Last month we went on a Northern Portugal road trip. Other than me knowing that I did not want to go coast-side (I mean, not being able to surf because alone with a toddler, I don´t even want to séé the waves, thank you very much. However, if surfing is your goal, check out my blog on surfing the empty peaks of Northern Portugal). I knew there were two natural parks and yep, that was about it. I asked google for some tips on where to go, plus some park4night inspiration and this is what we did: Montesinho up in Trás-os-Montes, then Peneda-Gerês a few days later, both wild in completely different ways.
Montesinho: hot, a bear that tried to eat honey and a campsite with spectacular sunsets.
Montesinho is the kind of place that doesn’t really try to sell itself, which you know I´m a fan off. Up in the far northeast corner of Portugal, right on the Spanish border (we stopped in Zamora, on the other side of the border in Spain just before), it’s all tiny tiny villages, oak and chestnut forests, and a level of quiet that well, is sometimes hard to find in July. There are actual wolves up here (or so we´ve heard, not seen), and red deer that do this eerie mating call in autumn that we obviously didn’t get to hear in summer, but knowing it happens somewhere out in those hills was enough.
We stayed at Camping Cepo Verde, right in the middle of the park, and we really loved this spot. It sits on what used to be a Roman settlement, but with 40 degrees the main advantage were the chestnut, oak and cherry trees doing all the shading, a swimming pool with views on the mountains and (which Inoa absolutely loved) some classical music playing in the superclean bathrooms/showers (ah, and probably one of the very few campsites with a baby changes and kids toilet!). In June you can pick cherries straight off the trees around the site. There’s a wood oven that still bakes bread weekly.
We used the campsite as a base for a day trip into Bragança, walked around the old citadel and the castle, easy half day, toddler-compatible. Then we tried an actual hike, starting from Vilarinho, planned for about 5km. Problem was it was properly hot that day, no shade for stretches of it, and between the heat and a toddler on my back not loving it either, we cut it short and turned it into more of an out-and-back than the loop we’d planned. It started and ended at a honey store though, where the lady showed Inoa a hive that had the claw of a bear on it (very exciting story about a bear trying to steal honey and all the imaginations a 2-year old can have with this!).
Peneda-Gerês: a river through the campsite and a hike that didn’t happen
Peneda-Gerês is a different energy entirely. Portugal’s only national park, and it feels like it: mountains stacked on mountains, waterfalls, granite everywhere. People had been telling me about it, and the second we entered the Park, I understood why. Love the place, loved the vibe, had been missing this greenery and wild mountains!
We camped at Gerês Vidoeiro, right inside the park, and rootsy is the right word for it. Dirt access road with a good amount of potholes and a bit of a ´yolo-kind of bridge we had to pass with the van, no orientation beyond someone vaguely pointing at a field when we arrived, no electricity for tents (only for motorhomes, though we have solar panels so that´s not an issue), fires and cooking restricted to a few marked spots. First impression was a bit like ehhmm ok, honestly. But the river runs straight through the campsite, shallow enough to just wade into with a toddler right by our pitch, and depending where you’re camped there’s a small waterfall on it too. We fell asleep every night to the sound of the river, and we ended up really loving this campsite!
One tip
One thing worth flagging if you’re doing this with a van rather than a car and tent: high season parking is genuinely tight. Most of the good hikes start from small trailheads with limited spots, and a van doesn’t exactly slot into a gap between two Renault Clios. If I did this again I’d bring a car and a tent instead, precisely so I could shuttle between hikes without worrying about where to leave a six-metre vehicle. Because the hikes don´t tend to start right outside of the campsite.
However, I invented one myself: from the campsite me and Inoa in the backpack hiked up to the Miradouro da Preguiça, a proper viewpoint over the valley, worth every step. The plan was to go back the next day and do the actual trail of Preguiça, the longer one, but it started drizzling that morning and my daughter took one look at the backpack carrier and made it extremely clear she was not getting in it. So that hike stayed theoretical. Filed under: things to do next time, ideally in dry weather and with a toddler in a better mood.
Since we were heading Spain-side anyways, we went a bit earlier and stopped at the hot springs at Lobios, natural, free, and not officially part of the park anymore since they’re just over the border, but close enough that it made sense as a stop. Worth knowing about if you’re in the area and want something that isn’t a hike, especially useful on a day when the weather or the toddler (or both) aren’t cooperating. Also, because there are hot springs in the park, but expensive. And this one is, well, free.
So for your next Northern Portugal road trip: if Montesinho is the park for quiet, chestnuts and an oddly specific pocket knife, Gerês is the one for actual mountains, a rougher camping experience, and hikes that may or may not happen depending on what a two-year-old decides that morning. Both were worth it.
