Portugal's Rota Vicentina

January 2023

Stage 9, Aljezur

"This pocket-sized guide contains all the information you’d expect from a good hiking guide"

Having walked the entire Fishermen’s Trail in May 2022, I was delighted to have an opportunity to review the updated version of Cicerone’s Trekking Portugal’s Rota Vicentina: the Historical Way and Fishermen’s Trail by Gillian Price.

As the book’s title suggests, the Rota Vicentina comprises two long-distance trails and umpteen kilometres of circular routes ranging from 3.5km to 15km.

The author acknowledges that there are endless ways to enjoy the Rota Vicentina experience, with her suggested 12-stage route combining various stages of the Historical Way and the Fishermen’s Trail. We stuck with the Fishermen’s Trail, which closely hugs the coastline. The route outlined in this guide begins with three days of walking on the Historical Way, starting at the rural Alentejan town of Santiago do Cacém with overnight stops at Moinhos do Paneiro and Cercal do Alentejo. From Porto Covo, the author stays with the Fishermen’s Trail to Odeceixe before opting to rejoin the Historical Trail to Vila do Bispo (a decision which may have been made due to the often challenging coastal terrain). Both routes are described for the final trek to the tourist honeypot of Cabo de São Vicente.

For those with less time – or who are combining the Rota Vicentina with other trips – the author has combined some of these stages with four outlined inland routes to come up with:

• a nine-day loop from Cercal do Alentejo heading south along the coast as far as Odeceixe and back
• a one-week hike from Porto Covo to Carrapeteira
• a four-day coastal walk from Porto Covo to Odeceixe

As well as detailed walking instructions, this pocket-sized guide contains all the information you’d expect from a good hiking guide, i.e. when to walk, what to take, GPX downloads, potential issues, e.g. ‘a dearth of shade’, transport links, accommodation ideas … plus a few shortcuts, e.g. when leaving Almograve.

I was pleased to note the author provides details of the luggage carriers who will literally take the weight off walkers’ backs in exchange for a small fee. Had we bought the first edition of this book, we certainly wouldn’t have found ourselves among the minority of hikers carrying heavy rucksacks!

At the risk of nit-picking, I didn’t agree with the author on everything. We skipped the suggested ferry ride across the Rio Mira, instead sticking to the road route. Our reward for the extra kilometres was the magnificent view up and down the estuary from the ‘sleek bridge’, some gorgeous woodland walking and an extraordinarily graffitied ruin. She also rules out Faro airport as being too far from the start of the Rota Vicentina; however, there are frequent, low-cost buses between the Algarve and Sines.

Readers should also note that the extended Fishermen’s Trail to Lagos is far tougher in technical terms than the earlier stages.

In her introduction, Gillian Price writes ‘this beautiful route … is on the way to becoming popular with walkers’ – if our experience in spring 2022 is anything to go by, I’d say it’s already there!

- Tracy Burton at tracyburton.co.uk