Trails & Maps

Finding Trails and Maps

The Map of the park shown on the display boards inside the park is not easy to find on the internet but you can see it below. 

Adventure Map
A commercially produced 1:50,000 "Adventure Map" of the park  is now available with a fair level of detail and is for sale in the park, at least at the Parque de Cerdeira campsite, the tourist office (Portal) in Campo de Geres and online. It's ok but not really to a sufficient level of details for serious walkers - see Cartas Militares below.

Official walking Trails

There are pequenas rotas (shortish one day walks of up to about 20km) which you can find information about on the adere website and the website of  icnf - which also links to various local council websites which also have the maps. The tourist offices (portals) at various points around the edges of the park also stock paper versions of these and you can also down gps for all the routes easily by searching for the route names on eg Wikiloc.

The routes are marked with waymakers with varying degrees of comprehensiveness.

There are - or were - also grandes rotas of more than day length. These are still shown on some boards in the park, but seem to have been discontinued for the moment, presumably because the infrastructure does match the routes (eg you're officially not allowed to camp wild in the park and it would be impossible to complete some of them without that). A new Grande Rota that will go right across the park is planned (though it will not cross the highly protected, inaccessible, remote and unpopulated Serra de Geres that forms the heart of the East of the park, instead skirting through the villages to the south).

There are of course many other short and long walks through the park available on commercial GPS sites, eg Wikiloc but these will not be marked.

Cartas Militares

The official detailed maps are the Cartas Militares (Military charts) which cover all of Portugal in 1:250000 scale.  These provide a level of detail on the geographical features of the park to a level not available from any other source. However, the maps were last updated in 1996/1997 and the geography of human features - buildings, roads,trails and paths in the Peneda Geres has changed considerably since then.  In general, unpaved roads shown on the map are likely still to exist. Paths shown on the map cannot be relied on to exist in reality.

Unfortunately Cartas Militares are not widely available and are not sold within the park.  The best spot to buy them is the Porto Editora bookshop in central Porto  (open 9-5ish, mon-Friday, 9-1pm on Saturdays).

GPS Tracks
Wikiloc has loads of trails in the Peneda Geres for downloading to a handheld GPS. Ideally these should always be used alongside a traditional map and compass.  Wikiloc trails aren't quality assured, but the trails posted by Sudandobotas  (his own site in Spanish here) are extensive and reliable.

Where can I walk and where can't I walk

There are protected zones within the national park on both the Portuguese and Spanish side which are officially not open to walkers.  There is no published online map of where these areas are, and anyway practical enforcement is very difficult.

Wherever you go, stick to marked trails, don’t leave any litter, don’t damage anything.

Mobile Phones and wifi

There is a mobile phone reception in most, but not all, areas of the park.

Pitoes de Junias has free public wifi! You can pick it up outside the Terra Celta Taberna.