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
Póvoa de Varzim is a fishing town that became a seaside resort. For generations its fishermen signed with their own marks, the Siglas Poveiras, which you can still find set into the ground in front of the town hall. The parish albergue is right in the centre. An afternoon is enough; tomorrow you walk along the dunes to Esposende.
In Puente la Reina the ways become one: just before the town the Camino Aragonés from the Somport flows into the Camino Francés, and at the edge of town an eleventh-century bridge, built by a queen for pilgrims, takes you across the Arga. Santiago is still 686 kilometres away. An afternoon is enough.
In Rapperswil you walk across the lake: an 841-metre wooden boardwalk leads to where the pilgrim bridge to Einsiedeln stood from 1358 to 1878. In the old town, volunteers run a pilgrim hostel with twelve beds for CHF 25, cash only and for one night only. Three Ways of St James meet here, and tomorrow Einsiedeln awaits.
In Redondela two routes become one: this is where the Central Portuguese Way from Tui meets the coastal variant from Vigo. The town beneath two nineteenth-century railway viaducts lies 86 kilometres from Santiago, according to Camino Ninja. From here it gets crowded, especially in the albergues.
Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is where the Camino Francés begins: in 2025 almost 55,000 pilgrims registered at the pilgrim office. The little town of the kings of Navarre lies at the foot of the Pyrenees, and everything that matters is on the Rue de la Citadelle. The next day you climb to 1,430 metres, in winter via Valcarlos.
Santiago 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.
Santo Domingo de la Calzada bears the name of a man who built a bridge, a hospital and a road for pilgrims. In its cathedral live a white rooster and a hen, witnesses to a miracle legend. An afternoon is enough, and pilgrims praise the large albergue of his confraternity almost without exception.
Sarria is the biggest starting point of all the Caminos: in 2025, 161,901 pilgrims began here, almost one in three of everyone who arrived in Santiago. If you have been walking for weeks, you meet thousands in fresh shoes. It is around 115 kilometres to Santiago, and from here you need two stamps a day. An afternoon is enough.
Steg is the place where the mountain ends: after the descent from the Hörnli you are here in the Tösstal and in the canton of Zurich for the first time. The village has an S-Bahn stop with a half-hourly service, a Landgasthof and very few beds. If you want to sleep here, book ahead, and on Tuesdays it is better to plan your own food.
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