What to see in Gerês by car when autumn arrives?

Gerês is one of Portugal’s most beautiful regions. It is located in the Peneda-Gerês National Park, and is a protected area considered a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Spanning about 70 thousand hectares, it is situated in the northwest corner of Portugal, between Minho, Trás-os-Montes and Galicia.

Gerês is one of Portugal’s greatest natural attractions thanks to the rare beauty of its impressive landscape, its ecological and ethnographic value and the variety of its fauna and flora.

It is just 100 kilometers from Porto, and so if you rent a car at our offices, you can reach the park in less than an hour and a half and enjoy yourself amid the trees, trails and waterfalls. An unforgettable adventure that you can share with friends and family.

Albergaria Forest: 

Autumn brings us all its colors, from red to russet through all the yellows and oranges tones, and even some shades of green that resist throughout the year. Take a pleasant stroll among the piles of fallen leaves, looking for mushrooms with the children, with the murmur of the river in the background. This is a progressive landscape of oaks, giant beech trees and a patchwork of Mediterranean and northern European species. An enchanted forest where the sun's rays sneak in between the leaves of the trees.

Cascada do Arado

The Arado waterfall is located in the heart of the Peneda-Gerês National Park. It is one of the largest and most famous waterfalls in the park on the Arado River, near the town of Ermida and the Pedra Bela lookout. You can reach it by following a sandy forest road, surrounded by abundant vegetation.

At an altitude of about 900 meters, the Arado River gives rise to a succession of unique waterfalls between its rocks. To the north, on the right bank of the river, there are steps that will lead us to a small lookout at the top, where we will have a view of the waterfall among the vegetation.

Preguiça Trail

This trail offers us a circular route that begins on the Estrada Nacional 308 road, 3 kilometers from Gerês, and that spans 5 kilometers.

The Preguiça trail runs along the slope of Mount Arnado, on the left bank of the Gerês river valley. During your tour, you can see the oak forest that harbors vegetation with a great diversity of species. This route is especially interesting from the standpoint of education about the environment. On the same trail there are different routes, suitable for different types of public.

The Trails of the Calçada Romana

There are several trails that lead us to an ancient Roman road that extends along 320 kilometers, connecting Braga with Astorga (Spain), and that today is a World Heritage Site.

Here we will find species such as chestnut, ash, black oak, willow and alder. The diversity of wildlife along the trail is due to the forested areas and from the adjacent waterways. The common rabbit, the fox, the wild boar, the Pyrenean desman, the little owl, the tawny owl, the nightingale, the common whitethroat, the rock sparrow, the French sparrow, the common kestrel, the crow and the griffon vulture are all typical of this locality.

Albufeira da Barragem da Caniçada (Caniçada Dam)

Albufeira da Caniçada is one of those places that we won’t want to miss when we travel through Serra do Gerês. In addition to the beauty of its landscape, there is much to discover along its banks. The Pedra Bela Lookout is one of the main points of interest. The views from this point are really impressive.