Camino Blog & Articles

The ten unmissable stops on the Camino Francés, listed in the order you’ll walk them from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago: As the most walked of the Camino de Santiago routes — 242,179 pilgrims in 2025, 46% of everyone who reached Santiago (statistics) — the French Way is the best introduction to the food, landscape and people

Route Napoleón or Valcarlos? Bottom line: Both routes run from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles on the first day of the Camino Francés. Route Napoléon climbs to 1,450m at the Col de Lepoeder — harder, more scenic, and the one most pilgrims choose. Valcarlos follows the valley to 950m — gentler, more road

Camino Francés, the most famous route of the Camino de Santiago. A charming medieval Basque town in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, it’s where most pilgrims begin the roughly 780 km, 33-to-35-day journey to Santiago de Compostela. It’s also the meeting point of several French pilgrim routes — including Le Chemin du Puy, Vézelay

León is one of the great cities of the Camino Francés and one of the most popular places to start the Camino de Santiago. Sitting around 300 km from Santiago de Compostela — roughly 12 to 14 days of walking — it’s famous for its soaring Gothic cathedral and more than 1,800 m² of glowing

Pamplona is the first major Spanish city on the Camino Francés and one of the most popular places to begin the Camino de Santiago. Starting here lets you skip the demanding Pyrenean crossing while still walking around 700 km (roughly 30 days) to Santiago de Compostela — through Navarre’s vineyards, medieval villages, and the famous

A Traditional Mountain Village on the Camino Francés O Cebreiro is a traditional mountain village on the Camino Francés, perched at 1,300 metres where El Bierzo gives way to Galicia. With its round, Celtic-style pallozas, its famous creamy cheese and the legend of a Eucharistic miracle linked to the Holy Grail, it’s one of the

Cruz de Ferro | Camino Frances The Cruz de Ferro (Iron Cross) is the highest point of the Camino Francés — a simple iron cross on a tall wooden pole where, for centuries, pilgrims have left a stone carried from home. Located between the villages of Foncebadón and Manjarín in the mountains of León, it’s

Villafranca del Bierzo is a beautiful mountain town on the Camino Francés, the last major stop before the great climb into Galicia — and one of the most meaningful places on the whole route. Known as ‘la pequeña Compostela’, “little Compostela”, it’s famous for a remarkable privilege: pilgrims who cannot complete the journey to Santiago

The Templar Castle of Ponferrada (Castillo de los Templarios) is a 12th-century fortress in north-west Spain, raised by the Knights Templar to protect pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. Covering some 16,000 square metres above the River Sil, it is one of the largest and most impressive castles in Spain, one of the great historical