The Portugal Way final section holiday

Planet

This holiday takes place away from the most popular Camino Frances. It’s in the wilderness of Northern Portugal and Spain. To minimize environmental footprint and negative impact on wildlife, we limit the size of our parties to maximum 6 people for this holiday.

On this itinerary, we have arranged all walks to be hotel to hotel, so that environmental impact related to car transfers is minimized. Private airport transfers are not encouraged, so that clients must arrive and depart form the area using public transport, mostly trains.

Through our local office in Portugal we are supporting the maintenance of the hiking trails in the area where this walking holiday takes place. We encourage the guides and hotel owners in the area to participate in trail maintenance, as volunteers. If there are rubbish-strewn sections, we go out and clean them. Our local team actively participates in the regular cleaning and way marking of many trails – in collaboration with the local authorities and local population, to ensure there is no risk of harming local wildlife.

People

On this walking holiday our aim is to discover for you those places where you can feel and taste the ‘real spirit’ of Northern Portugal and Spain. Off the beaten track, although close to known tourist areas, we find those authentic places most tourists don’t get to.

This tour not only delivers authentic local experiences to our clients, but we also take active steps to care for the destination they travel to. We intend not only to save natural areas from more destructive forms of exploitation, but also where possible to improve the economic and social conditions of the local communities, safeguarding the local traditions and culture.

During the tour you pass through many villages where you can stop for some lunch or a snack. We also encourage our guests to visit local gardens, museums and attractions to help support the maintenance of these. We are proud of our selection of accommodations on this tour. We try to avoid chain and big name hotels and prefer not the obvious places, but small, well-situated, often family-run places, with a personal welcome. Many are in historical buildings, farm stays, or placed in exceptional spots, blended into the surrounding landscape. Many of our accommodation owners are walkers themselves and take an active and helpful interest in our pilgrims'progress, and take part in environmental initiatives in their area.