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 mapRibadesella sits at the mouth of the Sella, where the Camino del Norte reaches a harbour town with a beach, cave art and dinosaur footprints. The Tito Bustillo cave has been a World Heritage Site since 2008. An afternoon is enough; the pilgrim hostel is just under five kilometres further on.
Camino del NorteRinlo is the first fishing village after Ribadeo: around 300 people, a small harbour in a rocky cove and old stone pools where lobsters and spiny lobsters once waited alive for their buyers. It's enough for a break, and for a plate of rice with lobster too. After that it's another 6.9 kilometres to the Cathedrals Beach.
Camino del NorteCamino del MarSan Cosme is the parish of Barreiros at the mouth of the Masma: a long white sandy beach opposite Foz, a supermarket, an old parish church and quiet side roads. Here the path briefly leaves the open sea and turns towards the ría. A break is enough, then there are still 9.9 kilometres to Foz.
Camino del NorteCamino del MarSantander welcomes you from the water: the boat from Somo docks at the Paseo de Pereda, a few minutes from the cathedral. Beneath it lie the relics of the city's patron saints on Roman baths; above it, a city rebuilt after the fire of 1941. An afternoon is enough; the stage that follows is long.
Camino del NorteSantiago de Compostela is where 14 Caminos end, and in 2025 more pilgrims than ever collected their Compostela here: 530,987. Around the cathedral with the apostle's tomb you'll find granite squares, monasteries and tapas bars. Stay at least two nights, because arriving takes time.
Camino FrancésCamino Portugués Central+12Santillana del Mar is the village of three lies: not holy, not flat, not by the sea. Instead it has stone lanes, noble houses and a Romanesque collegiate church with a cloister full of carved capitals, 525.2 kilometres before Santiago. Altamira lies right next door.
Camino del NorteSantoña sits on a spit of land between marsh and sea, with the rocky Monte Buciero at its back. You arrive by boat from Laredo, walk through a fishing town whose anchovies all of Spain knows, and past a church that, according to legend, Saint James himself founded. A bed in the municipal albergue costs €7.54.
Camino del NorteSan Vicente de la Barquera is where the Camino del Norte crosses the long stone bridge over the estuary and walks on beneath a Gothic church on the rock. The Camino Lebaniego to the monastery of Santo Toribio also starts here. An afternoon is enough; there is no public pilgrim hostel yet.
Camino del NorteCamino Vadiniense and LebaniegoSobrado dos Monxes is a monastery village with a huge Cistercian monastery, where monks have lived again since 1966 and pilgrims sleep in the rooms around the cloister. It is the last stop before Arzúa, where after 22.2 kilometres you join the Camino Francés. An evening with the monks' prayer is worth more here than any sightseeing.
Camino del NorteTop rated
The stays pilgrims rate highest right now, across every Camino.
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