Distances are town-to-town sums from the route data; days assume 22 to 28 km a day. Most caminos can be walked more than one way.
Camino Francés
769–841 km · 27–38 days · 3 ways to walk it
The one everybody means when they say “the Camino”. 769 km from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Santiago, with a bed never far away, which is why it forgives almost any mistake you make planning it.
Camino Portugués
251–642 km · 9–29 days · 4 ways to walk it
Two genuinely different walks under one name. Lisbon to Santiago inland is 612 km and quiet; Porto up the coast is 272 km with the Atlantic beside you the whole way.
Camino del Norte
809–846 km · 29–38 days · 2 ways to walk it
846 km along the Basque, Cantabrian and Asturian coast from Irún. Harder than the Francés, emptier, and the best scenery of any route I cover.
Vía de la Plata
958–974 km · 34–44 days · 2 ways to walk it
The long one. 958 km north from Sevilla through Extremadura and Castilla, with the fewest pilgrims and the biggest gaps between beds of any major route.
Camino Primitivo
308 km · 11–14 days
The original, walked by Alfonso II in the ninth century. 308 km from Oviedo over the Asturian mountains, and the hardest route here for its length.
Camino de Invierno
249–810 km · 9–37 days · 2 ways to walk it
The winter way. 249 km from Ponferrada around the mountains the Francés climbs over, invented by medieval pilgrims who looked at O Cebreiro in February and said no.
Camino to Finisterre and Muxía
80–88 km · 3–4 days · 2 ways to walk it
The only route that starts in Santiago instead of ending there. 88 km out to the cape at Finisterre, 80 km to Muxía, three or four days either way.
Camino Inglés
79–114 km · 3–5 days · 2 ways to walk it
The short one, and the one with a catch. 114 km from Ferrol qualifies you for a Compostela; the 79 km from A Coruña does not.
Camino De San Salvador
118 km · 4–5 days
118 km over the Cantabrian mountains from León to Oviedo. Not a route to Santiago at all, and the hardest four days on this site.
San Olav
60 km · 2–3 days
60 km from Burgos to Covarrubias, the Spanish end of the Norwegian pilgrimage to Saint Olav. Two or three days, and almost nobody has heard of it.
Caminho Nascente
693 km · 25–32 days
693 km up the spine of Portugal from Tavira in the Algarve to Trancoso. Not a route to Santiago but a way of reaching one, through the emptiest country in the country.
Caminho da Geira e dos Arrieros
320 km · 11–15 days
320 km from Braga to Santiago along a Roman road, through the Peneda-Gerês national park. Quiet, green and steeper than the distance suggests.
Camino Olvidado
492 km · 18–22 days
The forgotten way. 492 km from Bilbao to Cacabelos along the mountain route pilgrims used when the Francés was too close to the Moorish frontier.
Camino Aragonés
162–841 km · 6–38 days · 2 ways to walk it
162 km from the Somport pass to Puente la Reina, where it meets the Francés. The other way over the Pyrenees, and the quieter one.
Camino De Levante
807 km · 29–37 days
807 km from Valencia to Zamora across the middle of Spain. Long, flat, hot and almost entirely unwalked.
The Vía Podiensis
751 km · 27–34 days
751 km from Le Puy-en-Velay to Saint Jean Pied de Port, the French route that feeds the Francés. Better food, better scenery, and you book ahead.
Camino de Madrid
316 km · 11–14 days
316 km from Madrid to Sahagún on the Francés. Over the Guadarrama mountains and across the Castilian plain, and a genuinely practical way to start if you fly into Madrid.