Camino de Santiago

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Camino de Santiago

top things to do and see

The Pyrenees

Whether you’re on the Camino Francés or Aragonés, the high mountains dividing Spain and France provide an unforgettably scenic backdrop to the beginning of your route in Spain. Fertile valleys are punctuated with lonely monasteries, with the peninsula’s turbulent history never far away. See here and here.

Monumental Estella

Little known outside its own province, lovely Estella nevertheless has a wonderful assemblage of noble buildings, many dating from its rise to prominence in the 11th century. It makes a relaxing base and your onward journey will be fortified by an en-route tap dispensing red wine to pilgrims. See here.

Wine-tasting around Logroño

The pilgrim route leads you right to the capital of Spain’s most famous wine region, the Rioja. It makes a tempting stop to hole up for a couple of days and enjoy the wine-tasting opportunities and great restaurants in and around the city. See here.

Burgos

One of the Camino’s major stops, Burgos has a huge amount to see, from its Gothic cathedral to monasteries and convents with a rich history. Excavations at nearby Atapuerca have revealed stunning finds from Europe’s oldest-known hominids; make sure you visit the fascinating museum and book a few days ahead for a visit to the site itself. See here.

León

The awe-inspiring stained glass of León’s lovely cathedral make it one of the favourite Camino stops. It also houses jewels of Romanesque art and Plateresque architecture. The plethora of bars in the pedestrianized old centre dole out free tapas with every drink, and you deserve a few by this stage. See here.

Santiago de Compostela

The end of the Camino is a fittingly beautiful destination, a symphony in grey granite whose cathedral’s soaring façade gazes benevolently over pilgrims resting their weary legs in the square below. There’s loads to see here, and you can take a while to explore the unpretentious and great Galician eating culture. See here.

Finisterre

Santiago may be the official end, but it’s increasingly popular, and certainly worthwhile, to extend the walk a few extra days to the soul-stirring clifftop views at Finisterre. Here, you can unlace those hiking boots for the last time and gaze out across the Atlantic at the end of Spain and of your journey. See here.

Route

planner

putting it all together

The Camino de Santiago is a fantastic way to see Northern Spain; the route crosses the whole region, taking in the Pyrenees, lush Galicia, historic Castilla and many of the area’s most picturesque villages and interesting towns. It’s a walk that can be tailored totally to your desires, with several different routes and the option to start nearer or further away from Santiago itself. The full principal route (the Camino Francés) from Roncesvalles to Santiago is some 800 km, which translates to a walk of four to five weeks or a cycle ride of a fortnight. Many pilgrims do the journey in stages, a week each year, or just do the last bit, from León or Ponferrada.

Camino Francés

by far the most travelled route, with the most pilgrim facilities

Originating in the French town of St Jean Pied-de-Port in the Pyrenees, the Camino Francés crosses a pass to Roncesvalles then descends the Navarran valley to Pamplona. Heading southwest, it passes through Puente La Reina and Estella, near which is a tap dispensing red wine to thirsty travellers. Then it goes to Logroño, capital of the Rioja region.

Once out of La Rioja, the meseta plain kicks in. The next major stop is Burgos, followed by villages all bursting with Romanesque architecture. León province follows, and the city itself, a good rest stop reached by walkers 17-20 days into the journey. Pilgrims continue to Ponferrada, and then the last, long climb begins into the Galician mountains, one of the route’s prettiest sections. From there, it’s up and down over the rolling hills of central Galicia to the granite towers of Santiago’s cathedral and, for some, the coast at Finisterre as an extra last leg to the sea.

Alternative routes

far fewer high-season pilgrims than the Camino Francés

Like the Camino Francés, the Camino Aragonés is also popular, differing only initially as it crosses into Spain in a more spectacular section of the Pyrenees. It joins the Camino Francés in Navarra.

A less used but very scenic route, the Camino del Norte follows the Basque, Cantabrian, and Asturian coasts before cutting across Galicia. It’s the toughest of the major routes, with lots of hills, but there’s the consolation of taking a dip in the sea at the end of a tough day’s walk. It also takes in the interesting cities of San Sebastián, Bilbao, Santander and Gijón.

The Ruta de la Plata originates in Sevilla and crosses Extremadura before reaching Salamanca and Zamora. It then cuts across northwest to join the Camino Francés at Astorga. Another option heads west through Zamora province into southern Galicia.

The Camino Primitivo starts from Oviedo, and heads west across Asturias to Lugo in Galicia then down to Santiago. The walk from Oviedo to León, known as the Camino de San Salvador, is also worthwhile.

ON THE ROAD

Route planner practicalities

The Confraternity of Saint James (www.csj.org.uk) is a useful organization that issues Pilgrim Passports (see box, here) and sells guides to the pilgrim routes. The website is also helpful for further information on the Camino. Also see www.caminodesantiago.consumer.es (in Spanish). For practical information, see boxes here, here and here and relevant sections throughout the book.

The Camino Portugués starts from Porto and heads north: this is a good way to see the southern part of Galicia. For the northern coast, the Camino Inglés starts at A Coruña (where English pilgrims arriving by boat traditionally disembarked) and tracks south.

There are many more routes, including the Camino Vasco, which cuts across the Basque Country. In fact, all over Spain there are albergues of sorts and marked routes.

ON THE ROAD

Improve your travel photography

Taking pictures is a highlight for many travellers, yet too often the results turn out to be disappointing. Steve Davey, author of Footprint’s Travel Photography, sets out his top rules for coming home with pictures you can be proud of.

Before you go

Don’t waste precious travelling time and do your research before you leave. Find out what festivals or events might be happening or which day the weekly market takes place, and search online image sites such as Flickr to see whether places are best shot at the beginning or end of the day, and what vantage points you should consider.

Get up early

The quality of the light will be better in the few hours after sunrise and again before sunset – especially in the tropics when the sun will be harsh and unforgiving in the middle of the day. Sometimes seeing the sunrise is a part of the whole travel experience: sleep in and you will miss more than just photographs.

Stop and think

Don’t just click away without any thought. Pause for a few seconds before raising the camera and ask yourself what you are trying to show with your photograph. Think about what things you need to include in the frame to convey this meaning. Be prepared to move around your subject to get the best angle. Knowing the point of your picture is the first step to making sure that the person looking at the picture will know it too.

Compose your picture

Avoid simply dumping your subject in the centre of the frame every time you take a picture. If you compose with it to one side, then your picture can look more balanced. This will also allow you to show a significant background and make the picture more meaningful. A good rule of thumb is to place your subject or any significant detail a third of the way into the frame; facing into the frame not out of it.

This rule also works for landscapes. Compose with the horizon two-thirds of the way up the frame if the foreground is the most interesting part of the picture; one-third of the way up if the sky is more striking.

Don’t get hung up with this so-called Rule of Thirds, though. Exaggerate it by pushing your subject out to the edge of the frame if it makes a more interesting picture; or if the sky is dull in a landscape, try cropping with the horizon near the very top of the frame.

Fill the frame

If you are going to focus on a detail or even a person’s face in a close-up portrait, then be bold and make sure that you fill the frame. This is often a case of physically getting in close. You can use a telephoto setting on a zoom lens but this can lead to pictures looking quite flat; moving in close is a lot more fun!

Interact with people

If you want to shoot evocative portraits then it is vital to approach people and seek permission in some way, even if it is just by smiling at someone. Spend a little time with them and they are likely to relax and look less stiff and formal. Action portraits where people are doing something, or environmental portraits, where they are set against a significant background, are a good way to achieve relaxed portraits. Interacting is a good way to find out more about people and their lives, creating memories as well as photographs.

Focus carefully

Your camera can focus quicker than you, but it doesn’t know which part of the picture you want to be in focus. If your camera is using the centre focus sensor then move the camera so it is over the subject and half press the button, then, holding it down, recompose the picture. This will lock the focus. Take the now correctly focused picture when you are ready.

Another technique for accurate focusing is to move the active sensor over your subject. Some cameras with touch-sensitive screens allow you to do this by simply clicking on the subject.

Leave light in the sky

Most good night photography is actually taken at dusk when there is some light and colour left in the sky; any lit portions of the picture will balance with the sky and any ambient lighting. There is only a very small window when this will happen, so get into position early, be prepared and keep shooting and reviewing the results. You can take pictures after this time, but avoid shots of tall towers in an inky black sky; crop in close on lit areas to fill the frame.

Bring it home safely

Digital images are inherently ephemeral: they can be deleted or corrupted in a heartbeat. The good news though is they can be copied just as easily. Wherever you travel, you should have a backup strategy. Cloud backups are popular, but make sure that you will have access to fast enough Wi-Fi. If you use RAW format, then you will need some sort of physical back-up. If you don’t travel with a laptop or tablet, then you can buy a backup drive that will copy directly from memory cards.

Recently updated and available in both digital and print formats, Footprint’s Travel Photography by Steve Davey covers everything you need to know about travelling with a camera, including simple post-processing. More information is available at www.footprinttravelguides.com

When

to go

… and when not to

Overall the best time to visit the region is March to June and September/October. Pilgrims walk the Camino throughout the year but you’ve got to be pretty hardy to do it in winter, when there’s lots of rain in Galicia and the Pyrenees, and snow and freezing days and nights on the Castilian plain. May or September are the best months for walking the Camino de Santiago as you’ll avoid the crowds and worst of the heat, but it will be cold at nights on the plains and wet in the mountainous parts.

In summer, Galicia and Navarra are pleasant, but the haul across the plains from Logroño to León is gruelling. Summer is very hot in Castilla and La Rioja too – expect days in the mid to high 30s, if not higher. Bear in mind that summer is by far the most popular time for walking the Camino, so facilities are stretched and the trail is crowded with walkers.

That said, it’s an enjoyable time to be in the country as there are dozens of fiestas, and everything happens outdoors. Santiago de Compostela’s main fiesta, the feast of Saint James, is on 25 July. For details of other festivals and public holidays, see here.

How long does it take?

5-6 weeks walking, 2-3 weeks cycling

One of the benefits of the Camino Francés is that there’s an albergue in nearly every village along the way, so you can be fairly flexible about how far you walk each day. Many of the towns and cities that you pass through are worth a stop of a day or three, so if you aren’t pressed for time, pause to enjoy the richness of northern Spanish culture.

For this guide, we’ve assumed a normal walking day of 24-32 km, which means a journey of some 28 to 32 walking days to complete the 780 km from St-Jean to Santiago. Some pilgrims walk it in just a fortnight – a gruelling, fun-free march – while others dally to their hearts’ content, stopping to smell the flowers along the way. The choice is yours.

Where

to stay

affordable albergues and countryside casas rurales

Albergues de Peregrinos (pilgrim hostels)

For most people travelling the Camino de Santiago, the network of pilgrim hostels is where they spend the majority of nights along the way. These have largely been set up in the last decade or two as the popularity of the route has soared, and they come in many varieties.

The standard albergue might be run by the local community or municipality and will offer no-frills sleeping in bunks, some kitchen facilities, and simple showers and toilets, often with little privacy. The cost of a night’s sleep tends to range from €7 to €12; some are by donation. You’ll need the credencial (pilgrim passport, see box, here) to sleep in most albergues of this type, and many will require you to have your own sleeping bag or sleep sheet. Some offer tent pitches, and many put down mattresses or mats on the floor once the bed spaces have been taken. You’ll find many that offer evening meals, often prepared communally.

These albergues are supplemented by a growing number of privately run hostels, which also often double as hostales (see below), offering private rooms as well as dormitory accommodation. These tend to be smaller places, with better facilities, and cost around €15 for the night.

As you’ll discover, the albergue experience often has more to do with the hospitalero (warden) than the facilities. Good hospitaleros (often volunteers) make pilgrims feel at home, supply valuable local information, and foster the social side of the hostel, introducing people, organizing communal dinners, prayers or singalongs and not waking sleepers too brusquely in the morning. Pilgrims seeking the ‘spirit of the Camino’ will find it in the kindness of some of these albergues and their guardians.

Price codes

There are several downsides, however, to the albergue network. There’s usually a curfew, normally 2200 or similar, so if you fancy a meal in a restaurant that doesn’t open until 2100, you risk being locked out. Most require you to pack and leave by 0800 in the morning or even earlier, and in many you can only stay one night. Regular complaints include overcrowding, lack of heating, no privacy in the shower room, bedbugs, and occasional theft of cash or personal items by other pilgrims. The other problem is that, as the municipal ones tend to not take bookings, there’s a race to bag a bed, with walkers getting up ever-earlier to ensure they get a cheap sleep in the next town. Racing anxiously to the next albergue is no way to enjoy the Camino. However, increasing numbers of private and municipal albergues are now taking bookings by phone or even online.

Hoteles, hostales and pensiones

Places to stay (alojamientos) are divided into three main categories; the distinctions between them follow an arcane series of regulations devised by the government. Hoteles (marked H or HR) are graded from one to five stars and usually occupy their own building. Hostales (marked Hs or HsR) go from one to three stars. Pensiones (P) are the standard budget option, and are usually family-run flats in an apartment block. Although it’s worth looking at a room before taking it, the majority