Camino Portugués (Lisbon-Santiago): three MTBs and a campervan

This new adventure by Chilicampers will take you and your freshly hired campervan from Lisbon, Portugal, all the way across the country, northbound to Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. You may have guessed it: we embarked on the Camino de Santiago, or Way of St. James, on its Portuguese version.

There are many different approaches to one of the world’s most famous pilgrimages: the French Way, the Northern Way, on foot, horseback, and plenty of other options. We chose to take our mountain bikes and a Volkswagen California as a support car. A three person team, one would drive while the other two cycled, swapping positions after every stage.

Also, since Lisbon and Santiago de Compostela are more than 600km apart and our time was limited, we chose to do only the best stages –according to our book guide, the great "El Camino de Santiago Portugués", published by El País Aguilar-.

These are the stages we actually cycled:

Day #1: Lisbon-Alverca do Ribatejo
Day #2: Azambuja-Santarém-Golega
Day #3: Tomar-Alvaiázere-Rabaçal
Day #4: Rest day. Visit Coimbra and Porto
Day #5: Sao Pedro Rates-Barcelos-Ponte de Lima
Day #6: Ponte de Lima-Tuy (Galicia)

And we had to leave it here due to worsening weather conditions (this was done in winter). We hope to finish the route until Santiago de Compostela next year!

Although this wouldn't apply for a geniune St. James pilgrimage -shame on us!-, taking the campervan with us was a great choice, as we didn't depend on the very scarce pilgrim hostels and we could really pick the best routes along the way. We totally recommend it!