All roads to Santiago: choosing your Camino

Every year, hundreds of thousands of walkers arrive in the same square before the same cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, and yet almost no two of them have walked the same road to reach it. The Camino de Santiago is not a single trail but a whole web of old pilgrim roads, threaded across France, Portugal and northern Spain, that converge only at the very end. Long before the first stone of the cathedral was laid, medieval pilgrims set out from their own front doors, and the routes they wore into the ground are still walked today. 

This is the quiet secret of the Camino. The destination is fixed, but the journey is yours to choose, and that choice shapes everything that follows: the landscapes you cross, the company you keep, the food on your plate, and the character of the pilgrimage itself. Understanding the main routes is the first real step of the walk. 

The Francés: The classic road 

For most people, the Camino means the Camino Francés, and with good reason. Running some 780 kilometres from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on the French side of the Pyrenees all the way to Santiago, it is the most walked of all the routes and the one that gave the pilgrimage its modern shape. It crosses the vineyards of La Rioja, the vast wheat plains of the Meseta, and the green hills of Galicia, passing through cities like Pamplona, Burgos and León whose cathedrals are pilgrimages in their own right. 

What sets the Francés apart is its sociability. The path is rarely empty, the villages come at reliable intervals, and the network of albergues and cafés is the best on any route. Walkers collect stamps in their credencial as they go, two a day near the end, and those who cover the final hundred kilometres on foot earn the Compostela, the certificate issued in Santiago in a tradition that stretches back centuries. If you want the full weight of the Camino's history and the warmth of its shared table, this is where it lives. 

The Portugués and the Norte: Coast and contrast 

Not everyone wants the crowds, and for many the appeal lies precisely in the roads less travelled. The Camino Portugués climbs gently north from Porto, a shorter and warmer walk of around 260 kilometres that can be taken inland through the vineyards and stone towns of the Minho, or along the Atlantic on the coastal variant, where the path runs beside long beaches and small fishing harbours. It is the softer face of the Camino, forgiving on the legs and generous with its seafood and vinho verde. 

The Camino del Norte is another matter altogether. It follows the wild northern coast of Spain, tracing the Bay of Biscay through the Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias, past San Sebastián and Bilbao and countless green headlands. It is quieter, tougher and more strenuous than the Francés, forever climbing away from the sea and dropping back to it, but it rewards the effort with some of the most dramatic coastline in Europe. 

The primitivo: The oldest way 

Deeper still into the mountains lies the Camino Primitivo, the original route and, many would say, the most demanding. It was the road taken by King Alfonso II from Oviedo in the ninth century, the first pilgrim to walk to the newly discovered tomb of Saint James, and it climbs hard over the highlands of Asturias before joining the Francés in the final days. The paths are steeper, the villages fewer and the shelter sparser, but the sense of walking in the oldest footsteps of all draws a certain kind of pilgrim year after year. 

Whichever road you choose, the practicalities are much the same. The long days of late spring and early autumn, roughly May to June and September, offer the kindest weather and the clearest paths, while high summer brings heat to the Meseta and the coast can turn wet as the season closes. Because the routes differ so much in length, terrain and infrastructure, many walkers plan their journey with one of the organised camino de santiago tours operators, who handle the bookings, the luggage and the local knowledge that lets a first-timer settle into the walking itself. In the end, all these roads lead to the same square before the same cathedral, and yet each one gives you a pilgrimage entirely your own.