About Cascata das Aguieiras
Cascata das Aguieiras is the main waterfall attraction seen from the popular Passadiços do Paiva trail and boardwalk as well as the 516 Arouca 516 Ponte Suspensa (suspension bridge).
It’s where the Ribeira de Vila Galega ou das Aguieiras drops an estimated 100-160m (said to be one of the tallest on the Portugal mainland) from the granite rim of the Paiva Gorge to the Rio Paiva below.
By the way, the Rio Paiva is a tributary of the Douro River, the latter of which is one of Portugal’s most famous rivers due to its production of Port as well as other wines.
Despite the viewing distance, the waterfall was big enough to be easily seen across the gorge from the namesake Paiva Boardwalk (which, by the way, requires a paid time slot ticket).
Of course, the 516 Arouca Suspension Bridge (so-named because it’s 516m long; one of the longest such pedestrian suspension bridges) provides a much closer view of the falls.
However, it requires a separate paid ticket from that of the Passadiços do Paiva.
In any case, with the Passadiços do Paiva, it’s also popular to extend the walk into its entire 8km length as a shuttle hike from Areinho to Espiunca or vice versa.
Due to time limitations, we only did the part of this walk from the Areinho side, and this is what I’ll focus on for this page.
The boardwalk was completed in 2015 and the suspension bridge was completed in 2021, but due to these recent developments with much fanfare, it’s probably why this place is quite popular with foreign visitors.
Accessing the Passadiços do Paiva
Even though the trail is in the outdoors, you have to think of the Passadiços do Paiva as a paid excursion that you’ll have to make reservations online in advance.
In our case, we consulted the Passadiços do Paiva website for official information, and they had a payment link to book our expected date and time of visitation.
We were able to book our date about a month in advance (note: we weren’t able to book earlier because our date wasn’t available at the time).
Once that was done, we got an email with a QR code, which we printed out at home (because you never know if technology fails you when you need it most).
After doing that bit of pre-trip preparation, on the day of our visit, we then drove over to the car park for the Passadiços do Paiva on the Areinho side (see directions below).
Then, once we parked the car, we took the trail leading to the established boardwalk leading to a series of steps by the road bridge at the Garganta do Paiva.
This trail actually paralleled the road we had just driven to get to the car park, but it’s recommended to walk the trail because the mountain road is narrower while supporting bi-directional traffic without shoulder space for pedestrians.
Once at the Garganta do Paiva, we continued to walk the trail up several steps to reach the upper parts of the Paiva Gorge and the ticket check area (about 500m from the road bridge and steps at Garganta do Paiva).
This ticket check area was where the visitors queued up to have their QR codes scanned before being let through to either up the 516 Arouca Suspension Bridge or down the actual Passadiços do Paiva.
Note that the date and time slot on your reservation is only the start time that you have to show up.
In other words, you can show up later than the booked time but not earlier on the day of your pre-booked hike.
In our situation, we actually showed up 3 hours later than our booked time of 10:30am (we got to the queue at 1:30pm).
As for getting to the ticket checking area, realize that even getting up to this point involved going on a hike, which was about 1.6km from the nearest car park.
However, we showed up a bit late (i.e. during the peak hours of the day on a weekend) so we weren’t able to park in the nearest lot, and we had to drive a bit further to park in the spillover lot.
This added an additional 800m of total walking in each direction as the person preventing drivers from going to the nearest lot wouldn’t let us walk the road to the road bridge by the steps going up the Passadiços (saving us 300m of walking).
Therefore, in total, we hiked about 2.4km from the spillover car park to the ticket check kiosk (about double the minimum of 1.6km), and this took us around an hour due to the many steps going up from the road bridge at Garganta do Paiva.
It’s also worth noting that there were some very limited pullout spaces on the side of the road around the Garganta do Paiva road bridge, but those are not reliably available.
That said, if you do manage to score a spot like that, then that would shave off anywhere from 1.1km to 1.9km of hiking in each direction.
Finally, even though we didn’t do the 516 Arouca Suspension Bridge, I understand that it’s possible to access the bridge via the town of Alvarenga, which is said to be a gentle 1km walk.
Otherwise, you can use the same car parks as those for the Passadiços do Paiva on the Areinho side, and then do the aforementioned 800m to 1.6km hike with lots of steps.
More info about accessing the 516 Arouca bridge can be found here.
Witnessing the Cascata das Aguieiras
Beyond the ticket check kiosk, we followed the lower path per the worker’s direction to the continuation of the Passadiços do Paiva.
It only took a few minutes before we started to see the Cascata das Aguieiras waterfall across the gorge.
The further we went on the trail, the more direct the views of the waterfall became, especially when we got under the 516 Arouca Suspension Bridge.
There were a few lookouts to take in the view starting at 250m from the ticket check kiosk to about 450m for perhaps the best views.
Among the notable lookout spots that we did included one at a precarious dropoff for a photo op, another beneath the 516 Arouca Bridge by the G35 sign, and finally on the boardwalk steps descending rapidly into the Paiva Gorge.
We actually turned around at a nice lookout on the series of steps descending (or ascending depending on your direction) the Paiva Gorge, which was roughly 450m from the ticket check kiosk.
Overall, we wound up spending around 3 hours away from the car, and I wound up hiking a total distance of about 4.8km give or take (a lot of extra hiking due to having to park at the spillover lot).
That said, on the return hike, I did manage to save my wife and daughter almost 2km of hiking by waiting for me at Garganta do Paiva while I went to pick up the car and then pick them up on our way out.
I do have to say that I did regret not adding a little more effort to go fully down the steps for an unusual view of both the Cascata das Aguieiras together with the Passadiços steps in one shot.
Speaking of extending the hike, there were certainly more options to make a day out of this visit, which I’ll get to below.
Options for Extending the Passadiços do Paiva
In addition to visiting the Cascata das Aguieiras, the entire Passadiços do Paiva boardwalk spans 8km along the Rio Paiva between the trailheads of Areinho and Espiunca.
It’s said that doing this hike in either direction would take about 3 hours, but I can easily envision this taking longer due to rest breaks and photo stops.
You can arrange for a taxi at either end to keep this a one-way walk instead of doubling the distance (though I understand there used to be a shuttle bus connecting both ends).
In addition to the Garganta do Paiva and the Cascata das Aguieiras that we experienced on our limited walk, there were other attractions and photo stops motivating an extended visit or lingering on the Passadiços do Paiva.
These include the following:
- Areinho River Beach – a swimming hole and play spot near the Areinho car park
- Vau River Beach – a swimming hole and play spot (water level dependent) roughly half-way on the Passadiços do Paiva
- Gola do Salto – a powerful 4m waterfall on the Paiva River closer to the Espiunca side
- Espiunca Fault – a geological fault exposing black quartzite cliffs by the Espiunca side trailhead
- Espiunca River Beach – a swimming hole and play spot near the Espiunca car park
Indeed, as you can see, we spent about 3 hours on a very limited portion of the entire Passadiços do Paiva excursion where the Cascata das Aguieiras was our main motivation.
That said, we’ve seen quite a few people continue past the waterfall and work their way to Espiunca to make at least a half-day out of it.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, even with a big waterfall like the Cascata das Aguieiras, it’s that lots of Europeans tend to savor experiences more so than the pursuing the attraction itself.
And I’d have to say that the other attractions along the Paiva Walkway certainly fits that way of thinking of experiencing the gorge as opposed to being nothing more than additional photo stops.
Authorities
The Cascata das Aguieiras Waterfall is in the Arouca Geopark near the town of Alvarenga in the Aveiro District of Norte Region of Portugal. It is managed by the Municipality of Arouca. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Passadiços do Paiva website or the 516 Arouca website.
The Cascata das Aguieiras resides in the Arouca Geopark near the town of Alvarenga.
Although there are many ways of getting here, we came here as part of a long drive between Manteigas and Lamego (in the Douro River Valley).
You can use apps like GoogleMaps to route to Alvarenga to the east of the Rio Paiva or Canelas to the west of the Rio Paiva.
Then, from Alvarenga, you can navigate your way to the car parks on the Areinho side of the Passadiços do Paiva.
I’ll just focus on navigating from Alvarenga to the car park on the Areinho side of the Passadiços do Paiva.
For the other options, there are plenty of resources (including the links provided in the “Authorities” section above) to get you to where you need to go.
So from the N225 road in Alvarenga, we drove to its junction with the R326-1 Road before heading south on the R326-1 Road.
From there, we followed this descending road for about 6km to a bridge at the Garganta do Paiva.
There may be some limited pullout spots along the road, and if they’re available, go ahead and take them to reduce the hiking.
Otherwise, continue on the single-lane bridge to the other side before driving another 500m to a signed turnoff on the left for the Passadiços do Paiva Areinho car park.
If there’s no one there keeping people from going in because the lot is full, you can go down that ramp on the left for about 300m to the car park.
However, if there’s no space available here, then you’d have to drive another 700m to another turnoff to the left side at a bend in the road.
Take this unpaved turnoff, and drive the final 300m to the spillover car park for the Passadiços do Paiva on the Areinho side.
Overall, just doing this 8km stretch of the drive from Alvarenga to the spillover car park would take around 15-20 minutes.
For context, Alvarenga is about 67km (about 90 minutes drive) west of Lamego, about 83km (about 90 minutes drive) southeast of Porto, about 139km (over 2 hours drive) north of Coimbra, 149km (over 2.5 minutes drive) northwest of Manteigas, 152km (about 3 hours drive south of Gerês, and 326km (about 4 hours drive) north of Lisbon.
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Sweep starting from the precarious outcrop before walking under the suspension bridge and then starting to glimpse the next infrastructure before the falls after the suspension bridge
360 degree sweep from an intermediate part of the descending trail before the waterfall and almost underneath the suspension bridge
360 degree sweep from our turnaround spot at a joint in the steps going almost down to the river level
Another 360 degree sweep going from left to right showing the suspension bridge as well as the waterfall itself
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