Home / The thirty days / Porto and the Minho / The last rowed ferry on the Minho
Two oars, one tide, two countries
Cross a border older than the border: reserve a rowed ferry crossing day at Caminha
From $164 per person, 10:00 to 15:30, at the mouth of the river that divides two countries, in the Porto and the Minho region. This day needs four people before it runs. The boat is small and the crossing takes minutes; the rest of the hours go on both shores, on foot, waiting for the tide to turn.
| Starts from | Caminha, Portugal |
|---|---|
| Hours | 10:00 to 15:30 |
| Runs when | needs four |
| One person pays | from $164 |
| Part of | Porto and the Minho |
Two shores, one tide, six hours
Ten o'clock at the slipway, and the first hour stays on the Portuguese shore: the fort on the point, the sand flats the tide uncovers, and why a crossing existed here for centuries before anyone drew a line down the middle of the water. The boat goes when the tide allows, not when a timetable says. It is rowed, it takes eight or nine minutes, and it lands on gravel on the Galician side. Two hours there on foot, the old customs house, the pines, and a plain lunch. The return crossing is early afternoon on the turning tide, and the day finishes with an hour on the estuary path before you are driven back.
Open boat, wind and no shelter
An open boat with no cover, low freeboard and a wooden thwart to sit on. The estuary is sheltered compared with the coast, but wind funnels down the valley most afternoons and spray over the bow is normal rather than remarkable. You step in and out from gravel and from a stone slipway with no rail, which needs a steady foot; there is a hand to take, not a ramp. Everyone wears a buoyancy aid, strong swimmers included. Walking comes to about four miles on flat sand, path and one cobbled climb into the town. If the wind gets up past a certain point the crossing is called off and the day becomes both shores by road.
Costs on the day, and after it
From $164 per person, and four people are needed before it runs. The figure holds road transport from the city, both crossings, the buoyancy aids, a guide with the languages of both shores, and lunch on the Galician side. It does not hold your documents or any thinking about them: this office gives no advice on passports, visas or who may cross where, and that question belongs to your own authorities before you travel. It does not hold binoculars, which are worth carrying. The small operator who rows the boat invoices you directly; this office takes no payment and holds no card details at any stage.
Awkward things people ask about this day
- What do we need in order to cross?
- This office gives no advice on documents, visas or passports, and will not read your paperwork for you. What can be said is factual: the crossing lands in another country, the boat is not a scheduled service, and there is no frontier post on either shore. What you are required to carry is a question for your own authorities, and it should be answered before you hold a place.
- Will we see the estuary birds?
- Usually, and never on demand. The estuary holds waders through autumn and winter, and the numbers on any given morning depend on the tide and the wind rather than on anybody's plan. Two hours of low water at the sand flats gives the better chance and a high spring tide gives almost none. On a poor day the crossing, the fort and the walk are still there, which is why the day is priced as a crossing.
- Can you drop us on the Spanish side and leave us there?
- No. The boat carries you both ways and the vehicle waits on the Portuguese side, so a one way arrangement is not something this day can do. If your plan is to carry on north into Galicia, say it when you enquire and the office will simply not sell you this day; there are scheduled ways over the river further inland that suit that far better.
The other five days near this one
Two days that look close on a map are not always joinable in one week, and the office will say so plainly instead of selling you the pair anyway.
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from $148 per person runs whatever the numbers -
from $132 per person runs whatever the numbers -
from $196 per person needs four -
from $210 per person needs eight -
from $188 per person needs eight
Hold this day and add others to it
Booking a day here means the office holds your place with whoever runs that day on the ground, and their invoice reaches you directly once the dates stop moving.