Camino Francés
28.5 km, 355 m up and 253 m down, through 4 places, 2 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Logroño. 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.
Leaving Logroño requires navigating the city — plenty of arrows, but many are painted low on curbs and hard to spot before dawn. From the cathedral, head straight along Calle del Marqués de San Nicolás, pass through two roundabouts, and turn left at the third. The route crosses the western suburbs before reaching open country toward Navarrete.
From the park, the camino continues along a track that parallels the highway before branching into vineyard country. The walking is flat to gently rolling, with vineyards on both sides and the occasional farm road crossing. It's about 7 km from the reservoir to Navarrete, with no services along the way — the ruins of the Hospital de San Juan de Acre appear on your right as you approach the town.
On the approach from Logroño, you pass the ruins of the 12th-century Hospital de San Juan de Acre. Not much stands, but the footprint is visible. The original Romanesque entrance was salvaged and now serves as the gateway to the town cemetery — you'll see it as you leave.
Leaving Navarrete, the camino passes through open farmland. The terrain is gently rolling, with vineyards giving way to cereal fields as you climb toward the Alto de San Antón. About 2 km past Navarrete, a fork offers two options: left to Ventosa (adding roughly 800 m), or straight ahead on the main route. Both rejoin before the pass.
From Ventosa, the path rejoins the main camino and continues to climb gently toward the Alto de San Antón. The terrain is open, with scrubland and vineyards. The pass itself, at around 640 m, offers the first views down into the valley of the Najerilla and the red cliffs behind Nájera. From the summit, it's a straightforward descent of about 8.5 km to Nájera through farmland and the occasional grove.
The descent from the pass toward Nájera is steady and straightforward — about 8.5 km through open farmland, with the town gradually coming into focus below. The path is exposed with little shade. You enter Nájera through its eastern industrial suburbs, which are unremarkable, but the old town on the far side of the Río Najerilla rewards your patience.
Leaving Nájera, the camino crosses the Najerilla and climbs through open farmland toward Azofra, about 7 km away. The walking is easy and mostly flat. Along the way, notice the modern gravity-fed aqueducts that irrigate the surrounding fields — they're an interesting piece of hydraulic engineering, with sections that pass beneath the road rather than over it.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 455 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 30.4 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.