There is a lot of people who ask us about how to start the Camino de Santiago, and where to start it from. It all depends on different things, but first of all is to know what Camino do you want to walk. There are different options to get to Santiago de Compostela.
We are going to explain what the most common options to get to Santiago are.
If you choose the French Way, you have 4 different options.
The first one is to start from Saint Jean Pied de Port.
Saint Jean Pied de Port is a small town located in Pais Vasco from where a lot of pilgrims start the way. They do it because it is a French town before starting in Spain, and doing it like this, we assure to walk all the Spanish territory.
The beginning is a little bit hard, because the first stage is to go through the Pyrenees, but it is worth the effort it takes.
To get to Saint Jean Pied de Port we can do it from Pamplona or from France.
From Pamplona we can take a bus which its cost is around 15 – 20€ and works from June to September, or by taxi which its cost is around 90 – 120€ depending if it is festive or not.
We can also get to Saint Jean Pied de Port from Irun, there is two different train combinations and it takes about a 2 hours ride. More information at www.sncf.fr
Other option is to start from Roncesvalles.
The geographic location of Roncesvalles makes it in an strategic point, it is the most emblematic point to start the French Way, almost everybody, starts from Roncesvalles.
To get to Roncesvalles, we can do it by bus from Pamplona, which will take an hour to get there. More information at www.autocaresartieda.com
We can also do it by taxi from Pamplona, which has a cost around 50 – 70€ depending if it is festive or not.
From O Cebreiro
O Cebreiro is the first galician town where the French Way goes through. It is about 158 km away from Santiago de Compostela.
From Ponferrada, we can go to Pedrafita do Cebreiro. ( From Monday to Saturday) More information at: www.gonzalezdelariva.es
There is also buses that comes from Lugo ( Monday to Friday). More information at www.alsa.es and www.monbus.es
From Pedrafita to O Cebreiro we can walk (4.5km) or we can take a taxi.
And the last one, from Sarria.
Sarria is located about 113 km away from Santiago de Compostela. It is the minimum to walk to the the Compostela. It will be necessary about 4 or 5 stages to get to Santiago from Sarria. It is where most of the people start their Way.
Other options to start are:
For the Northern Way:
- From Hondarribia (32 stages). More information at hondarribia.org
- Form Gijon (13 stages). More information at gijon.es
- From Ribadeo (7 stages). More information at ribadeo.org
- From Baamonde (3 stages)
The Via de la Plata Way:
- From Sevilla (36 stages). More information at visitasevilla.es
- From Mérida (28 stages). More information at merida.es
- From Zamora (16 stages). More information at zamora.es
For the Primitive Way:
- From Oviedo (11 stages). More information at oviedo.es
- From Lugo (3 stages). More information at lugo.es
The Portuguese Way:
- From Lisbon (24 stages). More information at visitlisboa.com
- From Oporto (10 stages). More information at portoturismi.pt
- From Tui (5 sgates). More information at concellotui.org
Anyway, always plan your trip before starting the Camino. Remind to have in mid the kilometers to walk at each stage, the hours of start walking, how will the Camino be like and all the points we think are important before going for the walk.
