Serra do Marão Road

Every journey into Trás-os-Montes once came over this mountain, until the A4 tunnel took the traffic and left the EN 15 to people like us. Amarante to Vila Real across the granite tops around 1,000 m, a long flowing string of curves with hardly anyone on it.

Before the A4 tunnel pierced the mountain, every journey from the Douro Litoral into Trás-os-Montes crossed the Serra do Marão on the EN 15, and that old road remains one of northern Portugal’s finest drives. It climbs from Amarante in the Tâmega valley through chestnut and pine to the granite tops near Alto do Espinho around 1,000 m, then descends the eastern flank into Vila Real. With the motorway taking the through traffic, the EN 15 is now quiet, a long, flowing string of curves and counter-curves with broad valley panoramas and a scattering of miradouros. The surface is good two-lane asphalt. Mind drifting mist and low cloud on the summit stretch, slick leaves and damp granite in autumn, and slow local and farm traffic on blind bends.