The Geira Roman Road

Ruts from 2000 years of carts travelling along the Geira
 Roman Road (between Portela do Homen and Lobios)

The Geira Roman Road is a beautiful way to see the Peneda Geres National Park, including some of the Spanish side. For most of the path you are walking through oak woods along the paving slabs left by the Romans, now deeply rutted by two thousand years of cart traffic. Roman mile markers and memorials are distributed all along the path. The ancient road ran 300km between two important Roman cities of the Iberian peninsula, Braga, now in Portugal, and Astorga in Spain.

I walked the Geira Roman Road for three days from outside Braga on the south side of the park to Lobios - the central village of the park on the northern, Spanish side.

The signposted trail and infrastructure only runs as far as the Spanish border. However, once you're in Spain the route from the Portela do Homen fronteir to the village of Lobios is essentially a straight line and is easy to follow on the map. I didnt try to continue the path beyond Lobios, but doubt it exists in any easy-to-follow form.

The signposting of the Geira Roman Road in Portugal is very well done, with sensitively designed glass boards every roman mile of the route explaining the history and metal signposts showing the way. It's a while since I walked the path, but I dont remember the trail being difficult to follow or walk at all - so would rate it easy to moderate difficulty. Obviously the path does wind up into to hills so there's alot of uphill walking.
The walking route I followed was as follows:

• Day 1 - Vila Verde, 16km outside Braga to Terras de Bouro (not following the Geira path) - staying in a guest house in Terras de Boura
• Day 2 - Terras de Bouro to Campo de Geres, picking up the Geira a couple of km east of Terras de Bouro (see below) - camping at the Parque de Cerdeira campsite
• Day 3 - Campo de Geres to Lobios (via fronteir at Portela do Homen) - staying in small hotel in Lobios

Roman milestones and modern "milemarker" interpretative
 board along the Geira Route

The challenge with the Geira Roman Road is where to start it! There is no published map online of the route, and in fact the only map I've ever seen is a large scale one on a billboard outside the Turismo office in Terras de Bouro. However once you've started the trail its easy to follow with clear signposting (see above). Also, in general the road follows paths that are marked on the map, though not identifed as part the Geira.

Where to start the Geira Roman Road

From Braga
???? This is where it starts, but I can't find where. Can anybody help - one option would be to start from the central square of Praca da Republica, asking at the Tourism office in the same square to point you in the right direction.

From the Canicada Dam, at the south of the park
The Portuguese website serra-do-geres.com says:
"This adventure begins at the junction/rotunda at the end of the bridge over the dam of Canicanda, for those coming from Braga. If you turn right, you'll go to Geres, if you go left you'll be hading to Amares and reutrn to Braga. Go straight on and you;ll come to [the church of] Sao Bento da Porta Aberta. Continue and you'll have [the church of] Sao Joao de Campo. Follow the road that takes you to the Vilharino da Furna dam. At the crossing point you will have the choice between Vilharino das Furnas and Mata de Albergaria, park there (if driving).

"Follow the Geira route which begins in front of the stone wall, at the side of the dam, It is marked by plaques with general informaiton and the history of the Geira. You will quicky find the start of the route."

From Terras de Bouro
Head East North East on paths towards the villages of Seara and Freitas. You will cross the Geira, which is heading north, and be able to start walking along it towards the village of Covide. (This is what I did).

View from Geira Roman Road just outside Campo do Geres

From Campo do Geres
The path passes the Parque de Cerdeira Campsite on the outskirts of the village


From Lobios in Spain (heading south along the Geira rather than north)
Follow the road running SSW towards Portela do Homen/Portugal. Stay off of the road and on parrallel paths wherever possible after Tornerios - intially the paths run on the east side and then on the west side of the road)- you will see from the roman paving that these paths are the true route of the Geira. Immediately after the Portela do Homen border the roman road (via romana) is marked on the map, running south west away from the road. You can then pick up the Portugues marking of the route.

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.