Picked by our team
Towns worth discovering along the Camino de Santiago, chosen by our team. Open one to see its history and sights, and where to stay.
21 towns on the Fátima: Caminho do Norte
View on the mapMealhada lies on the road that has linked Lisbon with Braga since Roman times: in the town hall stands a 1.79-metre-high milestone from that road, and outside, along the N1, the suckling-pig restaurants of the Bairrada stand in a row. An afternoon is enough. The next pilgrim bed is 1.8 kilometres further on, in Sernadelo.
Camino Portugués CentralFátima: Caminho do NorteOliveira de Azeméis is a milestone, literally: a Roman milestone stands on the main square, and it is still 43.6 km to Porto. Above the town lies the La Salette park with a chapel said to have sprung from a vow for rain. There is no pilgrim hostel.
Camino Portugués CentralFátima: Caminho do NortePonte de Lima is the place where you are not supposed to forget: at this bridge over the Lima, which the Romans took for the river of forgetting, a general is said to have called his soldiers by name. The town received its charter in 1125. The pilgrim hostel costs €5, and tomorrow the climb over the Labruja awaits.
Camino Portugués CentralCamino Torres+2Every year more than 50,000 pilgrims start the Camino Portugués in Porto, and those coming from Lisbon take their first long break here. The old town on the slopes above the Douro is steep, beautiful and busy. From the cathedral you walk to Santiago along the coast or inland, 244 to 283 kilometres away.
Camino Portugués CentralCaminho Português da Costa+3Rabaçal is a village on the old Roman road from Lisbon to Braga, and you can still tell: in the 4th century a villa stood here around an octagon with 24 columns, and its mosaics show the seasons as women. An afternoon is enough for the villa, the museum and the cheese, and then it is 11.2 kilometres to Conímbriga.
Camino Portugués CentralFátima: Caminho do NorteRubiães is the village behind the mountain: after the climb over the Serra da Labruja, at 391 meters the highest point between Porto and Santiago, you come down on old paving into a scattered village with a Romanesque church and a bridge over the Coura. The municipal albergue is due to be rebuilt in winter 2026/27. One evening is enough.
Camino Portugués CentralFátima: Caminho do NorteSão João da Madeira is the workshop of the Camino Portugués Central: a small industrial town that grew big on hats and shoes, 341.0 kilometres from Lisbon. In an old hat factory stands a museum that is unique on the Iberian Peninsula. After a long day you sleep at the Misericórdia; tomorrow you head towards Porto.
Camino Portugués CentralFátima: Caminho do NorteSão Pedro de Rates is a place of beginnings: here James is said to have consecrated the first bishop of Braga, around 1100 Count Henry brought monks from Cluny, and in 2004 the first purely pilgrim albergue in Portugal opened here, still run on donations. The Romanesque church stands right on the Way. One evening is enough.
Camino Portugués CentralAqueduct Trail+1For many, Vairão is the first night behind Porto, 25.4 kilometers after the cathedral: you sleep in a monastery whose oldest charter dates from 974 and where nuns lived until 1891. The albergue is big, cold and warm-hearted, and the village itself has little more than a shop. One evening is enough.
Camino Portugués CentralFátima: Caminho do NorteTop rated
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