Camino de Santiago routes: which one to walk

The short answer

There is no single Camino de Santiago. There is a cathedral in Santiago and a web of old roads leading to it from every direction, and each road is its own walk. The Camino Frances from the French border is the one most people mean, and about half of all pilgrims walk some part of it. The Portuguese routes from Lisbon and Porto are the second choice. Everything else is quieter, and some of it is very quiet.

If you have a month and it is your first Camino, walk the Frances. If you have two weeks, the Primitivo or the Portuguese from Porto. If you have a week, the Ingles. If you want coast, the Norte or the Portuguese coastal way. If you want to be alone, the Via de la Plata.

The routes compared

Route	Starts at	Distance	Days	What it is like
Camino Frances	Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France	780 km (485 miles)	30 to 35	The classic, the busiest, the best supported
Camino Portugues (central)	Lisbon, or Porto	620 km / 240 km	28 / 10	Gentle, flat for long stretches, warm
Camino Portugues (coastal)	Porto	280 km (175 miles)	12 to 14	Beaches and boardwalks, then inland to Santiago
Camino del Norte	Irun, on the French border	825 km (513 miles)	32 to 36	Coast and hills, wetter, quieter, pricier
Camino Primitivo	Oviedo	320 km (200 miles)	12 to 14	The oldest and the hardest, mountain walking
Camino Ingles	Ferrol	120 km (75 miles)	5 to 6	The short one that still earns the Compostela
Via de la Plata	Seville	1,000 km (620 miles)	40 to 45	Long, hot, empty, on a Roman road
Camino Finisterre	Santiago de Compostela	90 km (56 miles)	3 to 4	The epilogue, from the cathedral to the ocean

Days assume 22 to 26 km (14 to 16 miles) a day, the pace most pilgrims settle into, with no rest days. Add one rest day a week if you like cities.

Every route above is out of reach for most of us this year. It is not out of reach for your feet. Put the Camino under them, and the evening walk you would have skipped becomes the one that gets you to the next milestone, where a chapter of the road opens up. That is what reTrek is for.

The routes, one by one

Camino Frances

From Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port at the foot of the Pyrenees to Santiago, about 780 km (485 miles) in 30 to 35 days. Day one crosses the Pyrenees into Roncesvalles. Then Pamplona, the vineyards of La Rioja, Burgos, the long flat Meseta, Leon, the climb to O Cebreiro and the green hills of Galicia. It has the most pilgrim hostels, the clearest waymarks and the most company, which is either the point or the problem depending on who you are. The last 115 km (71 miles) from Sarria are the busiest stretch of any Camino, because Sarria is where people start who only want the certificate.

Camino Portugues

Two starts. From Lisbon it is about 620 km (385 miles) and around four weeks, with a quiet and sometimes lonely first fortnight through the Portuguese interior. From Porto it is about 240 km (150 miles) on the central way, ten days through vineyards, eucalyptus and old market towns, or about 280 km (175 miles) on the coastal way, which follows beaches and wooden boardwalks up the Atlantic before turning inland. Both cross into Spain at Tui or by boat at Caminha and finish over the same last 100 km (62 miles). Porto has become one of the busiest starting points of any Camino, behind only Sarria.

Camino del Norte

From Irun on the Basque border along the northern coast to Santiago, about 825 km (513 miles) in 32 to 36 days. San Sebastian, Bilbao, Santander, Gijon and a hundred fishing villages between them. It is hillier than the Frances because the coast keeps rising and falling, it rains more, and the coast towns are pricier than the villages of the Meseta. In return you get the sea beside you for three weeks and a fraction of the crowd. It joins the Frances at Arzua for the final two days.

Camino Primitivo

From Oviedo through the Cantabrian mountains to Santiago, about 320 km (200 miles) in 12 to 14 days. This is the original Camino, the road King Alfonso II walked from Oviedo in the ninth century when the tomb was found, and it is the hardest of the main routes. The mountain stage over the Hospitales pass climbs above 1,100 m (3,600 ft) with no village for most of a day. It joins the Frances at Melide, 50 km (31 miles) from Santiago, and the last two days are suddenly crowded.

Camino Ingles

From Ferrol on the Galician coast to Santiago, about 120 km (75 miles) in five or six days. It is called the English way because medieval pilgrims from England and Ireland arrived by ship here. It clears the 100 km (62 miles) needed for the Compostela, which the shorter variant from A Coruna does not, and it is the Camino for people with one week and no wish to spend two days of it getting to a start line in the Pyrenees.

Via de la Plata

From Seville north through Extremadura and Castile, about 1,000 km (620 miles) in 40 to 45 days, following a Roman road for much of its length. Long stages between villages, real heat from May onwards, and days when you meet nobody. Fewer than ten thousand people a year walk it, against the hundreds of thousands on the Frances. Most pilgrims leave it at Granja de Moreruela for the Camino Sanabres into Galicia.

Camino Finisterre and Muxia

The only Camino that starts in Santiago. About 90 km (56 miles) west to Cape Finisterre, the end of the known world for medieval Europe, in three or four days, with an optional 30 km (19 miles) on to Muxia. Many pilgrims add it to the end of whichever route they walked, to finish at the ocean rather than in a city.

Which one should you walk?

Time decides most of it. A week gives you the Ingles, or the last 115 km (71 miles) of the Frances from Sarria. Two weeks gives you the Primitivo if you like mountains or the Portuguese from Porto if you do not. A month gives you the whole Frances. Five or six weeks opens the Norte, the Portuguese from Lisbon and the Via de la Plata.

After time, ask yourself two things. Do you want company or quiet? The Frances and the Portuguese from Porto are full of other pilgrims, and for many people that is the best part. The Primitivo, the Norte and the Plata are not. And do you want the sea? Only the Norte and the Portuguese coastal way give you it for more than a day.

First Camino, no strong preference, a month to spare: the Frances. It is the classic for a reason.

The 100 km rule

To receive the Compostela, the certificate the cathedral has issued to pilgrims since the Middle Ages, you must walk at least the last 100 km (62 miles) into Santiago, or cycle the last 200 km (124 miles), and collect stamps in a pilgrim credential along the way. That rule is why Sarria, Tui and Ferrol are busy starting points and why every route above, except the short variant of the Ingles, qualifies.

Not this year? Walk it anyway, on your terms

Most people who compare these routes never walk one of them. Four or five weeks off is a lot, and the year fills up. reTrek lets you walk the Camino Frances anyway, all 784 km (487 miles) of it.

Your everyday walks move you along the French Way, and at points along the road a short film shows you where you have got to. For most people it takes a few months.

Walk it alone, pool your steps with friends, or race them to Santiago.

The Camino is a paid route. A year of reTrek costs about the same as one takeaway coffee a month, and Everest Base Camp is free if you want to try it first.