The Camino Francés

Sarria is the most popular starting point on the Camino Francés after Saint Jean Pied de Port, for one simple reason: it's just over 100 km from Santiago, the minimum distance required to receive a Compostela. The result is a dramatic change in atmosphere — from Sarria onward, the camino fills with pilgrims who are walking the last section, and the trail becomes significantly busier.

The town itself is more appealing than its reputation for crowding suggests. The old quarter climbs a hillside above the Río Sarria, with the ruined castle at the top providing views over the surrounding countryside. The Monasterio de la Magdalena, run by the Mercedarian order, operates a large albergue and has a pleasant cloister. The Iglesia de El Salvador has a Romanesque tympanum.

The main street — the Rúa Maior — is lined with bars, restaurants, and equipment shops (useful for replacing worn-out gear for the final push). A supermarket, pharmacy, and all services are available. Multiple albergues and hotels serve the large pilgrim population.

The Pilgrim Office issues credenciales and stamps. If you're starting in Sarria, pick up your credencial here and get your first sello. You'll need at least two stamps per day from Sarria to Santiago to qualify for the Compostela.

Getting to Sarria: RENFE trains from Madrid and bus services from Lugo and other Galician cities.

Vilei is one of the first hamlets outside Sarria, and the change in atmosphere is immediate. The Galician countryside closes in: narrow lanes between stone walls, hórreos (raised granaries) in every farmyard, eucalyptus and chestnut forest, and the constant sound of running water. This is what the last 100 km looks like.

A bar provides refreshment. The camino is well-marked with the distinctive Galician stone waymarkers.

Barbadelo has the Iglesia de Santiago — a small Romanesque church with a fine carved doorway that is one of the better examples of rural Romanesque architecture in Galicia. The church sits slightly off the camino but is worth the few extra steps.

A bar and a basic albergue serve the hamlet. The walking from here continues through rolling Galician countryside, passing through a succession of tiny hamlets.

A hamlet between Barbadelo and Mercado da Serra. No services. Stone walls, green fields, eucalyptus.

The name suggests a former market village. A bar may be open. The walking continues through gentle countryside.

A tiny Galician hamlet. No services.

Another small hamlet on the trail between Sarria and Portomarín. No services.

A hamlet with no services. The path winds through Galician farmland.

A hamlet on the trail. No services. The name means 'laundry place' — a reference to the stream.

A small hamlet. No services.

A tiny hamlet between Sarria and Portomarín. No services.

A hamlet with a bar and a small albergue — welcome services on this stretch. The Casa Morgade has a good reputation.

Ferreiros ('blacksmiths') has a bar and an albergue. The Iglesia de Santa María has a simple Romanesque form. The village is one of the better-serviced hamlets between Sarria and Portomarín.

A tiny hamlet with no reliable services. The trail continues its gentle progress through Galician countryside.

A hamlet between Ferreiros and Portomarín. No services.

A hamlet on the approach to Portomarín. No services.

A hamlet near Portomarín. No services. The reservoir and bridge begin to come into view.

A small hamlet with a bar. From here the descent to the Miño reservoir and Portomarín begins.

A hamlet near Portomarín with views over the Belesar reservoir. The descent to the bridge steepens from here.

A hamlet above the reservoir. The bridge across the Miño to Portomarín is visible below.

The last hamlet before the descent to the bridge at Portomarín.

Portomarín has a strange history. The original town sat on the banks of the Río Miño until 1962, when the valley was flooded to create the Belesar reservoir. The entire town was relocated to higher ground, and the most important buildings — the Iglesia de San Nicolás and the doorway of the Iglesia de San Pedro — were disassembled, moved stone by stone, and rebuilt on the new site.

You cross the reservoir on a long modern bridge, and when the water is low in late summer the ruins of the old town emerge ghostlike from the lake bed — foundations, walls, the outline of the old bridge.

The Iglesia de San Nicolás, rebuilt on the hilltop, is a fortress-church with a rose window and crenellated roofline that looks more military than ecclesiastical. Inside, the Romanesque interior is impressive — the reassembly was expertly done. The doorway of the old Iglesia de San Pedro has been set into the wall of the new church.

The town has a pleasant central plaza, several albergues and hotels, bars and restaurants. Portomarín produces an aguardiente (grape spirit) with a strong local following. The main street has all basic services.

The terrain on both sides of Portomarín is hilly — you descend steeply to the bridge and climb steeply out the other side.

The climb out of Portomarín is steep. Toxibo is one of the first hamlets above the reservoir, with views back over the water. A seasonal bar may be open. From here the terrain is rolling Galician hills.

Gonzar has a bar and a small albergue — a practical stop after the climb from Portomarín. The Iglesia de Santa María is simple but has some Romanesque stonework.

A hamlet with the remains of a castro (pre-Roman hillfort) nearby. No services.

The name recalls a former pilgrim hospital. A bar may be open seasonally. The walking continues through rolling farmland.

Ventas de Narón is a small village with a couple of bars and a monument to a battle between Charlemagne's forces and the Moors — though the historical accuracy of Charlemagne ever reaching this far into Galicia is doubtful. The legend persists regardless.

The village sits below the climb to the Alto de Ligonde, one of the more noticeable hills on this section of the Galician camino.

The Alto de Ligonde is a modest summit on the route between Portomarín and Palas de Rei. A cruceiro (stone cross) marks the top. The views across the rolling Galician landscape are pleasant. No services.

A tiny hamlet after the Alto de Ligonde. No services.

A hamlet on the descent from Ligonde. No services.

Ligonde has a small albergue and may have a bar operating. A medieval cemetery next to the church is a reminder of the village's historical connection to the pilgrim route.

A small hamlet with a bar and an albergue. The Iglesia de Santiago has a simple Romanesque form.

A hamlet with a bar between Eirexe and the detour to Vilar de Donas.

A 1.5 km detour south of the camino leads to Vilar de Donas and the Iglesia de El Salvador — one of the finest Romanesque churches in Galicia and well worth the extra walking.

The church was the headquarters of the Knights of Santiago in Galicia, and it preserves remarkable 14th- and 15th-century Gothic frescoes on the interior walls. The stone tombs of knights line the nave. The church is a national monument and opens to visitors — check hours locally, as they can be limited.

The detour is well-signposted and rejoins the main camino without backtracking.

A hamlet between Portos and Palas de Rei. No services.

A hamlet on the approach to Palas de Rei. No services.

A hamlet near Palas de Rei. No services.

A roadside bar-restaurant on the approach to Palas de Rei. Useful for an early breakfast or late stop.

A hamlet on the outskirts of Palas de Rei.

Palas de Rei is a small but functional town that serves as the municipal center for the surrounding area. It has a good range of services: several albergues and hotels, bars and restaurants, a supermarket, a pharmacy, and ATMs.

The Iglesia de San Tirso has a Romanesque doorway. The town sits on a hilltop, and the camino passes through the center along the main street.

The name may derive from Palatium Regis (Royal Palace), suggesting a medieval royal residence. Today it's a practical stopping point rather than a destination, but the food is good and the facilities are solid.

From Palas de Rei, the camino enters its final stretch. Santiago is about 65 km ahead.

You've entered eucalyptus territory. Although patches of native oak forest survive, this non-indigenous species has taken over the Galician landscape. Love it or hate it (the locals are divided), the tall, fragrant trees will be your companions for much of the remaining walk to Santiago.

A hamlet with a small church and no reliable services. The path continues through eucalyptus and mixed forest.

A medieval bridge over the Río Pambre. The bridge is well-preserved and the setting, in a wooded valley, is pleasant. No services.

A hamlet between Ponte Campaña and Leboreiro. A small albergue and bar may operate. The walking is easy, through Galician farmland.

A tiny hamlet. No services.

A hamlet with a bar that provides refreshment on the approach to Leboreiro.

Leboreiro is one of the more charming hamlets on this stretch. Sparsely populated but well-maintained, with stone houses and the small Romanesque Iglesia de Santa María de las Nieves. The tympanum over the doorway is worth a look.

The village has the first cabaceiro you'll encounter — a small woven structure with a thatched roof that serves the same purpose as the stone hórreos: keeping grain dry and away from vermin. Where the hórreo uses granite and raised posts, the cabaceiro uses woven branches and straw. Both solutions work; the materials just depend on what's available locally.

Furelos has a Roman bridge, a church, and a bar — a satisfying combination. The bridge is small but genuinely ancient, its stones worn smooth by two millennia of traffic. The bar serves excellent tortillas.

The Iglesia de San Juan has an unusual crucifix depicting Jesus with one arm reaching upward rather than stretched to the side — a rare variation worth seeing.

Melide is the pulpo capital of the Camino. Although octopus has been on menus since O Cebreiro, it reaches its apotheosis here. The town's Thursday market meant that fresh seafood was shipped inland regularly, and the tradition stuck. Pulpo á feira — octopus boiled, sliced, dusted with paprika and coarse salt, drizzled with olive oil, and served on a wooden plate — is the dish. The Pulpería Ezequiel is the most famous purveyor, but several other pulperías compete vigorously.

Beyond the octopus, Melide is where the Camino Primitivo (the original route from Oviedo) joins the Francés. The town has a medieval core stretched along the road, shaped by centuries of pilgrim traffic. The Iglesia de San Pedro has Romanesque elements. The Iglesia de San Roque houses a small museum.

Multiple albergues and hotels, bars and restaurants, supermarket and pharmacy. The traffic through town can be dangerous, particularly on market days — follow the arrows carefully.

A hamlet between Melide and Boente. No services.

A tiny hamlet. No services.

The Bar de los Alemanes (German Bar), the first building on your left entering from the east, is the best bar in the village. Further down the hill, the camino crosses the main road (caution) where two albergues and a few bars are located.

The Iglesia de Santiago de Boente has an image of Santiago — one of the few remaining Romanesque images of the saint on the Camino, though much restored. You can get a sello here.

Castañeda is historically significant as the site of the medieval lime kilns where pilgrims from Triacastela delivered the limestone they'd carried across Galicia. The lime was burned here and transported to Santiago for use in building the cathedral. It was a form of pilgrim labor — a practical contribution to the goal of the journey.

A beautiful riverside spot with a bar, a patio, and a medieval bridge. The river water is cold and perfect for soaking tired feet. The old pilgrim hospital has been converted into an albergue — one of the more atmospheric on this section.

This is one of the last truly peaceful stops before the approach to Santiago brings increasing traffic and noise.

An albergue operates in the upper part of Ribadiso, at the top of the climb before Arzúa. Useful if the lower riverside spot is full.

Arzúa is the cheese capital of Galicia. The Queixo de Arzúa-Ulloa has its own Denominación de Orixe, and the tetilla cheese — named for its distinctive breast shape — is everywhere. The tetilla's form was supposedly created by cheesemakers in protest: when the bishop ordered the removal of nude figures from the Pórtico de la Gloria in Santiago, the cheesemakers responded by making their product unmistakably anatomical. The story may be apocryphal, but the cheese is real and excellent.

This is where the Camino del Norte joins the Francés, and the trail gets noticeably busier from here to Santiago. The town is functional and well-serviced: multiple albergues and hotels, bars and restaurants, supermarkets. If everything is full, the polideportivo (sports hall) is sometimes opened for overflow.

The camino leaves Arzúa on a footpath, not the road. From the main square, walk past the church (back to the road) and turn right.

A hamlet on the Francés route between Arzúa and Salceda. No services.

A hamlet between Arzúa and Salceda. No services.

A hamlet on the Francés route. No services.

A hamlet on the Francés route. No services.

A hamlet on the Francés route. No services.

A pair of bars and a restaurant (La Esquipa) — packed with pilgrims every day but Monday when it's closed. The camino rejoins the road here and crosses it several times between Salceda and Santiago. The speed of traffic, blind curves, and density of pilgrims make this the most dangerous stretch on the Francés. Cross carefully.

A hamlet where the via Brea variant joins the Francés route. No services.

Several roadside bars serving truckers and pilgrims alike. Dangerous intersection at the road crossing — the crosswalk is unmarked and arrows on the far side are often hidden by parked cars.

A hamlet with a bar. The camino passes through on forest trails between Empalme and O Pedrouzo.

Where the camino reaches O Pedrouzo, a barrage of arrows and hostel advertisements point in every direction. If you have a reservation, use the map board. Otherwise turn left up the road. If not staying, cross and continue along the camino.

O Pedrouzo is where most pilgrims spend their penultimate night. It's a modernized town with abundant beds but no charm, no monuments, and no outrageous legends. During peak season it feels overrun. The camino proper runs through forest to the north — if you stay the night, find the Calle de Condello, head uphill, and pick up the trail.

A hamlet in the forest between O Pedrouzo and Amenal. No services.

Two bars, one on either side of a dangerous crossing. The camino passes UNDER the N-547 — do not cross over the road. A steep climb follows, then a comfortable trail through eucalyptus forest alongside the Santiago airport runway.

The church is dedicated to San Paio (San Pelayo), the 14-year-old saint kidnapped by invading Muslim troops, taken to Seville, and martyred — his body cast into the Río Guadalquivir. All three routes from the Norte converge near here.

The name Lavacolla has one of the most debated etymologies on the camino, ranging from the prosaic ('field at the bottom of the hill') to the anatomically specific ('wash your scrotum'). What's widely accepted is that medieval pilgrims bathed in this river before entering Santiago.

The last hill awaits. Tradition holds that the first of your group to arrive at Monte del Gozo earns the title of King. The prize for this honor is entirely notional.

A hamlet on the final approach to Santiago. No services.

A hamlet before Monte del Gozo. No services.

Monte de Gozo — Mount Joy — was the first place pilgrims could glimpse the Cathedral spires. A new stand of trees now blocks the view. The oversized monument commemorates Pope John Paul II's 1993 pilgrimage. The modest Capilla de San Marcos provides the last stamp, and a kiosk sells cold drinks.

Halfway across the highway bridge beyond Monte del Gozo, you enter the city of Santiago de Compostela.

The outermost barrio of Santiago was once the limit for pilgrims affected with leprosy — they could come no closer. The Iglesia de San Lázaro marks the boundary.

The walk through the urbanized zone delivers you to the Porta do Camiño, through the stone-paved lanes, past the Plaza Cervantes, under the Bishop's residence, and into the Plaza de Obradoiro. Welcome to Santiago de Compostela.

Santiago. You made it.

Start in the Plaza de Obradoiro — kilometer zero, marked by a scallop shell and plaque in the center of the square. The Obradoiro facade of the Cathedral, completed in the 18th century, is the most photographed image in Galicia and the Baroque frame for Maestro Mateo's 12th-century Pórtico de la Gloria behind it.

If you want your Compostela — the certificate of completion — visit the Pilgrim's Office, relocated in 2016 to a building below the Parador. From the Plaza, face the Parador, take the road downhill to the left past the public restrooms, turn right, and follow it to the end.

The Cathedral demands at least two visits. Walk it plaza by plaza: the Puerta de la Azabachería faces the Monasterio de San Martín Piñario to the north; the Obradoiro opens west; the Puerta de las Platerías faces south, named for the silver workshops still operating below (some replacement carvings here are arranged in a way that no longer matches the original composition — the restorers forgot the layout); the Plaza de Quintana and the Puerta del Perdón (the Holy Door, opened only in Holy Years) face east. Go early, before the crowds.

The crypt and the embrace of Santiago's bust are best experienced in the morning quiet. The botafumeiro — arguably the world's largest thurible — swings across the transept on ropes pulled by eight tiraboleiros. It has come loose exactly twice, never in modern times.

Beyond the Cathedral: the Monasterio de San Martín Piñario is so large you'll find yourself next to it from almost every point north of the Cathedral. Three cloisters, a facade where you descend to the entrance (the Archbishop decreed nothing could exceed the Cathedral's height, so the architects dug down). San Fiz de Solovio, the oldest church site in Santiago, sits near the Mercado de Abastos — the supply market where vendors are second, third, or fifth-generation operators, and the architecture is as utilitarian and Galician as it gets.

Alameda Park, south of the old town, has eucalyptus trees overlooking the Cathedral and hosts a summer feria and winter ice rink. In the Plaza Quintana, look for the hidden pilgrim — visible only at night in the shadows cast by the Cathedral.

Stay at least one extra day. The web of stone streets will bring you back to the Cathedral every time you think you've escaped it.