Sarria to Santiago stages: the last 100 km

Sarria is by a wide margin the most popular starting point on the Camino de Santiago: it is the hundred-kilometre minimum that the Compostela requires, it fits into a week of holiday, and it asks nothing special of your fitness. That comes at a price — it is also the busiest stretch in the whole Camino network — but day by day it is still a beautiful walk: oak woods, stone villages, the Belesar reservoir and the final approach over Monte do Gozo.

Before you set out: getting to Sarria

Sarria is not on the same railway line as Santiago — it belongs to the Lugo–Monforte–Ourense axis, not the Vigo–A Coruña one — so there is no direct train between the two. The usual way is the Monbus coach, 1h30 to 2h10 depending on how many stops it makes, from 10-14 €. Coming from Madrid, Renfe runs a connecting combination (ALVIA/AVE/AVLO) of about 3h45, with promotional fares from 8 € and a normal price around 25-31 €; there are also direct long-distance coaches, slower but with no change. If the plan is to land or step off the train in Santiago and go up to Sarria from here, the high-speed trains, coaches and flights are in how to get to Santiago de Compostela. And if the connection your app offers depends on a rural bus, check it twice: getting to the starting point collects the traps of that last leg, starting with the lines that only run Monday to Friday.

The Camino leaves from the upper part of Sarria's old town, beside the Monastery of La Magdalena (13th century, of the Order of Mercy, with Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque elements) and the church of Santa Mariña. From there you go down the Sarria steps and cross the medieval Áspera bridge towards Barbadelo. The first stamp in your credential comes from your own accommodation, the tourist office or any bar in the old town: you will not have to look hard.

The five stages at a glance

This five-day split is the classic one, but not the only one possible. If your days are not five, the split changes: in six stages the longest day drops to 22.3 km, and in seven no day goes past 20 kilometres.

Where the 100 km marker actually stands

There is a common mix-up about this: the famous stone marker carved with the shell and the yellow arrow is not in Casanova — there is a village by that name, but it belongs to the Palas de Rei–Arzúa stage, further on. The real 100 km marker is on the first stage, Sarria–Portomarín, in the Ferreiros and A Pena area (parish of Paradela), between kilometres 12 and 14 out of Sarria. It is the classic photo stop of the Camino: a queue of pilgrims waiting their turn to sit on the stone.

Why it gets so crowded (and how to dodge it)

This stretch concentrates everyone who only has a week, so in high season — summer, Holy Week — the Xunta's public hostels, which take no bookings and are handed out in order of arrival, fill by mid-morning and leave whoever turns up late without a bed. The advice repeated on every stage is the same: leave before 7:30-8:00 if you want a bed for certain, especially before Portomarín, Palas de Rei and O Pedrouzo. From Melide onwards the numbers step up again, because the pilgrims arriving on the Camino Primitivo join in.

And if what you want is a final stretch with fewer people and the same Compostela, there are two five-to-six-day alternatives that meet the 100 km minimum: the Portugués from Tui (116 km, flatter) and the Inglés from Ferrol (111.5 km, the quietest of the three).