WORDS David Bickerton
The Portuguese Camino de Santiago (The Portuguese Way) is undoubtedly a wonderful and unique experience. This famous route from Porto to Santiago is 259 km and would take a couple of weeks to walk. You may not have the time, money or energy to undertake it. Or you might find the thought of driving there a bit banal, lacking challenge and excitement.
Well, I have an interesting option for you … taking just a day, why not do the Portuguese Camino by train (hence Trainemino!)? You can do this by simply taking Portugal’s only operational international rail route, which is in the north of the country, linking Porto to Spain and I did just that.
Taking the same starting point as the camino, you can leave Porto’s Campanha station at 08:13. The train heads north through the suburbs of Porto and soon travels through hilly lush farmland before running along the coast at the pretty coastal town of Viana de Castelo. After about 40 minutes of increasingly spectacular scenery, we approached Valença and the border with Spain. Crossing the Minho River and into Spain, we lost an hour as we changed to Spanish time.
The scenery subtlety changes; the hills increase in size and the rivers widen as the train takes a circular route around what is a small mountain to approach the large port city of Vigo.
We had to change trains at the small terminus station of Vigo Guixar. Make sure you have booked a seat on the next train as it is fully booked at busy times, and you will not be able to continue your journey!
At Vigo, there was plenty of time to get a coffee before we left at 12:31, this time on a Spanish train, for a very pleasant rural ride, heading north through lush hillsides with frequent sightings of walkers on the camino, which is clearly visible from the elevated position of the train.
Even though these trains form an international route, they are small, local-type diesel trains that are unglamorous but clean and comfortable. There is no catering on any of these trains, but you could take a snack to enjoy en route.
We arrived at Santiago de Compostela at 14:06 and after a short, admittedly uphill walk of 10–15 minutes, we reached the historic centre.
We took a free self-guided tour with one of the many free apps available. Ours lasted two hours and we saw all the main sights.
It is truly a lovely place, and you may want to stay longer, but keeping it to a day visit requires catching the return train to Vigo Guixar at 16:34. It arrives at 18:03 and you can enjoy a fresh fish early dinner before catching the 19:56 train back to Porto to arrive at 21:18.
Alternatively, you can catch the 18:33 (or 17:33 if you want to have a snack in Vigo) train to a different station in Vigo Urzaiz, which requires a 10-minute walk via a shopping mall to the Vigo Guixar station to catch the 19:56 train to Porto.
The journey is beautiful, with the line mostly elevated, providing great views of green fields, small farms, vineyards, rolling hills, and the big blue sea and river views. You also get frequent views of the walkers on the camino.
The route is an international connection between two major tourist destinations, yet it is not well advertised nor organised for a tourist venture, providing a great opportunity to discover the real Portugal and Galicia.
Without a doubt, this route is one of the great rail routes of Iberia, if not Europe, try it!
