Picked by our team
Towns worth discovering along the Camino de Santiago, chosen by our team. Open one to see its history and sights, and where to stay.
52 towns on the Camino del Norte
View on the mapAbadín lies up at 509 metres, 140.9 kilometres before Santiago, and is the first municipality of the Terra Chá, the wide plateau of Lugo. After the long climb from Mondoñedo you sleep here or in neighbouring Gontán, where there is a Xunta albergue. A place to rest, not to sightsee.
Camino del NorteArzúa is the last small town before Santiago, 38.4 kilometers from the cathedral. Here the Camino del Norte meets the Francés, and in the albergue pilgrims from Irún, Oviedo and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port sleep side by side. The town lives from Arzúa-Ulloa cheese and from pilgrims; there is little to see. One evening is enough.
Camino FrancésCamino Primitivo+1Avilés is where the ways come together again: here the coastal Camino del Norte meets the variant via Oviedo. After a hard industrial day, an old town awaits with arcades, Romanesque churches and the tomb of the founder of St. Augustine in Florida. The pilgrim hostel has 56 places.
Camino del Nortedel Norte via OviedoBaamonde is a village on the Río Parga and the place where Santiago is 100.8 kilometres away. A large Xunta albergue in an old stagecoach depot, a church of the Apostle James and a chapel that a sculptor carved into a chestnut tree.
Camino del NorteBilbao is the big city on the Camino del Norte: 213 steps take you down from the Basilica of Begoña into the old town, to a cathedral that belongs to the Apostle and has a pilgrims' door with a shell. From here it is still 699.7 kilometres to Santiago. A rest day pays off, and afterwards the ría leads you down to the sea.
Camino del NorteCamino OlvidadoBolibar is the morning stop after Markina: a village of around 160 people, home of Simón Bolívar's ancestors, with a small museum about the liberator of South America. One kilometre uphill the monastery of Zenarruza awaits with its cloister, its Cistercians and their own beer. A break is enough, but take in both.
Camino del NorteBoó de Piélagos is the village where you can split the long stage from Santander to Santillana del Mar: 13.5 kilometres beyond Santander, at the mouth of the Pas, with a church, a railway station and a private pilgrim hostel. A quiet evening before the loop around the ría.
Camino del NorteCadavedo sits on a plateau above the sea: voted the most beautiful village in Asturias in 1954, honoured as an exemplary village in 2022, with dozens of hórreos, houses of returned emigrants and the La Regalina chapel on the cliffs. 268.7 kilometres before Santiago, with a small albergue. An afternoon is enough.
Camino del NorteCastro-Urdiales is your first evening in Cantabria: a harbour overlooked by the Gothic church of Santa María and a castle with a lighthouse, with the Roman town of Flaviobriga beneath it. From Pobeña it is 20.5 kilometres with 672 metres of ascent, and 648.2 still to Santiago. The hostel has only 16 beds.
Camino del NorteTop rated
The stays pilgrims rate highest right now, across every Camino.
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