This is the fourth and final post about our 2-week trip in August 2026 through Northern Portugal and Galicia. You can see a summary of it here:
Day 14 – 8/21/2026 (Friday)
Time to leave Ciés Islands. We had our coffee and packed our things to leave. What a sad moment…
We walked back to the dock, but since we still had 30 minutes to go before our boat, we sat for a while in the restaurant to wait. Paddy wanted to play on the beach making dams again – he's addicted to it! – and Ju stayed with us at the table. When it was time to board, there we were again with our many belongings. Luckily, the staff on the boat helped us with the cart on the ramps and stairs.
We arrived in Cangas, left our things in the car parked at the marina, and went to have lunch nearby. We tried to go to a highly recommended restaurant that was packed, but we ended up going to... From Chata Tapería. Good food for everyone, thankfully!
We continued our journey to our hotel in Amarante And two hours later, there we were. We parked the car in the parking lot behind the hotel and grabbed just two small bags with the things we needed for the weekend. No tents, sleeping bags, stove, chairs, etc… phew! I confess that after so many days of camping, it was a delight to lie down in real beds in a cozy room, take a long, hot shower, and simply turn on the TV so the kids could give us some peace. A well-deserved luxury!
We stayed at Hotel Navarras (grade 8.7), It's very central and well-organized, and we loved it. We got ready without rushing and went for a walk in the town center looking for a cozy restaurant. What a cute little town!
We stopped for dinner at Lusitana Restaurant, With several recommendations on the door and excellent service. We ordered the veal dish and it was tasty, but we wanted more sauce to make it perfect. We left satisfied, walked around the city a little more, and then went to bed!
Day 15 – 22/8/2026 (Saturday)
Water park day! Yay! 🙂
We woke up relaxed, went down for a nice hotel breakfast, and then got ready to go exploring. Amarante Water Park. I'll make a separate post about it, but here's a summary.
We arrived a little after opening time because we got lost on the way – yep, that still happens to us from time to time – and we had to park the car quite far from the park entrance. There were almost no parking spaces left, much to our dismay.
We had already bought the tickets on our cell phones, so we just had to show our phones at the entrance. We left our things in the... locker We went to the restaurants down there and enjoyed the park. It was a beautiful sunny day, but a bit windy, so of course Ju got cold at times. We enjoyed several slides, but because of Ju's height of 1.10m, we couldn't go on many rides with her. I ended up spending quite a bit of time with her in the wave pool, which even has a foam bath at times, and Celo went on the more extreme rides with Paddy. We found slides that all four of us could go on and that was a lot of fun too!
We ate fast food and enjoyed the park until the very last minute. By the end of the day I was exhausted, but the children could still manage more. I found the park well-organized, clean, and well-signposted, but the stairs between different levels were quite tiring. I'm not even talking about the stairs to the rides. Besides that, there were long lines for the rides, which was quite frustrating, but that's how it is... summer, few park options like that in Portugal, it couldn't be any different. It was a good outing, a good discovery, but I don't intend to return.
We arrived at the hotel, took a shower, and quickly went out to dinner because we had a reservation at... Between Bridges. We sat on the little balcony, ate a divine shrimp risotto, and returned carrying Ju, who had fallen asleep while we were still sitting there drinking our wines.
A busy day, everyone happy and exhausted!
Day 16 – 23/8/2026 (Sunday)
We had our last breakfast of the trip, packed our things, left everything in the car, and went for a paddleboat ride on the Tâmega River. Ju saw the paddleboats on Friday night when we were walking through the town center, and we promised we would go for a ride later, so there we were. The girls stayed behind enjoying the view, and the boys did all the pedaling. Ha! Fun, fun, fun. It was quite hot, but being near the water was refreshing. We went into the church to pray and give thanks for everything, stopped at a traditional bakery to buy local sweets, and hit the road towards Cascais.
We tried to go back to Pedro dos Leitões in Bairrada, but it was full and we didn't want to wait. We returned to the same restaurant from the beginning of the trip – the Reed– and there was a table there. We ate suckling pig again and drove home with lots of music, games, and occasional naps for the children.
Another trip with my loved ones. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Heavenly Father!
