, chapels and places such as Santagões, S. Mamede, S. Miguel de Arcos, Moldes and Borgonha.
Your final destination for this first route is the village of Rates, where you will stamp your first credential.
After a calmer and rural first part, the second part of this route will begin in Barcelos, a town linked to the legend of the Galo de Barcelos, one of the most well known symbols belonging to the Portuguese nation. Legend has it that a Galician pilgrim on his way to Santiago de Compostela.
You will get to know the historical centre of this town, as well as the richness that exists in terms of natural landscapes, not forgetting the preciousness of the monuments.
From Barcelos you’re going to follow a second shorter route towards Lijó, where today’s route is going to end.
This first stage is about to come to an end and we want that the emotion that you’re feeling continue to accompany you, as well as the same “interest” that you felt when you started this Central Portuguese Way!
This route will get you to discover the villages of: Giesta; Gândara; Ponte; S. Bento; Fonte de Cal; Cambado; Outeiro; Carreira de Agra; Cresto; Portela; Quinta de Albergaria; Outeiro do Rio Forcada; Sobreiro; Guerra; Bouça; Silveiro; Paço; Barros and among others.
This stage’s final destination will take place in Ponte de Lima, considered one of the oldest portuguese town and, besides its famous bridge, it possesses a rich patrimony as you’re going to see in its small and beautiful streets.
It’ll be in this town that you’ll have your well-deserved rest and recovery for the new stage in the next day, and nothing like the gastronomy of this town to help you restoring your strengths!
Starting from Ponte de Lima, where you finished the previous stage, you will walk in direction to Espinheiros, contacting with the rural environment and nature through the villages of Barreiro; Arcozelo; Barrosa; Lousados; Regatal; Devesa and Salgueiro. You will find amazing rural landscapes and feel its tranquillity in all your senses !!!!
The following day and also the last route in Portuguese territory it’s going to start in Fontoura, where you’ll keep your pilgrimage through the villages of Paços, Fervença, Tuído, Conguedo and Troias, until you reach to Valença.
Valença do Minho fascinates its visitors with its large wall which presents an incredible state of conservation. Within this wall you can enrich your cultural baggage with the beautiful streets and monuments to discover, but also due to its people and gastronomy, of equal importance.
After this intense journey, nothing better than relax your senses with the views from this wall, where you will find the territorial division between Portugal and Spain, where your next stage will take place.
This stage will take place in Spanish territory, starting from Tui, a city on the banks of the Miño’s river and crowned by its cathedral fortress. The first circuit is an urban one and will pass through the old hospital – built for pilgrims and for people with low economic status (in 1756, now converted into a Diocesan Museum); the public shelter, the chapel of St. Telmo, the Parish Council, the Clarisas’s Church-Convent and many other monuments that you will discover in every step you’ll take and that will surprise you.
This stage is smoother than the others and you’ll be roaming along the course of the Louro’s river, until you reach O Porriño.
There, you’ll be able to visit its emblem, its Town Hall, built by a local architect, Antonio Palacios, which presents a spectacular portico at the entrance of the building surrounded by a area of supports of incredible beauty. The architect was inspired by the Fortresses-Cathedrals and for this reason the first impression of its visitors is that it is a Medieval Castle.
We recommend you that you rest your feet and feed your spirit with these monuments, but also taste an appetizer made of those incredible delicacies that the fantastic Galician gastronomy offers, in order to recover your strengths.
You will leave Padrón’s Town Hall, the origins of the Jacobean’s tradition. In this municipality there is an altar prevailing from the Roman times dedicated to Neptune, the god of waters.
The legend says that the boat that brought the mortal remains of the apostle Santiago to Galicia was tied to the altar. It is kept in the presbytery of the parish church of Santiago de Padrón, in the Portuguese Way, in Galicia.
We suggest you that you’ll keep enjoying every kilometre, because when you reach the municipality of Teo you´re going to be almost at the entrance of Santiago de Compostela. You will get closer to your main goal through the O Milladoiro, heading to Ponte Vella where you’ll cross Sar’s river.
In order to get to the Cathedral, you will walk through the Alameda’s Park, where you’ll find one of the most well-known sculptures in the city: “2 Maries”, by César Lombrera.
You will get to Porta Faxeira, one of the main accesses to the historical centre of Santiago, proceeding from there through Franco’s Street – perhaps one of the liveliest of Santiago, a street full of tapa’s bars and souvenir shops – in direction to Praça do Obradoiro. Enjoy and feel all of these sensations because you have now reached your goal.
You can finally rest with the sense of duty fulfilled in all your senses!
Congratulations for the experience and thank you for sharing it with us!
