We start from Oporto, a beautiful city whose historic center is a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Before leaving, we can take a stroll along the Ribeira, the walk along the Duero River, and enjoy the views from the Don Luis I Bridge.

We leave Oporto starting from the cathedral and following the yellow arrows. As an alternative, if we want to avoid urban areas, we can also take the underground to the Maia station, on the outskirts of the city, and start from there.

The Camino in this stage goes mostly by highways, so we must be careful. Vilarinho, our first stop, is a small village with a huge prairie where we will be able to rest. Afterwards we’ll enter the countryside, crossing small villages and medieval bridges like the one in San Miguel de Arcos, where we’ll finish this stage.

Right after leaving Arcos, we’ll find the famous monastery of San Pedro de Rates, which we can visit. After it, the road continues until Barcelos, one of the historic cities of northern Portugal. Its symbol is a rooster, due to a medieval legend associated with the Camino, in which a cooked rooster miraculously started to crow in order to save a falsely accused pilgrim (you’ll have noticed that Santo Domingo de la Calzada, in Spain, has an identical legend associated with it).

After Barcelos, the stage finds several several slopes, crossing regions of green pastures and small villages until reaching Balugaes, a small parish where we’ll spend the night. . Here we’ll be able to taste the “vinho verde”, or green wine, one of the specialities of the region.

We continue traversing this region until reaching reaching Ponte de Lima, a medieval town that is well worth a visit. After it, we’ll climb to the highest point of the Camino Portugués, the alto de Portela Grande. Our path follows the ancient roman road, and along it we’ll see romantic churches and medieval hermitages. Be warned that from Codeçal to San Pedro de Rubiaes we won’t find any stores, so we should make sure to resupply beforehand.

After Rubiaes, we’ll find a brief climb to the sanctuary of Sao Bento, after which the road descends towards the frontier with Spain, located along the Miño river. The last town we’ll find in Portugal is Valença do Minho, a walled city of roman origin. Once in Valença, we cross the international bridge and we enter Tui, a beautiful galician village where we’ll be able to visit the XII century cathedral.

We leave Tui, a beautiful galician town known for its XII century cathedral, and we enter Galicia. This stage follows the roadway and crosses mostly urbanized areas until reaching O Porriño, town known for its marble industry. After it, we get into the Louro valley; after leaving the village of Mos, we’ll find a hill on top of which we’ll see the hermitage of Santiaguiño de Antas. Afterwards, we descend to Redondela, town known for its industrial era viaducts built in the XIX century.

Today we’ll be able to enjoy the views over the Vigo estuary as we exit Redondela, but we must be careful, since in this first part of the stage the road crosses the N-550 roadway in a couple of points. Once we’re passed them, we’ll arrive to the village of Arcade, known for its oysters, and we’ll crossed the Ponte Sampan bridge, where Napoleon’s troops were defeated by the spanish people during the Peninsular Wars and forced to retire from Galicia.

After the bridge, we’ll start seeing signals installed by Pontevedra’s city council that will guide us to the Brea Vella da Caninouva, a roman road, and from there to the city itself.

After Pontevedra, the stage becomes a full inmersion in the the galician countryside: pine forests, small villages, hermitages… Most of the road is composed by country trails . This zone is the origin of the Rías Baixas wine, specially the albariño, which we advise you to try.

The stage finishes at Caldas de Reis, known for its thermal waters.

We continue our journey through the galician countryside; today’s is one of the most beautiful stages of our Camino. Our first destination is Padrón, known today for its peppers, and according to the legend, the place where St. James’ disciples disembarked his body when they arrived to Galicia.

After Padrón, we find crossing the historic town of Iria Flavia, of celtic and then roman origins. It was Iria Flavia’s bishop who, in the year 813, verified the existence of a tomb that apparently belonged to St. James, giving rise to the jacobean pilgrimage.

Afterwards, the road climbs gently from the baroque sanctuary of A Esclavitude until reaching the Milladoiro neighborhood, in the outskirts of Santiago. It’s here where we’ll find the Alto dos Monteiros, a hill from which we’ll enjoy a view of the entire city, including the cathedral towers. a few more miles and we’ll have arrived to Santiago and finished our pilgrimage through the Portuguese Way.