Caldas do Geres and Campo do Geres

The village of Geres - or more precisely Caldas (hot springs) do Geres  - is the historic centre of the national park. Its basically one street and two bridges wrapped around a river at the bottom of the valley of the Rio Geres.  The hot springs are what – combined with the romantic views - presumably attracted the first outside visitors to the park in the nineteenth century. At its best Geres has the atmosphere of a classic Victorian-era spa town/village with a couple of large grand hotels and lovely views up and down the valley. At its worst, Geres attracts every tourist who comes to the park and has its share of shops with My Girlfriend/Your Girlfriend t-shirts and other standard tourist tat.

There is a public outdoor swimming pool open in the summer, and in terms of the warm springs there is  both a cheaper municipal and a quite expensive private spa attached to the Aguas do Geres  hotel.

There’s a good fairly regular Transdev bus service to and from Caldas do Geres (note that a separate service goes to Campo do Geres) from Braga, and a good range of hotels. Virtually every other house in Geres is a guest house so cheap bed and breakfast accommodation is readily available, as well as accommodation in the smarter hotels. For camping you'll need to go to Campo do Geres.

Campo do Geres was historically the higher village where the inhabitants of Geres would pasture their animals in the summer. Now it’s the outdoors centre for the National Park. Campo do Geres has a number of small guest houses, but the big deal here is the Parque Cerdeira Camping park, and the Vilarinho das Furnas Youth Hostel.  I’ve only stayed at Parque Cerderia, which is a growing empire, offering efficient, decent priced accommodation for caravaners, campers and dormitories. 

Like Caldas do Geres itself, Campo do Geres is where everybody comes. That means there’s lots of options in terms of organised outdoor activities, but  also that the village becomes absurdly busy at holiday times and bank holiday weekends.  Traffic jams, with banks of cars spilling out of the campsite are not uncommon.

Note that Caldas do Geres is not easily accessible on foot from Campo de Geres.

Getting from Campo de Geres on foot down the side of the valley to Caldas do Geres is a steep but very nice walk of about an hour and  a half. You  can reward yourself with fresh pastries from the bakery in Caldas do Geres  once you’ve made it though.

Both Caldas do Geres and Campo de Geres are placed bang in the centre of the national park, so are hard to avoid if you’re walking in the area. They’re also easy to get to on public transport from  Braga, and have plenty of accommodation options. Don’t stay that long though – there are lots of nicer villages.