Camino Francés
18.3 km, 213 m up and 173 m down, through 3 places, 3 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Valtuille de Arriba. 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.
A small wine village on the variant route between Pieros and Villafranca del Bierzo. A bodega sometimes opens for tastings. The views across the vineyards to the mountains are good.
The camino leaves Villafranca through the Calle del Agua and follows the Río Valcarce upstream toward Galicia. An alternate route via Pradela takes a higher, more scenic path — see the variant description. The main route follows the valley floor, sometimes alongside the road.
The road from Villafranca through the Valcarce valley has limited services in places. Stock up before leaving. The climb to O Cebreiro begins in earnest after Las Herrerías.
Pereje is a small village in the Valcarce valley with a bar and an albergue. The walking is flat, following the river upstream. The valley narrows as you progress, with the mountains closing in on both sides.
Trabadelo sits in the Valcarce valley where the Pradela variant rejoins the main route. The village has a couple of bars, albergues, and a small shop. The Iglesia de San Nicolás has a modest Romanesque doorway. The vall…
A small hamlet in the narrowing Valcarce valley. A bar and an albergue provide basic services. The mountains are close now, and the road follows the river through an increasingly tight valley.
The path splits here and rejoins before La Portela de Valcarce. Both ways are below, because the question is which to take, and that is not a question two separate pages can answer.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 434 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 18.4 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.