Tourism, as a sustainable development strategy, constitutes an important pillar of any geopark, since it promotes heritage valorisation, contributing to the construction of new infrastructures to support tourism, which can be used by visitors and local populations to develop new local products and services, encouraging local crafts, promoting local economic growth and the creation of new employment opportunities.
In this context, the Estrela Aspiring Geopark has created a network of interpretive routes - "Tourism for all" and "Heritage and Landscape", which aim at making the existing natural and cultural heritage known, with particular focus on geological heritage, promoting the enjoyment, knowledge and valorisation of the endogenous resources of the territory.
The Estrela Aspiring Geopark aims at creating a development strategy for the territory, starting from the recognition of existing heritage, and making tourism accessible in environments that meet the needs of everyone.
The Interpretive Routes of the Estrela Aspiring Geopark can be discovered through 5 routes that complement themselves, including in its set the 9 Municipalities that are part of this application. This is a trip through its heritage and geosites to be classified by UNESCO, being an opportunity to promote a tourism to and from EVERYONE! This is an activity in which everyone can participate.
On a trip between Guarda (Mocho Real Panorama) and the Torre Plateau, this Interpretive Route travels through some of the iconic sites of this aspiring UNESCO Global Geopark. It begins in metamorphic landscapes, with more than 650 Ma, and ends where ancient glaciers left their marks.
- Download the program PI1 - From Egitânea to Montes Hermínios
Having as its destination the Torre Plateau, an important testimony of the last Glaciation period in Serra da Estrela, this interpretive route begins in the village of Belmonte, a place where its history blends with the history of Portugal itself.
- Download the program PI2 - From History to the Mountain
Linking two important arteries of Serra da Estrela’s hydrology, this Interpretive Route transports us through the rural landscapes of the Alva, in a permanent ascent to the source of the most important entirely Portuguese river. Ending in Penhas Douradas, this route connects the Municipalities of Oliveira do Hospital and Manteigas, interpreting part of its geological and cultural history.
- Download the program PI3 - From Alva to Mondego
Granite is the predominant lithology in this mountainous massif. Its landscape is deeply marked by this rock, both in its abundant geological heritage and in the very construction and use that Man has made throughout history. In a route between the village of Celorico da Beira, in the middle of its castle, and the Lagoa Comprida, we interpret the gradual change between granite and glacial landscapes, an inescapable mark of this mountain.
Download the program PI4 - Between Granite and Glaciation
This 2-day trip lets us contemplate the heart of this imposing mountain that rises to almost 2,000m a.s.l. On a trip marked strongly by the presence of glacial traces, with approximately 30 thousand years, we are invited to interpret their forms, their use by man and what remains today of the long evolution of this landscape. In 2 days we travelled through parts of the Municipalities of Manteigas, Gouveia, Seia and Covilhã in an almost complete circuit around centre of this great Estrela.
- Download the program PI5 - In the Heart of the Mountain
