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.
49 towns on the Camino Francés
View on the mapCastrojeriz is the “long town”: for over two kilometers the main street stretches along the foot of a castle hill, past a collegiate church from 1214. Here a count granted Castile's first town charter in 974, and here Saint James is said to have found an image of Mary in an apple tree. One afternoon is enough.
Camino FrancésEl Acebo is the first village after the highest point of the Camino Francés: slate houses with wooden balconies along a single street, 1,146 metres up, 3.9 kilometres past the summit. Here you catch your breath before the steep descent to Molinaseca. One evening is enough, and it is worth it.
Camino FrancésEstella carries the star in its name: King Sancho Ramírez founded the town on the Way of St James around 1090, and the Codex Calixtinus already praised its bread, its wine and the river Ega. Romanesque churches and a royal palace line the Camino. An afternoon is enough, and tomorrow wine flows from the fountain at Irache.
Camino FrancésFoncebadón sits at 1,440 metres, 1.8 kilometres below the Cruz de Ferro, where pilgrims have laid down a stone for centuries. In the 1990s only two people still lived here; today the village is full of albergues again. One evening is enough, and tomorrow morning the cross is the first thing on your path.
Camino FrancésFrómista is the granary of the Tierra de Campos: its name comes from the Latin word for wheat, a canal was built to carry the grain away, and in the middle of town stands San Martín, one of Spain's most perfect Romanesque churches, first mentioned in 1066. An afternoon is enough, and the albergue is right next door.
Camino FrancésCamino Lebaniego CastellanoHontanas is the village that hides: on the bare Meseta you only see it when you are almost inside, down in a hollow around a mighty church tower. The name probably comes from “fontana”, spring. You sleep in a medieval pilgrim hospital, 30.9 kilometers past Burgos. One evening is enough.
Camino FrancésHornillos del Camino is a one-street village of around 60 people, 20.5 kilometres beyond Burgos: a single main street, a church, a fountain with a rooster on top and more pilgrim beds than houses on the square. For many, this is where the first day on the Meseta ends. An evening is enough, and nobody here wants more.
Camino FrancésYou enter Hospital de Órbigo over one of the longest bridges on the Camino Francés. On it, the knight Suero de Quiñones held the crossing for thirty days in 1434, out of love and with an iron ring around his neck. Today a parish albergue with a flower courtyard welcomes you, and in the evening there is trout from the river. An afternoon is enough.
Camino FrancésLarrasoaña is a one-street village of just over 130 people on the Río Arga, 51.1 kilometres from Saint-Jean and 5.3 past Zubiri. You cross the medieval Bandits' Bridge into a place that once had three pilgrim hospitals and hosted the Cortes of Navarre. A quiet evening before Pamplona.
Camino FrancésTop rated
The stays pilgrims rate highest right now, across every Camino.
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