Camino Francés
28.3 km, 229 m up and 186 m down, through 8 places, 5 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Arcahueja. Most are too small to sleep in — a fountain, a chapel, a bar that may or may not be open — but they are what the day is actually made of.
Continue straight past the playground and climb toward the Alto del Portillo.
Valdelafuente sits a few hundred meters off the camino. No reason to detour unless you're staying at accommodation here.
The Alto del Portillo provides your first view of León. The tradition at this point is to search the skyline for the spires of the cathedral — they're visible on a clear day, rising above the city like a beacon. The mome…
Puente de Castro has grown large enough to merge with León's outer barrio of Santa Ana. The bridge gives the neighborhood its name, and the approach through the suburbs has plenty of bars for a rest before the final few …
The camino exits past the cathedral, passing the Iglesia de San Isidoro and then the Parador (the former Hostal de San Marcos) on the river. From there it crosses the Río Bernesga and heads through the western suburbs. The route is well-marked but the urban exit can feel long. The Virgen del Camino, a major pilgrimage site, is about 5 km from the center.
Trobajo del Camino is a suburb of León that you'll pass through without realizing you've left the city. A few bars and shops line the road. The walking is urban and unremarkable — press on toward La Virgen del Camino.
La Virgen del Camino is one of the most important Marian pilgrimage sites in the province of León. The modern Santuario, designed by the Dominican architect Francisco Coello de Portugal and completed in 1961, is a stark …
A village on the road route (N-120) between La Virgen del Camino and Villadangos del Páramo. A bar and a couple of shops. The road walking continues.
Another road-route village along the N-120. A bar and basic services. The terrain is flat páramo — the high plateau country of León, dry and windswept.
Villadangos sits on the N-120 and has more services than the villages before it — several bars, a supermarket, and albergues. The Iglesia de Santiago has a 16th-century altarpiece with an image of Santiago Matamoros. The…
The path splits here and rejoins before Villadangos del Páramo. Both ways are below, because the question is which to take, and that is not a question two separate pages can answer.
From here it's a short walk to Puente de Órbigo and the famous bridge at Hospital de Órbigo.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 415 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 28.2 km.
Esta entidad ha sido beneficiaria de una ayuda del Programa de incentivos a la movilidad eficiente y sostenible (MOVES III), gestionado por la Xunta de Galicia a través del Instituto Enerxético de Galicia (INEGA) en el marco del Real Decreto 266/2021, y cofinanciada por la Unión Europea — NextGenerationEU, dentro del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia.