Camino Francés
31.4 km, 265 m up and 252 m down, through 5 places, 4 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Burgos. 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.
The road out of Burgos is mercifully shorter than the road in. Follow the river west through parkland before the camino turns south toward Tardajos.
This is where the meseta begins — Spain's vast central plateau, stretching ahead for the next 200-odd kilometers through the provinces of Burgos and Palencia. The terrain opens up into endless wheat fields, the sky grows enormous, and the horizons flatten to a thin line. The meseta has a reputation for being boring. It isn't. But it does demand a different kind of attention — to light, weather, the rhythm of your own walking, the subtle changes in a landscape that only reveals itself slowly.
The average elevation here sits around 800 m, and the weather can swing from scorching days to bitterly cold nights. Carry layers.
Be wary of misleading signs at the far end of Burgos pointing toward Villalbilla. That town has been cut off from camino traffic by the construction of a rail line, and some efforts have been made to redirect pilgrims there by unofficial means. Follow the official yellow arrows.
The camino departs the main road in Tardajos — don't be tempted to stay on the asphalt. Cross the street and pass through the village. From here you won't return to a busy road until Frómista. The terrain ahead is flat, open meseta.
There's a fountain and a picnic area 2.4 km outside Rabé. Beyond that, the camino crosses open meseta — flat wheat fields stretching to every horizon. Hornillos del Camino is about 8 km ahead, hidden in a depression until you're almost on top of it.
A shaded picnic area with a fountain sits about 2.4 km outside Rabé de las Calzadas — the only service point between Rabé and Hornillos del Camino. Fill your water here if you didn't in Rabé.
Hornillos is one of the best-preserved examples of a 'royal road' village: a single long street — the Calle Real — stretched along the camino, with every building facing the pilgrim traffic. This layout allowed each hous…
Don't let the endless wheat worry you. Hontanas stays hidden from view until you're almost on top of it — the village sits in a small depression that's invisible from a distance on the flat meseta.
Hontanas takes its name from the fontanas (natural springs) that dot the area. The springs still pour day and night, feeding fountains around the village. In summer, the local pool does most of the refreshing. The villa…
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 373 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 31.5 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.