The Fisherman’s Trail is a 140+ mile hiking route that runs along the rugged Atlantic coastline of southern Portugal. I had never heard of it until late October, when Jay stumbled upon a blog someone wrote about it. After reading about the trail’s breathtaking coastal scenery and how it follows clifftop paths, sandy beaches, and fishing villages, we immediately decided we must do it. 

The trail is made up of sections, and it’s never more than a day’s hike in between villages with accommodations, hence no need to bring camping gear. There are companies that provide luggage transfer; however, we decided to carry our packs the entire way. Mine weighed 20 lbs, and in hindsight, some training with a weighted pack would have been beneficial. I was fine, just some sore shoulders. 

What I found to be the most important items for the trail:

• Water bottle
• Trail shoes with good tread 
• Gaiters to keep sand out of shoes
• Waterproof rain jacket
• Quick-drying hiking pants (it’s very humid, so clothing that dries quickly is a must)
• Hooded sun shirt
• Hat & sunglasses

The Route

The following map shows the full route for the Fisherman’s Trail. We completed it in 11 days (11-13 days is most common). The original Fisherman’s Trail is much shorter (Porto Covo to Odeceixe) and can be completed in 4 days. Many people still do the original route only. 

This website by a local association was our go-to resource for the trail, and we purchased their e-book which has detailed info on each section: https://rotavicentina.com/en/

The route has great trail markers the entire way. There are several different routes in the area, but each has its own color coded markers. For the Fisherman’s Trail, the markers are green & blue.

I found the “don’t follow” markers to be just as important as the “follow” as they prevented us from going down the wrong path many times. 

I also downloaded the full route to my phone via the AllTrails app so I could always see where we were along the way. In AllTrails, the route is named “Rota Vicentina Complete via Fisherman’s Trail”. 

Weather

The recommended period to do the hike is from September until June, as the summers are too hot. Spring and Fall are considered the best seasons. Unfortunately for us, the weather was wetter than normal during our hike (March 1-11). According to a local news article, this is the wettest it’s been for 10 years. This area’s had years of drought and desperately needed the rain. Of our 11 days on the trail, we encountered rain on all but 4 days. Although at times the rain was very intense, it didn’t usually last too long and thankfully, the sun came out in between the rain. It could have been worse. The storms coming of the Atlantic are intense and fast moving, and by the sounds of it, we missed the worst. For example, one section of the trail (just east of Salema) had a flash flood just 2 days prior to our arrival that made the route impassable. The water flooded an entire valley! By the time we arrived at this spot, the water had drained into the sea. Just a river we had to cross.

The rain (and the fierce wind that came with it) definitely made things more challenging, particularly the steep descents off the cliffs. I’m very thankful neither of us slipped and fell. 

Nonetheless, as I told myself while on the Fisherman’s Trail (and have told myself before)… you can’t control the weather and if I only get out and do things when the weather is ideal, I wouldn’t get out there half the time. And, l’d miss out on so many amazing experiences. 

Aside from some crazy weather, the only other unfortunate thing was hogweed. At some point on Day 6 (between Aljezur to Arrifana) I unknowingly came in contact with this plant and developed some burns & blisters on my fingers. I’ll spare you a picture, but my reaction was mild in comparison to the images that pop up in a Google search.

Some crazy weather and hogweed aside, I absolutely LOVED this trail and the entire experience. There is something special about traveling to new places on foot. And, this is a spectacular place for it, as the scenery is stunning. Each day, I stood in awe at God’s glorious creation. Each afternoon, a new town awaited us. Each evening, a delicious meal. Each morning, a hot espresso and anticipation of what the day would bring. Walk, eat, sleep, repeat. I found it very therapeutic. 

Some things I found interesting:

• Every accommodation where we stayed provided espresso (not drip coffee, shots of espresso) free of charge. I think Jay averaged 4-5 shots of espresso daily. 
• The accommodations were nicer than I expected. We didn’t book anything in advance (just booked day by day as we went). We’d packed small sleeping bags, thinking accommodations would be rustic and without heat. Turned out that most of our accommodations had mini-split wall units. In addition to heat and A/C, these had a “dry” mode to dehumidify the room (moisture is a serious issue here). 
• At restaurants, the check will not be brought until you specifically ask for it. I’ve traveled to over 50 countries, and this seems to be the case almost everywhere outside the U.S.
• When you sit down at a restaurant, you are often offered bread & butter… this isn’t free and you will be charged if you partake. One night, we went to a nice seafood restaurant. The bread came with packets of butter, margarine, and various pates. I opened up several, curious to try them. Didn’t realize we would be charged 2-3 Euro per each little packet. Oops!
• A number of places are cash only (no credit cards accepted). Cash is still very much king. 
• We couldn’t believe the amount of cobble streets in Portugal. EVERY SINGLE TOWN we visited had cobblestone streets/sidewalks. Although beautiful, it’s hard on the feet, especially after you’ve been hiking all day. 

I enjoyed the solitude along the trail. Until the last day, we didn’t see many people on the trail… maybe 15-20 people total over course of an entire day. Then, our last day heading into Lagos we saw so many people. Hundreds! We saw more people on that last day than all of the other days combined. 

I particularly enjoyed the smaller towns along the trail. When we entered these towns, we would no doubt run into other hikers we had met along the way. It was fun to swap stories about our day on the trail—celebrating the highs and sympathizing over the lows. In particular, there was a Canadian couple we enjoyed getting to know, she was 67 and he was 78, inspiring! I hope to still be able to do this kind of stuff at their age. 

Some of my favorite moments on the Fisherman’s Trail:

Reaching the end of the trail in Lagos was bittersweet. While there was a deep sense of accomplishment, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad that the journey was over. But as Dr. Seuss wisely said, ‘Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.’

Above all, I’m grateful for the experience. As we reached the trail’s end, I asked Jay for his thoughts. His response was simple: ‘Let’s keep walking.’ He’s already looking ahead to what trek we can tackle next. 😉