The Camino Frances

The most walked, the most written about, and the one that has changed most. In 2019 it was chosen by 54.4 % of all pilgrims; in 2026 it is down to 42 %. Still first, but starting in Saint-Jean is no longer the same trip as starting in Sarria.

Starts at

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port

Distance

775 km

Classic stages

33

Pilgrims in 2026

133.450

Figure checked Pilgrim Office, January–July 2026.

Where to start

You do not have to start at the beginning. These are the usual starting points and what each one involves.

The Francés is really three different walks

Talking about «the Camino Francés» as one thing is misleading. In practice it is three sections with completely different character, landscape and logistics, and most people only walk one of them.

Pyrenees to Burgos. Mountain at the start, then vineyards and medieval towns. This is where the serious early climbing is, and where most people give up in the first three days — nearly always from walking too far on day one.

The meseta, Burgos to Astorga. Open horizon, almost no shade and long stages between villages. It is the section most often skipped and the one with the most defenders: people who walk it usually say afterwards it is the part they remember. In July and August the lack of shade stops being an aesthetic detail.

Astorga to Santiago. El Bierzo, the climb to O Cebreiro and then Galicia, with green hills, hamlets and a great many more people from Sarria onwards.

The Sarria effect

Sarria is the last point from which you complete the 100 km the Compostela requires. In 2025, 162,040 pilgrims started there: almost a third of everyone who reached Santiago that year, on any route.

That has a practical consequence worth knowing beforehand rather than discovering on the trail: the last five days of the Francés do not resemble the rest of the Francés. More people, longer queues for stamps and real pressure on beds in high season.

That is not a reason to avoid it. It is a reason to choose with the information in front of you: if what you want is solitude, other routes give the same 100 km and the same Compostela with a fraction of the crowd.

When to walk it

The Francés can be walked all year, but the extremes bite harder here than elsewhere. The meseta in August is punishing for heat and lack of shade; O Cebreiro and the León mountains can wake up under snow and fog in winter.

September, recommended for years as the quiet alternative to August, is now the busiest month of the year across the whole network. July, contrary to what almost everyone assumes, is the quietest summer month.