Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while (ok, since at least 2016!) will know that I have walked the Camino de Santiago from St Jean Pied-de-Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, over the course of 5 summers (but 7 years thanks to C*vid) and those who know me in real life will know that I have nothing but AMAZING things to say about this experience. So much so that, when a group of us finished the final leg in the summer of 2022, we all immediately started looking at different routes to walk. We completed a stage of the Camino del Norte in July 2024 (San Sebastián to Bilbao), in 2025 we walked from Bayonne to San Sebastián along the Atlantic Coast in France and Spain, and in the summer of 2026, we started the Portuguese Camino, walking from Porto (Portugal) to Baiona (Spain) over the course of 7 days. This is Day 1 of the walk!
Day 1: Porto (actually Matosinhos) > Vila do Conde 22.5km
The day started out a little differently…
That’s right – in a van… Let me back up… when we booked this trip, Camino Travel Center told us that the first day’s walk could start in Matosinhos which would not only avoid navigating busy city roads (which always adds loads of time onto your day even if it’s not that long a distance) but also cut about 11km off this day’s walk (a 34km FIRST day? No thank you!) and we took them up on it. It felt a little wrong to be in a van on our first day but it wasn’t for long and we were soon ready to walk…
We’d chosen *mostly* the coastal way for this year’s walk and the first day was nearly entirely on the coast…
We knew it would be a little cooler walking by the sea and also – FLAT because #sealevel (and after the Camino del Norte, we were trying to avoid as much climbing as possible. I mean, stay tuned to see how that worked out for us!).
It wasn’t long into the day before we came across the boardwalk. Ah! So nice to walk on – kinder on our feet than concrete or rocks, right? RIGHT… AND… right by the sea. So, flat! Perfect, right? Well… kind of… Keep reading…
The day which had started out sunny turned weird and misty/ foggy mid-morning and were it not for the temperature, we might have thought ourselves walking along an English coast. Thankfully no rain but weirdly humid…
It was soon time for a favourite activity on the Camino – the first stop of the day!
(the rest of us had sensible drinks like coffee!)
All along the beach on this day we saw two things consistently – beach libraries…
(sadly not open until July)
… and clean and frequent toilets!
(this is not a given on the Camino so we were honestly thrilled!).
There were points along the route today where the boardwalk just… ended…
But we figured it out…
It doesn’t take long to get in the groove of the Camino days and honestly, this is such a happy place for me! I love the rhythm of the days where your only job is to get from Point A to Point B.
We stopped for a quick lunch in Vila Chã at Restaurante Puchino.
The welcome was warm, the food was simple but good and the views were second to none!
Vila Chã is a sweet little town to wander through…
We picked up dessert on the way through…
And it was back to the boardwalk…
With a bit of beach danger for good measure…
From here on it wasn’t far to our destination that day of Vila do Conde but at this point it was a bit later in the day, the fog and mist had risen and the sun was out so it was one of those “7km feels like 15km”.
At this point we were realising that while the boardwalks were lovely to walk on, the provide scant shade and ofer little protection from the wind. Things we hadn’t considered when we were thinking FLAT terrain!
Finally, though, we arrived in Vila do Conde, a delightful little town all decked out for the São João festival (feast of St John) which had been celebrated earlier that week…
This was a sweet little town but we weren’t able to spend a lot of time exploring – we arrived during siesta and then had dinner plans (rare to have dinner plans in advance but one of our party has a friend who lives close to Porto and who recommended Concerto).
Wow – this did NOT disappoint – a VERY fancy meal by Camino standards but a fitting first day meal with two new walking companions this year (we were 7!).
We had scallops, burrata, shrimp, two different preparations of fish and octopus as well as a giant salad (and it was fabulous to have so many different dishes to taste them all!). For dessert, crème brûlée, chocolate mousse and goat’s cheese ice cream (!). All incredible. Impeccable service and wine service too – made for a very special meal – we felt very spoiled!
But there were kilometres to be walked the next day so we made our way back to the hotel in the festive streets…
Ok – I hear you asking “What’s with the hammers?” Well, according to Portugal.com,
One of the most iconic and playful traditions of São João is the use of martelinhos de São João, or St. John’s hammers. These are small plastic hammers that revelers use to gently tap each other on the head. You can tap your loved ones, neighbors, or really anyone you meet in the street. Legend has it that this practice, which began around the 1960s, was invented by the owner of a Porto plastics factory. In the beginning, mostly university students bought the hammers, but it has now become a symbol of the festival.
Alongside the hammers, people use something much more traditional: leeks and purple garlic flowers. This practice goes back more than six centuries. Leeks were believed to bring good fortune, so leeks were placed on the front door of a house in ancient times. During the São João Festival, hitting people on the head with purple garlic flowers or leeks is said to bring good luck to the people! These plants are believed to also have protective and purifying properties, adding a traditional and symbolic touch to the celebrations.
We loved the plastic hammers and tried – in vain – to purchase one (at 10pm!). What a fun festival tradition!
Stay tuned to see how our “flat terrain” works out on Day 2!
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Disclosure: I researched Camino tour operators independently and chose the Camino Travel Center based on a number of features such as flexibility to accommodate a couple of “splits” in some of the longer days, price, and customer service. They were, in fact, the first company I came across in my very first Google search and the one I ended up booking with. From the initial inquiry to the actual trips, they have been a pleasure to deal with and we have been very impressed with the service provided (bag transportation) and the accommodation choices. I was not compensated to write about this trip in any way but I love sharing companies and products I believe in with my readers. I couldn’t recommend the Camino Travel Center more.
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