Location of Chaves, Portugal


Map of the Concelho of Chaves


View of Chaves from the Brunheiro Hills (Photo by Fernando Ribeiro)

The town of Chaves is located on the crossroads of national highways N2 and N103.  On N3 north it is 10 km (10 min. driving time) to the Spanish border at Feces and another 22 to the small but interesting town of Verin.  On N3 south it is 60 km (55 min. driving time) to the district capital of Vila Real.  On N103 west it is 127 km (2 hours driving time) to Braga.  On N103 east it is 96 km (1.30 driving time) to Bragança.  These roads are all two-lane tarmac, generally in good condition, but with deficient vertical and horizontal signposting, and with many narrow bridges and hairpin curves.  Despite the increasing truck traffic using the Chaves-Vila Real road, overall road connections are still very bad.  The road linking Chaves to Braga is especially dangerous in the winter, although the views are breathtaking.                          

All passenger and freight traffic to and from Chaves is carried out by road transport.  There are two important bus lines, Auto Viação do Tâmega  and  Rodonorte, which link the town to nearby population centers and to major cities on the coast like Porto and Lisbon.  As mentioned above, long-distance truck traffic passing through the town has increased greatly.  In the summer, especially, with the influx of immigrants returning from France in the month of August, traffic can be especially nerve-wracking.  There are plans to build a four-lane highway either from Guimarães or from Vila Real, but so far they are just plans sadly evidenced by a dilapidated sign near the Spanish border which remained in defiant place announcing the future construction of this highway.  The sign has finally disintegrated and  can no longer be seen.

Until 1981 there was a railroad that came up from Vila Real.  It had been built in 1928.  Faster and more efficient bus travel spelled its doom, since it used to take 2 hours to travel 60 km.  People say—perhaps with a hint of hyperbole—that they could jump off, run to a tree to pick some fruit, and still catch the train.  Most of the track has now been pulled up and many of the stations have been abandoned.  

There is also a small airstrip on the outskirts of Chaves with a very limited use by private planes, most of them of less than recent vintage.  Sometimes in the summer it is used for parachute jumps and for ultra-light planes.  Helicopters and planes carrying water to put out forest fires also use the strip in the hot summer months, but most of the time it is used for grazing sheep.

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