La Coruña → Santiago de Compostela
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.
New information comes in every day — from pilgrims on the road and people I know along the way — and it goes out the moment it does. The app carries all of it offline, and it's still being built: new features arrive routinely.
Pilgrims on the road and friends along the way send me changes every day, and they go out the same day. The Camino Inglés app carries all of it offline, and it's still being built — new features arrive routinely.
Get the appFrom the listings on this site, recalculated as they change.
The Inglés is the route English and Irish pilgrims took when they came by sea, landing at Ferrol or A Coruña and walking the rest. It is for someone with a week off, for someone testing whether they like walking all day before committing five weeks to it, and for anyone who wants a Compostela without taking a month away from work. There is nothing wrong with any of those reasons.
Who it isn't for: anyone expecting the Francés's company or its infrastructure. The Inglés is quiet, the beds are fewer and further apart than the distance suggests, and you will meet a fraction of the people. That is its charm and its constraint.
There are two starts, and the difference between them matters. Ferrol to Santiago is 114 km, four or five days. A Coruña to Santiago is 79 km, three or four. The Compostela requires a hundred kilometres on foot, so Ferrol earns you one and A Coruña does not. People find this out too late every single year. If the certificate matters to you, start at Ferrol.
That aside, A Coruña is the nicer city and its shorter route is a fine three days. From Ferrol the first day along the ría, the sea inlet, is the good one: water on one side, then Pontedeume and its bridge. After that it is the Galician interior: eucalyptus, farm track, small towns, a couple of solid climbs in the middle around Hospital de Bruma, and the last day into Santiago from the north, arriving at the cathedral by a route that almost nobody else uses.
Gentler than most caminos on paper and not quite as gentle underfoot. The climbs are the surprise: the one out of Betanzos and the long pull up to Hospital de Bruma in particular start modestly and then never seem to end, and on a short route with fresh legs they catch people by surprise. Otherwise it is rolling country and quiet road. It rains, because it is Galicia, and the tracks get muddy. Four or five days is enough to get blisters and not enough to get fit, which is the honest difficulty of a short camino.
Fewer beds than on the Francés, but a hundred kilometres is not a long way to plan. Betanzos and Bruma are the usual stops from Ferrol and both have albergues that fill in summer; the Xunta network covers the rest. Every town on this page lists every bed, and the table on each town's page shows every place with beds within a day's walk.
The prices at the top of this page come from the listings on this site, recalculated as they change. A short camino in Galicia is a cheap holiday: Xunta albergues at the standard rate and seafood at coastal prices for the first two days.
Any month. Galicia is mild year round, wet from October to April, and rarely hot; a warm summer day is 27 °C (81 °F). The Inglés is one of the few caminos where a winter walk is entirely reasonable, and it is quieter still then.
A Coruña has an airport and a railway station; Ferrol has a station on the same line, an hour further on, and a bus from A Coruña. Anyone starting from Ferrol can fly to A Coruña or Santiago and take the train up. Santiago has an airport and fast trains to Madrid.
Finisterre and Muxía are three or four days beyond Santiago, and for someone with a week and a half they make the Inglés into a proper journey: sea to sea, across the top of Galicia.
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A Coruña is a city with serious Atlantic character. The Torre de Hércules — the only functioning Roman-era lighthouse in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — stands on the headland as it has since the 1st century. The glass-fronted galerías along the Avenida de la Marina give the waterfront a shimmering quality that changes with the light. Locals call it La Ciudad de Cristal.
The Camino starts at the Iglesia de Santiago in the Ciudad Vieja, the oldest church in the city. Pick up your credencial there — it's open mornings (10:00-13:00) and evenings (18:30-22:00). The first waymarker is on Rúa Santiago, just behind the church, marking 73 km to Santiago de Compostela.
There's no Xunta public albergue in A Coruña itself — the first public albergues are at Sergude and Hospital de Bruma. Private pilgrim-friendly accommodation exists. All services: supermarkets, pharmacies, ATMs, outdoor shops. Give yourself a night to explore the Ciudad Vieja, the Plaza de María Pita with its three-domed town hall, and the Paseo Marítimo — over 13 km of waterfront promenade. The Jardín de San Carlos is worth a visit: a quiet garden where Sir John Moore, the British general killed at the Battle of Elviña in 1809, is buried.
A Coruña eats well. Pulpo, percebes (goose barnacles harvested from storm-battered rocks), empanada gallega, and whatever the fishing boats brought in that morning. Wash it down with a cold Albariño from the Rías Baixas.
The A Coruña route is approximately 73 km — short of the 100 km minimum required for the Compostela certificate on foot. If the Compostela matters to you, consider starting from Ferrol (119 km) instead, or check with the Pilgrim's Office about current qualification options.
A Coruña's port has served Atlantic sailors since the Romans established Brigantium here in the 1st century BCE. The Torre de Hércules has guided ships for nearly 2,000 years. In 1208, Alfonso IX refounded the city and improved the road to Santiago, establishing it as a pilgrim port. English, Irish, Flemish, and Scandinavian pilgrims arrived here by sea from the 12th century onward — the English pilgrim William Wey recorded 84 ships from "all the northern nations" in the harbour in 1456.
The city's most famous moment came in 1589, when María Pita — a local woman whose husband had been killed on the walls — seized an English ensign's spear, killed him, and rallied the defenders against Sir Francis Drake's counter-armada fleet of 150 ships. The main square, the August festival, and a bronze statue all bear her name.
The Camino leaves the Ciudad Vieja along the Avenida de la Marina — you walk beneath the famous galerías — through the Cantones and on to Plaza de Cuatro Caminos. The first kilometres are urban, all pavement and sidewalks. After Portazgo the landscape shifts from city to estuary as you approach O Burgo, where a medieval bridge crosses the Ría. From O Burgo, the terrain becomes increasingly rural through Cambre municipality, with a sustained climb to the Alto de Peito. Services are scarce after O Burgo — carry food and water.
A residential neighbourhood on the edge of A Coruña. Still city, but the density thins out. Nothing here for pilgrims beyond the sidewalk — press on toward the estuary.
The boundary between A Coruña and the municipality of Culleredo. There's an Alcampo hypermarket about 100 m off the route — your last chance for proper shopping before the terrain turns rural. A few bars along the road. The waymarking through here can be confusing — follow the arrows carefully.
What the ground between two towns is actually like: everything you pass through, the climbing, and where you could stop along the way. Not a plan — a description.
Route index
79 km from La Coruña to Santiago de Compostela. Most pilgrims walk it in 3 to 4 days. Every town below has its own page.
The English Way, is one of the shortest yet historically rich routes to Santiago de Compostela. Spanning a mere 119 kilometers or about 74 miles, this route starts from the port city of Ferrol and traverses the heart of Galicia. As the name suggests, it was historically the preferred route of English and Irish pilgrims who arrived by boat to the northern Spanish ports and is now a popular choice for those with limited time or those seeking a shorter pilgrimage.
The Camino Inglés takes you through the verdant landscapes of Galicia, abundant with eucalyptus and pine forests, rolling hills, and traditional hamlets. The cultural highlights include the medieval quarters of Pontedeume and Betanzos, both of which house architectural treasures such as gothic churches and historic palaces. The trail offers a moderate level of difficulty with several steep ascents and descents, but nothing that would make a determined pilgrim bat an eye.
When it comes to food, the Camino Inglés will make your taste buds dance the flamenco. Galician cuisine dominates the menu with a smorgasbord of seafood, empanada gallega (a local savory pie), pimientos de padrón (fried green peppers), and the comforting caldo gallego (Galician broth). Wash it all down with a glass (or two) of the region's famous Albariño wine, and you've got a gastronomic pilgrimage to remember. The Camino Inglés might be short, but it packs in a beautiful blend of history, culture, and cuisine, giving you a taste of the Camino experience in a condensed form.
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.