
Camino de Santiago
The most emblematic, beautiful and storied sections of Spain's Caminos
Camino de Santiago
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![]() | Camino routes |
Camino Francés; Camino del Norte; Camino Vadiniense
![]() | Main departure points |
Roncesvalles; Donostia
![]() | Major airports |
Bilbao (start); Santiago de Compostela (end)
Street sardines Rock of Ages Birdsong Sunflower signs Ancient Atapuerca Talk to each other Temptation Random acts of kindness Guitarist of Astorga We'll get you to the top Galician shepherd Journey's end
From Cirauqui, Navarre
The women of Cirauqui were dressed in traditional white clothes with red kerchiefs for Lady's Mass. After the service, the men had set up tables in the shady village square, with wine flowing and bundles of dried vines squirted with extra virgin olive oil and set alight to grill piles and piles of sardines.
And that was it, a lump of bread, fresh sardines and a cup of wine. Not a tourist in site, Spain at its most unguarded and engaging.
From Burguete, Navarre
It felt as if that great slab of a stone bridge had been there forever. I got a palpable sense of the history which had passed over this stone, all the footsteps which smooth it, each one leaving the most tiny imprint.
That's the thing about the Camino - it's ancient, it's very low impact. Nobody's racing, nobody's walking along talking on their phones, it's resolutely un-modern and very, very human.
From Estella, Navarre
When you come out of the Pyrenees and cross the hills, you emerge to a landscape more recognisably 'Spanish'. Rolling hills, vineyards, sandstone villages, olive trees.
But what I loved about this part of the walk were the smells and the sounds. Wild fennel, sage, wild flowers and blossom surround the path. Birds cheep, church bells ring, people talk. Normally I'm a very fast walker but the Camino made me want to slow down and take it all in.
From Burgos, Castile y León
Emerging from the Montes de Oca forests, you see yellow arrows everywhere; tiled into walls, bolted to signposts and painted onto surfaces. In a field of sunflowers, someone had even taken the time to pluck out the seeds to make a perfect arrow.
You really can't get lost here, so I think it was done to make people smile. That someone would create something so fleeting to benefit strangers says something reassuring about the world.
From Atapuerca, Castile y León
Right here is where our earliest ancestors roamed. The remains found at the Atapuerca archaeological dig date back as much as 1.3 million years, making this the most important archaeological landscape in Europe, arguably the world.
But what I was also looking at is quite simply a beautiful, open landscape of grassland punctuated with enormous, ancient oak trees. It's a place you can walk in silence and absorb the space.
From Burgos, Castile y León
The Camino is not all about the walking. It's a story of humanity. In a bar amid the bustle of Burgos they served me a G&T which sits among the all time greats. But then that's by-the-by. It's the sign I love most. It translates as: 'We don't have wi-fi, talk to each other.'
Absolute genius and a sentiment perfectly inkeeping with the Camino.
From Burgos, Castile y León
The art of food. Everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Along the way, we encountered beautiful food at every stage of the Camino. Made with such care and flair and presented so beautifully that it is near impossible to resist working your way through everything on display, like these tapas in Burgos.
I can resist everything except temptation.
From Astorga, Castile y León
A barn-cum-mud-hut sits on the high plain as you approach Astorga. It's an unforgiving place - brutally hot in summer, bitingly cold in winter. And yet, here lived a young man called David, who looks like our received images of Jesus - beautiful, beatific and bearded. His little stall is filled with drinks and snacks.
But it's not a shop, it's not for sale. It's for the pilgrims to take. I love the spirit which underlies this simple, ongoing act.
From Astorga, Castile y León
Sitting just outside Astorga at the point where two branches of the Camino meet - the Francés and the Via de la Plata from Andalucia - is the guitarist of Astorga. It's at this point that the Camino starts to get busier, you feel the atmosphere rising as you see more and more pilgrims around you.
To come across this chap singing away as you come off the plains creates an excitement all of its own.
Brilliant.
From Lugo, Galicia
O Cebreiro is the section of the Camino which brings you into Galicia. Bear in mind that the day before, we'd been walking across the plains of Castile so the change in landscape is dramatic.
It's an eight or nine kilometre uphill slog to get to this point but the views are fantastic. Down at the bottom of the hill is a truly inspired piece of marketing for horses for hire 'Te subimos!' We'll get you to the top!
From Lugo, Galicia
Sorry, I don't know his name. But we sat on a wall and talked about goats, the Camino, life. Rural life in Galicia is hard - over the generations the farms have been split between children and then split again until nobody has a plot big enough to sustain their families. Then there's the harsh weather...
But on a day like this, the sun streaming down through the trees, the clanking of the goats' bells, this was a man at peace.
From Santiago de Compostela, Galicia
Here's a small provincial city in all of its glorious Spanishness - lovely food, buildings, culture, people. But it's a city which, for over a thousand years, has welcomed people from all over the world. It's open, welcoming and diverse.
And in the Plaza do Obradeiro, where most pilgrims finish their journey, there is singing, there is dancing, a lot of crying and lots of noise. It's incredibly energetic and spectacularly moving.
With tailored handpicked hikes, welcoming guesthouses and no heavy bags to carry, enjoy only the very best sections of Spain's ancient Caminos on a relaxing walking vacation.

Combining Caminos

There's not just one Camino of course, but many.
The Francés is the most popular, followed by the Portuguese route and then the quieter coastal path across the north of Spain - the Camino del Norte. Beyond these are others which thread their way across the peninsula and various extensions and detours which elaborate on the most popular ways.
Given that our goal is not to make a pilgrim of you, but to instead weave together the varied beauty of northern Spain with its communities, traditions, history and people, we have many options to create a Camino itinerary that is bespoke to you.
One way of doing that is to link the inland Camino Francés with the coastal Camino del Norte using an old connection between them. The Camino Vadiniense forms a detour once often taken by pilgrims to visit important relics hidden in the depths of the Picos de Europa. By combining these three Caminos, we can showcase an even greater contrast of landscapes, adding in the lush pastures and undulating cliffs of the Costa Verde and the craggy peaks and high meadows of the Picos de Europa.


Camino del Norte
The Camino del Norte was actually the route that most pilgrims followed for the first centuries of pilgrimage as the border with Islam was still not far south from the Cantabrian mountains. As the Christian kingdoms pushed these borders south, the courts moved with it and the new cities were built in the central plateau, shifting the pilgrims to walk along the easier central plateau.
This has left the Camino del Norte with less monumental heritage, but with a wilder landscape and less footfall.
The hills come down to the coast and the pastures make it all the way to the cliffs, broken here and there by white sand coves. The Basque Country offers some of the best clifftop walking in Spain, thanks to the green pastures and the stunning geological formations of the "flysh" sedimentary strata.


Camino Vadiniense
Pilgrims normally avoided the high mountains. There needed to be a good reason to confront big slopes, colder temperatures and remote inhabited areas.
But in the hidden valley of Liébana, at the foothill of the Picos de Europa, there was a good reason to detour from the Camino del Norte. The Lignum Crucis - one of the largest pieces of the Holy Cross - was hidden in the Santo Toribio Monastery since the 8th century and pilgrims ducked inland to worship it.
Rather than coming back to the coast, it made more sense for the Christian pilgrims to keep going to León and join up with the Camino Francés to Santiago. Thus the Camino Vadiniense was created. This ancient and little-trodden route offer some of the most spectacular landscapes of all the Caminos, bordering the Picos de Europa mountains and traversing over high mountain passes.


Camino Francés
It is always beautiful and inspiring to walk below the infinite skies of Castile and León, where the Vadiniense meets the Francés.
This is the granary of Spain - the cereal fields of the high plateau. The long section of plains come to an end as you approach the old Roman town of Astorga, a crossroad of routes since ancient times and gateway to the high mountains that appear in the distance, the last challenge before reaching Santiago.
From here the Camino rises up the slopes that separate the central plateau from the green pastures of Galicia. After days on the dry plains, for most pilgrims it's most welcome to return to lush forests of oaks and chestnut trees. And although the hill is challenging it does not take too long to be high in the mountain and admiring the wide views.
Journey's end is, of course, Santiago de Compostela.
A grey granite city it may be, but this is a joyful place. You have 300,000 people a year arriving here happy as Larry for not having to walk any more, with a huge feeling of achievement and peace in their hearts. Santiago is not short of monuments and cultural visits. But once you have visited the Apostle in the Cathedral and you have been blessed by the Botafumeiro scents, most people just meander around town, happy to be there, running into others they met along the way and sharing stories of their Camino.
We'd love to help you create your own.


Three Caminos Inn to Inn Walking Vacation
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$4,984 pp
- 12 days
Three Caminos Inn to Inn Walking Vacation
When: Apr-Jul; Sep-Nov
Price: $4,984 per person
Duration: 12 days
Walk our handpicked highlights, along the coast, in the mountains and across the plains, following three ancient pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela.
Highlights of the Camino Inn to Inn Walking Vacation
-
$4,249 pp
- 11 days
Highlights of the Camino Inn to Inn Walking Vacation
When: Apr-Jul; Sep-Nov
Price: $4,249 per person
Duration: 11 days
The French Way, your way. Walk six iconic sections, with your load lightened, distances tailored and charming hotels to relax and refuel at the day's end.