Picked by our team
Towns along the Camino worth stopping in. Open a town to see what it offers and where to stay.
58 towns
Muxía is the quieter end of the Way, a fishing town on a headland on the Costa da Morte. At its tip stand the sanctuary of the Virxe da Barca, the rocks from the legend of the stone boat and A Ferida, the monument to the volunteers after the 2002 oil spill. Fisterra is 27.8 kilometres away.
Oia is a fishing village on the wild coast between A Guarda and Baiona, and above it stands the only Cistercian monastery right on the sea. In 1624 its monks fired cannons at pirate ships. There is no public albergue, and in winter beds are scarce. An afternoon is enough.
O Porriño is a town of granite: Antonio Palacios, the architect of Madrid's Palacio de Cibeles, was born here in 1874, and his town hall stands by the Camino like a small castle. According to Camino Ninja it is about 102 kilometres to Santiago. An afternoon is enough, but take the river variant in the morning.
Padrón is where the story of the Camino begins: this is where the boat carrying the Apostle's body is said to have landed, and the stone it was tied to lies beneath the altar of the Iglesia de Santiago. According to Camino Ninja, the cathedral is still 25.3 kilometres away. An afternoon is enough.
Pamplona is the first big city on the Camino Francés: over a 12th-century bridge and through the Portal de Francia you walk into an old town that in 1423 grew together from three feuding quarters into one city. Santiago is still 710 kilometres away. A rest day is worth it, just not on a Sunday.
Ponferrada owes its name to pilgrims: around 1082 a bishop had an iron-reinforced bridge built over the Sil for them. Later the Templars guarded the Way from their castle. Today the city is the stage end after the descent from the Cruz de Ferro and the starting point of the Camino de Invierno. An afternoon is enough, just not on a Monday.
Ponte de Lima is the place where you are not supposed to forget: at this bridge over the Lima, which the Romans took for the river of forgetting, a general is said to have called his soldiers by name. The town received its charter in 1125. The pilgrim hostel costs €5, and tomorrow the climb over the Labruja awaits.
Pontevedra is the last big city on the Camino Portugués before Santiago, and it has won walking back: the old town belongs to pedestrians. At its heart stands the church of the Pilgrim Virgin, built in the shape of a scallop shell. Here you choose between the main route and the Variante Espiritual. A rest day is worth it.
Every year more than 50,000 pilgrims start the Camino Portugués in Porto, and those coming from Lisbon take their first long break here. The old town on the slopes above the Douro is steep, beautiful and busy. From the cathedral you walk to Santiago along the coast or inland, 244 to 283 kilometres away.
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