17 caminos · 28 ways to walk them
Every route in my guides, measured the same way: how far it is, how many days that takes at a normal pace, how many towns you walk through and how many of them have a bed. Most caminos can be walked more than one way, so each is listed with its variants.
The towns, beds and distances behind these numbers change as pilgrims and people along the way report them, usually the same day.
769–841 km · 27–38 days · 3 ways to walk it
The one everybody means when they say “the Camino”. 769 km from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Santiago, with a bed never far away, which is why it forgives almost any mistake you make planning it.
251–642 km · 9–29 days · 4 ways to walk it
Two genuinely different walks under one name. Lisbon to Santiago inland is 612 km and quiet; Porto up the coast is 272 km with the Atlantic beside you the whole way.
809–846 km · 29–38 days · 2 ways to walk it
846 km along the Basque, Cantabrian and Asturian coast from Irún. Harder than the Francés, emptier, and the best scenery of any route I cover.
958–974 km · 34–44 days · 2 ways to walk it
The long one. 958 km north from Sevilla through Extremadura and Castilla, with the fewest pilgrims and the biggest gaps between beds of any major route.
308 km · 11–14 days
The original, walked by Alfonso II in the ninth century. 308 km from Oviedo over the Asturian mountains, and the hardest route here for its length.
249–810 km · 9–37 days · 2 ways to walk it
The winter way. 249 km from Ponferrada around the mountains the Francés climbs over, invented by medieval pilgrims who looked at O Cebreiro in February and said no.
80–88 km · 3–4 days · 2 ways to walk it
The only route that starts in Santiago instead of ending there. 88 km out to the cape at Finisterre, 80 km to Muxía, three or four days either way.
79–114 km · 3–5 days · 2 ways to walk it
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.
118 km · 4–5 days
118 km over the Cantabrian mountains from León to Oviedo. Not a route to Santiago at all, and the hardest four days on this site.
60 km · 2–3 days
60 km from Burgos to Covarrubias, the Spanish end of the Norwegian pilgrimage to Saint Olav. Two or three days, and almost nobody has heard of it.
693 km · 25–32 days
693 km up the spine of Portugal from Tavira in the Algarve to Trancoso. Not a route to Santiago but a way of reaching one, through the emptiest country in the country.
320 km · 11–15 days
320 km from Braga to Santiago along a Roman road, through the Peneda-Gerês national park. Quiet, green and steeper than the distance suggests.
492 km · 18–22 days
The forgotten way. 492 km from Bilbao to Cacabelos along the mountain route pilgrims used when the Francés was too close to the Moorish frontier.
162–841 km · 6–38 days · 2 ways to walk it
162 km from the Somport pass to Puente la Reina, where it meets the Francés. The other way over the Pyrenees, and the quieter one.
807 km · 29–37 days
807 km from Valencia to Zamora across the middle of Spain. Long, flat, hot and almost entirely unwalked.
751 km · 27–34 days
751 km from Le Puy-en-Velay to Saint Jean Pied de Port, the French route that feeds the Francés. Better food, better scenery, and you book ahead.
316 km · 11–14 days
316 km from Madrid to Sahagún on the Francés. Over the Guadarrama mountains and across the Castilian plain, and a genuinely practical way to start if you fly into Madrid.
Distances are the sum of the town-to-town measurements in my data for each route, including both sides of a split where one exists. Day ranges assume 22 to 28 km a day and no rest days, so treat them as arithmetic rather than advice — there are no stages here and no stage is going to tell you where to stop.
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.