Camino de Santiago from Sarria

The most used starting point in the world: 162,040 pilgrims set off from here in 2025, nearly a third of everyone who reached Santiago on any route. The reason is simple — it is the last place on the Camino Francés from which you complete the 100 km the Compostela requires.

Distance

114 km

Duration

5 days

Route

Camino Francés

Starts in 2025

162.040

Figure checked Pilgrim Office, January–July 2026.

How the stages are usually split

There is no official split. These are the ones actually used, depending on the days you have.

In 5 stages, the classic split

In 7 stages, nothing over 20 km a day

Stage distances are general references. We have not recalculated them against the official track yet, which is why they are underlined.

Why Sarria specifically

The Compostela requires at least 100 km on foot along an official Jacobean route, with your credential stamped twice a day over that final stretch. Sarria is the last town on the Camino Francés with services and decent transport links that sits above that threshold.

The margin is thin — around 114 km. If the path is diverted for works, or you take a variant that cuts a corner, you can end up scraping the limit. Stamping twice a day from day one, not day two, is the cheap way to avoid an argument at the Pilgrim Office.

How many people you will actually meet

This is the part nobody tells you before you book. The last five days of the Camino Francés do not resemble the rest of the Camino Francés.

With 162,040 departures a year packed into 114 kilometres, most of them between May and September, there are stretches where you walk in single file, and there are genuine rush hours: between seven and nine in the morning, when everyone leaves the same village at once.

You will notice it in three places above all: leaving Sarria on day one, the climb up into Portomarín, and the bars in Melide at lunchtime.

Two ways to dodge it without changing route. One: set off later, around nine, and let the pack go. Two: sleep in the villages in between rather than at the classic stage ends, which is where demand for beds concentrates.

And if what you actually want is to walk alone, the honest answer is that this is not your route. The English Way from Ferrol and the Primitivo from Lugo give you the same 100 km and the same Compostela with a fraction of the people.

How hard it really is

It is manageable, but not flat. Inland Galicia is a continuous roll of short valleys: no single climb is hard on its own, and the accumulation over five days tires people more than they expect from looking at the map.

The moment everyone remembers is arriving in Portomarín: you drop to the reservoir, cross the bridge and climb the staircase with your legs already loaded. It is not dangerous — it is demoralising at five in the afternoon.

The surface alternates dirt track, sunken lanes between stone walls and stretches of tarmac entering villages. With rain — and it rains in Galicia — the lanes turn to mud. Footwear that dries fast matters more here than expensive footwear.

Getting to Sarria

The route most people use: fly into Santiago de Compostela, take a bus or train up to Sarria, walk back to Santiago and fly home from there. It closes the loop with no transfer at the end, which is exactly when you least want logistics.

Sarria has a railway station connecting to Lugo and Monforte de Lemos, and buses from Lugo and Santiago. Check timetables in the month you travel: frequencies change a lot between high and low season.