Portuguese Coastal Camino – Day 9. Baiona to Vigo

Thursday 11 September 2025 – Baiona to Vigo

Our last day of walking. As is their way, Mac’s itinerary presented us with an 18 mile walk to finish the trip. Plus, another mile or so after to get to our hotel. Nope, we’re not doing that. Firstly, it’s too far, and secondly the last few miles will be through the boring suburbs of Vigo. We want to make it an enjoyable last day, so we’ll find somewhere to get a bus or taxi for the last part into Vigo.

Once again, we leave the hotel in half light at around 8am. It just feels so weird to do that in September. It’s something you’d expect in December.

 

After a brief diversion to Carrefour, we picked up the coastal route and just headed around the bay. At Ramallosa we saw the ancient Puente Romana and had great views back across to Baiona. All very moody in the monochromatic light.


 

 

We walked besides Praia Panxon with its very distinctive golden sand. Cate got chatting with Gabriella a nice woman from Austin. She was walking on her own all the way from Porto to Santiago. Her husband was doing a Doctorate at Oxford. Whilst Cate chatted with her, I got into conversation with a couple form Boston. All the Yanks had a mixture of embarrassment and shame about what was happening in their country.


 

 

We stopped for coffee in Panxon and let the Septic’s carry on. Hitherto there had been a lot of walkers, but after the coffee stop, we barely saw anyone. The route wavered between paths, roads and beaches. Praia de Prado and Praia de Portino were particularly nice beaches. The weather remained overcast, but that made for easier walking. How far should we go, before getting the bus into Vigo?

  

 

  


We pushed onto Saians, and stopped for another coffee. Half a mile further on was a bus stop. We got there, and having done just over 9 miles, hopped on a bus part of the way into Vigo. The bus trip was not uneventful, as a feisty old Granny, travelling with her Grandson, had a blazing row with the driver. It all helped pass the time!


We got off the bus about 2km short of the route end, which of course was a further mile from our hotel. Thanks Macs! We had to head down steep steps to near the port area to pick up the route again. Almost immediately we encountered a beggar – welcome to the big city! This area was pretty scraggy, but after 15 minutes the route then headed back in land where we came to journey’s end at the Basilica de Santa Maria de Vigo. It was closed. How nicely anti-climactic!

 



 

Oh well, we had a celebratory beer in a very characterful bar opposite the Basilica. Then it was a gentle stroll through the old town, which was far more attractive than the port area. Vigo is very hilly and it was a rather lovely bonus that in places they had installed covered escalators to go up and down the steeper streets. Absolutely marvellous, and very welcome as we’d already done over 10 miles. Vorsprung Durch Technik, or as the Spanish might say Ventaja a Través de la Tecnología!



 





To be honest, it was a slightly flat ending to a tough walk, and we really wished were pushing on another 100km to Santiago. If the truth be told, we hadn’t got into any rhythm whatsoever, and consequently it felt quite a slog.  We vowed to complete the last part to Santiago in 2026. As for now we had to get to Salamanca for some R & R.

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