The Camino Portugués, the Portuguese Camino, runs up Portugal from south to north: from Lisbon cathedral along the banks of the Tagus, then through Santarém, Tomar and Coimbra to Porto, across the Minho at Tui and on through Galicia by way of Pontevedra and Padrón.
The elevation profile, computed along the route from the Copernicus European terrain model, is that of a route through hills, without a single pass.
Hover over a stage to read it, click to open it on the map.
Of the four routes measured on this site, the Portugués has the lowest high point: 467 m, against 707 m on the Camino del Norte, 1,132 m on the Primitivo and 1,507 m on the Francés. Its cumulative elevation gain, 6,529 m over close to 622 km, is also the smallest, ahead of the 7,001 m of the Primitivo, a route half as long.
The Camino Portugués splits into three sections. Lisbon to Porto, 16 stages: long days for the most part, plenty of tarmac, few albergues.
From Porto, pick your route before fixing the stages
The planner follows the Central Route, through Barcelos and Ponte de Lima. The Coastal Route, which hugs the ocean as far as Redondela, adds around thirty kilometres and two more stages according to the guides: if you choose it, allow thirteen days rather than eleven from Porto, and check the timetable of the Caminha ferry.
Leaving Lisbon: altered route, Alpriate stop uncertain
Since 2024, walkers have reported new waymarking that follows the bank of the Tagus after the Vasco da Gama bridge and no longer passes through the village of Alpriate, where the albergue of the Via Lusitana association was advertised as open from April to mid-October; as of 25 October 2026, the list of accommodation published by the association on vialusitana.org no longer mentions it. The first stage in the table keeps this historical breakdown: before counting on that stop, ask the association or plan to sleep in Alverca or Vila Franca de Xira.
Golegã during the horse fair
From 6 to 15 November 2026, the Feira Nacional do Cavalo draws huge crowds to Golegã, a town of a few thousand inhabitants where the fifth stage ends; beds there are impossible to find or overpriced on those dates. Sleep before, in Santarém, or push on to Tomar. Dates published by Visit Portugal (visitportugal.com), to be checked again before you leave.
Porto to Tui, 5 stages, crosses the Portuguese Minho, its vineyards and its small towns with medieval bridges. Tui to Santiago, 6 stages in Galicia, is where walkers from the Central and Coastal routes converge, and where accommodation is most plentiful. Enter your available days and your pace; the planner suggests the starting point that gets you to Santiago in the time you have, with a day-by-day breakdown.
The most common starting points match round durations: one week from Tui, two from Porto, a little under four from Lisbon. If you want the Compostela, tick the option: any start less than 100 km from Santiago is ruled out, and Tui, just under 120 km away, remains the usual start for earning it. The selected section is highlighted on the map.
Portuguese Camino stages from Lisbon to Santiago
The table follows a 27-stage breakdown, with the distance, the elevation gain, the estimated walking time and the town at the end. Distances and elevation are measured on the OpenStreetMap route; times follow the Swiss hiking method, breaks excluded. Stages 17 to 27 correspond to a start from Porto, stages 22 to 27 to a start from Tui.
Between Lisbon and Coimbra, several stages exceed 30 km for want of accommodation in between; from Porto to Santiago, days run from 16 to 34 km and most villages have albergues, so you can lengthen or shorten a day. For the Compostela, remember the two daily stamps from Tui onwards, over the last 100 km.
The places below appear on the map and in the stage table, with the distance left to Santiago.
Photo: Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: GualdimG, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Ingo Mehling, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Anabela Maximiliano [2], CC BY 2.0
Photo: Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0
Photo: amaianos from Galicia, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Joseolgon, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Photo: amaianos from Galicia, CC BY 2.0key point
Photo: Adrián Estévez (Estevoaei), CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez, CC BY-SA 4.0From Porto, two routes lead to Santiago. The Central Route, inland, passes through Barcelos, Ponte de Lima and Valença, crosses the Minho on the international bridge to Tui and has eleven stages.
Variante Espiritual and the Compostela: check its status before choosing
In summer 2025, the Variante Espiritual did not appear in the Pilgrim’s Office statistics and its official recognition was under review; some operators state that the stamp from the boat crossing counts towards the Compostela, other sources say the opposite. Before choosing it for a start in Tui or Porto, ask the Pilgrim’s Office (oficinadelperegrino.com) for the rule in force. The Caminha ferry, on the Coastal Route, depends on tides and fog: check the day’s timetable with the A Guarda town hall.
The Coastal Route follows the Atlantic through Vila do Conde, Esposende and Viana do Castelo, crosses the Minho estuary by ferry from Caminha to A Guarda, continues through Oia, Baiona and Vigo, then rejoins the Central Route at Redondela: thirteen stages and 271 km according to one guide, that is two extra days, for scenery of beaches, wooden boardwalks and fishing ports. In 2025, the Coastal Route provided almost as many Compostelas as the Central Route.
From Pontevedra, the Variante Espiritual leaves the route for Combarro, the monastery of Armenteira and the Ruta da Pedra e da Auga as far as Vilanova de Arousa, from where a boat goes up the ría de Arousa and the Ulla to Pontecesures, near Padrón, along the course tradition attributes to the apostle’s boat: around 73 km in three stages, one of them on the water. Opened in the early 2010s, it drew, according to the Friends of the Camino Portugués association, about one walker in five passing through Pontevedra in 2024.
The accommodation on offer varies widely from one section to the next. The stage table gives the number of places to stay recorded in OpenStreetMap at each arrival town, an order of magnitude to check before you leave.
725 places to stay recorded along the route
Accommodation recorded in OpenStreetMap: a guide to how much there is, not a complete list. Switch on the accommodation layer on the map to see where.
Affiliate map: if you book through it, the site earns a commission at no extra cost to you.
The map of hotels, guesthouses and apartments is provided by Stay22, which sets cookies once it loads.
To book or not
Between Lisbon and Porto, book every night: places are few and the long stages leave no fallback. From Porto to Tui, outside summer, you will find a bed without booking in most cases. From Tui to Santiago, from June to September, book the private albergues the day before; the public Xunta ones are taken on arrival. The 2027 Holy Year should add to the pressure on this section.
Three gateways depending on your start, and a return from Santiago by air or by train.
Indicative times, check the timetables before you leave
Indicative times, taken from secondary sources (Wikipedia, comparison sites, guides) read on 25 October 2026, to be confirmed on cp.pt, renfe.com, alsa.com and the websites of the urban networks; frequencies change with the season and the day of the week. Portugal is one hour behind Spain: when you cross the Minho, your watch goes forward an hour, which matters for a train or a ferry to catch the same day.
From Lisbon, 27 stages, about four weeks with a rest day in Coimbra or Porto. From Porto, eleven stages on the Central Route, around twelve days, thirteen on the Coastal Route. From Tui, six stages, a short week. With stages of less than 20 km, add a fifth of the time.
Lisbon suits those who have a month, accept stages of more than 30 km, a lot of road walking and nights in guesthouses, and want to pass through Santarém, Tomar and Coimbra on a section few pilgrims walk: Lisbon is not among the top three starting points of 2025, which are Sarria, Porto and Tui. Porto ranks among the most chosen starting points in the provisional 2025 figures: two weeks, a choice of two routes, accommodation at every stage. Tui, just under 120 km (75 miles) away, remains the usual start for the Compostela: six days of walking, all of it in Galicia.
Yes in both cases. The Pilgrim’s Office requires at least 100 km (62 miles) walked without a break on a single route and two stamps a day over that last section: Tui, just under 120 km from Santiago, meets the condition with room to spare; O Porriño, just beyond the 100 km, meets it too, but without margin. For those who start on foot outside Spain, the rule adds at least 70 km on Spanish soil, which a start from Porto satisfies by a wide margin. By bike, 200 km are required, which means starting from Porto or further south.
The Central Route goes inland: Barcelos, Ponte de Lima, the climb of the Labruja, Valença and Tui, eleven stages with albergues at every arrival town. The Coastal Route follows the ocean through Viana do Castelo, the Caminha ferry, A Guarda and Baiona, then Vigo, before meeting the Central Route again at Redondela: two extra days, wooden boardwalks over the dunes, more wind and accommodation that varies from one stage to the next. In 2025, the two drew almost the same number of pilgrims.
Of the four routes measured on this site, it is the one with the lowest high point, 467 m against 707 m on the Norte, and the smallest cumulative elevation gain, under 6,600 m in all, without a single pass. The difficulties are the length and the tarmac of the stages between Lisbon and Coimbra, the heat of inland Portugal in summer and the cobblestones, hard on the feet, in the towns of the Minho. The climb to the Alto da Portela Grande, after Ponte de Lima, is the one sustained ascent.
From March to June, temperatures stay moderate, around 15 to 20°C, the albergues open and the crowds stay reasonable, with rain possible in Galicia. In July and August, inland Portugal passes 30°C on some days and the Tui to Santiago section fills up. September and October stay pleasant and quieter. In winter, some association albergues between Lisbon and Porto are seasonal: the one in Alpriate, for example, was advertised as open from April to mid-October, and its future is uncertain (see the box in the stages section).
In Lisbon, at the cathedral or at the pilgrims’ office of the Via Lusitana association, in the church of Conceição Velha; in Porto, at the cathedral shop or at the Sé tourist office; elsewhere, from an accredited friends of the Camino association. For the Compostela, the Pilgrim’s Office accepts a credencial issued by the cathedral of Santiago or an accredited association, and no other.
The Camino Francés, from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, remains the most walked route and the densest in albergues; its start from Sarria is, for one week, the equivalent of the start from Tui.
Photo: MartinD, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: José Antonio Gil Martínez, CC BY 2.0
Photo: José Antonio Gil Martínez from Vigo, Spain, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 4.0For a wilder coast than Portugal’s, the Camino del Norte follows the Cantabrian shore from Irún; the Camino Primitivo, from Oviedo, crosses the mountains of Asturias. For the Compostela rules, the budget, the season and the packing list, the Camino de Santiago guide gathers the facts shared by all the routes.
