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 mapCatedrais is not a village but a beach, and what a beach: at low tide you walk between slate arches about 30 metres high, at high tide everything is under water. If you plan your stage by the tide table, this is the most spectacular stop on the whole Camino del Mar. If you arrive too late, you look down from above.
Camino del NorteCamino del MarColombres is the first town in Asturias and a village of emigrants: those who made their fortune in the Americas built colourful villas here, and the blue Quinta Guadalupe of 1906 is now a museum of emigration. An afternoon is enough; since 2023 there has been a small donation-based hostel.
Camino del NorteColunga is a small country town between the Sueve mountains and the dinosaur coast: footprints are set in the rock at La Griega beach, and the Jurassic museum MUJA stands on the Rasa de San Telmo. Here the Camino del Norte leaves the sea. An afternoon is enough; the pilgrim hostel is 3.7 km before town.
Camino del NorteComillas is the summer village of the Modernistas: here Gaudí built his Capricho with its tower covered in ceramic sunflowers, and Catalan architects built a palace, a chapel and a university. For you it is a stage town by the sea, 502.7 kilometres before Santiago, with a short stretch on to San Vicente.
Camino del NorteDeba is the last breath of sea air before the Camino del Norte turns inland: a small port town at a river mouth, with a church you don't expect here and a pilgrim hostel in the railway station. Tomorrow brings one of the hardest stages in the Basque Country, 23.5 kilometres to Markina with no stage town in between.
Camino del NorteSan Sebastián is the breather between two hills: after more than 1,000 metres of climbing from Irún you come down Monte Ulía, and the next morning you head up Igeldo again. In between lie the Concha bay, an old town almost entirely destroyed in 1813 and rebuilt, and 825 kilometres to Santiago. Worth a rest day.
Camino del NorteGernika is the town under the tree: for centuries the assemblies of Bizkaia met beneath an oak, and on 26 April 1937, a market day, German and Italian aircraft destroyed around three quarters of its buildings. The tree and the assembly house were left standing. An afternoon is enough, but take it.
Camino del NorteGetaria is a fishing town on a headland, 5.1 kilometres after Zarautz: Juan Sebastián Elcano was born here, the man who in 1522 completed the first voyage around the world, and here a Gothic church stands so crookedly on the rock that its floor slopes upward. For most pilgrims it is a long mid-morning stop. The hostel is up at the edge of town.
Camino del NorteGijón is the largest city in Asturias and a stage end by the sea: after 30.9 kilometres from Villaviciosa you reach the Playa de San Lorenzo and sleep between Roman baths, the old fishermen's quarter and Chillida's concrete sculpture above the horizon. There is no public pilgrim hostel in the centre.
Camino del NorteTop rated
The stays pilgrims rate highest right now, across every Camino.
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