---
title: "Camino Francés: the whole route and where to start"
description: "The 763.7 km from Saint-Jean to Santiago added up stage by stage, and what you gain and lose by starting in Saint-Jean, León, Ponferrada, O Cebreiro or Sarria."
url: https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/french-way
locale: en
---

# Camino Francés: the whole route and where to start

The Camino routes

Thirty-three days from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port — except that two pilgrims in three start in Sarria and walk five. This page puts the kilometres left from each starting point next to how many people actually start there, so the decision gets made with both numbers in view.

[By Cesar Rodriguez · local guide](https://santiago.es/en/author)

![Mojón de granito del Camino de Santiago, con la vieira amarilla sobre azulejo azul y una placa de kilometraje, medio comido por la hiedra](https://santiago.es/img/mojon.jpg)

[© Simon Burchell · CC BY-SA 4.0](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Moj%C3%B3n,_Camino_Sanabr%C3%A9s,_Angrois.jpg)

Updated 29 August 2026.

The Camino Francés is the route almost everyone pictures when they say "the Camino": over the Pyrenees, across the Castilian meseta, into Galicia at O Cebreiro. It is also the route fewest people walk in full. In 2025 it carried 242,040 pilgrims and only 30,344 of them set out from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port; 161,901 set out from Sarria. So the useful question is not "how long is the Francés?" but "where should I start it?". That is what this page tries to answer, with the kilometres added up one by one and with the official breakdown of starting points, which almost nobody publishes.

## The short answer

It is **763.7 km over 33 stages**from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, adding up gronze.com's table day by day along the main itinerary (the Napoleón route over the Pyrenees and the San Xil variant before Sarria). From Roncesvalles, where many people consider the Spanish Camino to begin, it is **739.5 km over 32 stages**. And from **Sarria**, the majority start, **114.2 km over 5**.

In 2025 it was by far the busiest route: **242,040 pilgrims**, 45.6% of the total, according to the official Pilgrim's Office dashboard we track in [our Camino figures](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/pilgrim-statistics). More than the Portuguese Central and the Portuguese Coastal put together.

Where the 763.7 km comes from

From adding up Gronze's 33 stages, the reference we use across the whole guide so routes can be compared on the same basis. The full table is further down, so you can redo the sum yourself. Two checks that these are the right stages: Gronze itself numbers them 1 to 33 — Carrión to Terradillos is "stage 17", Villafranca to O Cebreiro is 26, Sarria to Portomarín is 29 — and its last five days add up to the 114.2 km we already publish in [the Sarria to Santiago stages](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/stages-sarria-santiago).

You will see figures of up to 780 km elsewhere. Part of that gap is real and the variants explain it: going via **Samos** instead of San Xil adds 7.2 km to the day before Sarria, giving a total of **770.9 km**; going via **Valcarlos** instead of the Napoléon route makes day one 23.4 km rather than 24.2, so 0.8 km less. That puts the defensible range at **763 to 771 km**. We could not reconstruct the 780 figure from any stage table, so we do not treat it as sound. And, as always: there is no official measurement of the Camino Francés, only the sum of the guides.

## Where people actually start

This is the table that decides the trip. The first column of numbers comes from adding Gronze's table backwards; the second comes from the Pilgrim's Office dashboard, which breaks down each pilgrim's starting town (consulted 29 August 2026, for the year 2025). The percentages are worked out against the 242,040 pilgrims on the Francés, not against the Camino as a whole.

**Starting points on the Camino Francés: kilometres to Santiago and 2025 pilgrims**

| Starting point | Km to Santiago | Stages | Pilgrims 2025 | % of the Francés |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port | 763.7 | 33 | 30,344 | 12.5% |
| Roncesvalles | 739.5 | 32 | 3,874 | 1.6% |
| Pamplona | 697.7 | 30 | 2,467 | 1.0% |
| Logroño | 603.3 | 26 | 536 | 0.2% |
| Burgos | 482.4 | 21 | 2,210 | 0.9% |
| León | 304.5 | 13 | 7,604 | 3.1% |
| Astorga | 256.2 | 11 | 3,059 | 1.3% |
| Ponferrada | 203.6 | 9 | 5,542 | 2.3% |
| O Cebreiro | 152.6 | 7 | 6,267 | 2.6% |
| Triacastela | 132.0 | 6 | 2,350 | 1.0% |
| Sarria | 114.2 | 5 | 161,901 | 66.9% |

The first thing that jumps out is the imbalance: **two of every three pilgrims on the Francés start in Sarria**, and only one in eight starts in Saint-Jean. The second is that the list of "classic" starting points people imagine does not match reality. **Roncesvalles saw 3,874** departures, fewer than Ponferrada and well short of O Cebreiro. **Burgos, 2,210**, fewer than Astorga. And **Logroño, 536**in the whole year. Starting in the middle of the meseta is a far more common idea in forums than at the Pilgrim's Office desk.

### Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port: the whole route, five weeks

**What you gain:** the complete Camino, with its three acts — Pyrenees and Navarre, the meseta, El Bierzo and Galicia — and the only start from which the change of landscape reads as one continuous thing. Also the community: someone leaving Saint-Jean walks five weeks with more or less the same people, and a short stretch does not reproduce that.

**What you lose:** 33 walking days before you count any rest, so in practice five to six weeks. That is unpaid leave, not a holiday. And you start with the hardest stage on the whole route: **24.2 km with 1,419 m of climb and 557 m of descent**, about seven hours, the only one Gronze scores 5 out of 5 for difficulty. A lot of people make their first day on the Camino harder than any of the thirty-two that follow, with a pack they have not adjusted yet.

**And one date that overrides everything else:** from **1 November to 31 March** the Napoléon route is closed by the Government of Navarre and you must go via Valcarlos. We cover it, with the fines and the rest of the services calendar, in [when the Camino opens and closes](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/season).

### Roncesvalles: the same thing minus the hard day

739.5 km and 32 stages: you save exactly one day, but it is *that* day. Anyone who would rather not open their account with 1,400 metres of climb, or who arrives in November with no margin, takes a bus or taxi up from Pamplona and starts at the monastery. It is easy to defend and yet almost nobody does it: 3,874 pilgrims in all of 2025, eight times fewer than Saint-Jean. The likeliest explanation is that anyone committing to five weeks wants the photo of the Saint-Jean sign, and anyone who cannot commit to five weeks does not start here — they start much further along.

### León: the Francés that fits in a fortnight

**304.5 km over 13 stages.** It is the most used intermediate start — 7,604 pilgrims — for a very concrete reason: it fits two weeks of holiday and there is a high-speed train from Madrid. It skips the meseta, which is exactly the stretch most people skip on purpose, and it keeps what almost everyone names as the best of the Francés: the Cruz de Ferro, El Bierzo, the climb to O Cebreiro and the whole of Galicia. Two weeks also buys other things — a complete short route, or splitting the Francés into phases — and we compare them in [the Camino in two weeks](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/two-weeks).

The weak point is that 13 stages in 14 days leaves no room for a blister or a day of rain. If the calendar is rigid, Astorga (256.2 km, 11 stages) or Ponferrada (203.6 km, 9 stages) do the same job with two and four days of slack.

### Ponferrada and O Cebreiro: the ten days and the week

**Ponferrada, 203.6 km over 9 stages.** Its own railway station, an easy exit and the whole of El Bierzo ahead. It is the start that peaks latest in summer: July is its strongest month (967 departures out of 5,542), unlike almost everywhere else.

**O Cebreiro, 152.6 km over 7 stages.** This is the start for someone who wants all of Galicia with a bit more margin than Sarria, and it is the hardest to reach: there is no station or bus stop in the village, just about 4 km of climbing up from Pedrafita. How to reach each of these places, and the timetable traps involved, is in [how to reach the start](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/getting-to-the-start).

### Sarria: 114.2 km and 67% of the route

Sarria is the last point on the Francés from which you still clear the 100 continuous kilometres the Compostela requires: the next stop, Portomarín, sits at 92.0 km and no longer counts. That is why 161,901 people start there, and why the 100 km marker falls in the middle of the first day rather than in Sarria itself. The five stages, day by day, are in [the Sarria to Santiago stages](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/stages-sarria-santiago), and what really changes in the atmosphere from there — complaints and rebuttals both — is in [the last 100 km](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/last-100-km). If you want those same kilometres split over more or fewer days, the [planner](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/planner) works it out.

## Saint-Jean and Sarria do not even share a month

We have not seen this published anywhere, and it comes out of the same official dashboard, crossing starting town with month. **The two main starts on the Francés run on opposite calendars.**

**Monthly split of 2025 departures: Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port versus Sarria (source: Pilgrim's Office dashboard)**

| Month | From Saint-Jean | % of its year | From Sarria | % of its year |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| April | 1,654 | 5.5% | 19,082 | 11.8% |
| May | 5,763 | 19.0% | 21,578 | 13.3% |
| June | 6,082 | 20.0% | 21,337 | 13.2% |
| July | 3,054 | 10.1% | 19,454 | 12.0% |
| August | 2,468 | 8.1% | 25,636 | 15.8% |
| September | 3,189 | 10.5% | 25,621 | 15.8% |
| October | 5,690 | 18.8% | 18,367 | 11.3% |
| Full year | 30,344 | 100% | 161,901 | 100% |

Saint-Jean has two peaks, **May-June and October**, and its weakest month of the season is **August**: 2,468 departures, 8.1% of its year. Sarria does the exact opposite and packs 31.6% of its departures into August and September. It makes sense once you think about it: someone walking five weeks does not want to cross the meseta in August and does want to reach Galicia in daylight, while someone walking five days is tied to their holiday. The practical upshot is that **"the Francés is packed" means different things depending on where you start**: in August the Sarria stretch is at capacity while the Pyrenees are having their quietest summer month; in May it is the other way round.

Adding all departures together, the busiest month on the Francés in 2025 was **September** (35,645 pilgrims), ahead of May (35,285), June (35,190) and August (34,499). July, the month many people avoid, was quieter than August: 29,174.

## The two days that decide whether you can

The Francés has a reputation for being manageable, and overall it is, but it concentrates its difficulty in two days a long way apart. Figures from Gronze's stage sheets:

- **Saint-Jean – Roncesvalles** (stage 1): 24.2 km, **+1,419 m**and −557 m, about 7 hours, difficulty 5/5. It climbs from Saint-Jean's 172 m to the 1,430 m of the Lepoeder pass. Closed from 1 November to 31 March.
- **Villafranca del Bierzo – O Cebreiro** (stage 26): 27.8 km, **+845 m**, about 7 and a half hours, difficulty 4/5. Gronze describes it as the biggest climb on the Francés inside Spain: 660 metres over 12 km, with the stretch between Las Herrerías and Laguna de Castilla gaining 480 metres in 5.7 km.

O Cebreiro sits above 1,300 metres, which is what gave rise to the route invented to avoid it: the [Camino de Invierno](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/invierno), which leaves Ponferrada and drops down the Sil valley. It was born precisely when snow closed this pass.

## On a bike the arithmetic changes, and only just

The Compostela requires **200 continuous kilometres by bicycle** against 100 on foot, and that moves the boundary much further back than people assume. Using the walking distances in the table above:

- **Sarria (114.2 km) and O Cebreiro (152.6 km) do not reach it.** Nor does Triacastela, nor Villafranca del Bierzo (180.4 km).
- **Ponferrada, 203.6 km, is the first common start that clears it** — and it clears it by 3.6 km.
- **Astorga, 256.2 km, is the first with real margin.**

Two honest caveats about that 3.6 km. The first is that these are **walking-route distances**, and the cycling line does not always match: there are stretches where bikes are routed onto roads, which can shorten or lengthen the total. The second is that this is our sum, not a ruling by the Pilgrim's Office. If you are cycling and the certificate matters, start in Astorga and do not gamble on four kilometres. The full requirements are in [the Compostela guide](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/compostela-certificate), and the rest of the bike-specific detail in [the Camino by bike](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/by-bike).

## The Francés is growing and shrinking at the same time

Both are true and they are worth stating together, because separately they get used to argue nonsense. In absolute numbers **the Francés has never stopped growing**: 176,075 pilgrims in 2016, 242,040 in 2025. As a share, **it has fallen for nine straight years**: 63.4% of the whole Camino in 2016, 45.6% in 2025. It is not emptying out; everything else is growing faster.

In 2026 the figure got more interesting. Comparing like months in the dashboard — January to July, the last closed month — the Francés **falls from 135,091 to 133,475 pilgrims, −1.2%**, while the Camino as a whole rises from 294,941 to 311,102, up 5.5%. Its share drops from 45.8% to 42.9%. That would be the first absolute fall outside 2020, so it comes with a caveat: the dashboard keeps cleaning up records for months, so the 2026 number is provisional and worth checking again when the year closes.

On what is coming: [Xacobeo 2027](https://santiago.es/en/xacobeo-2027) opens the Holy Door on 31 December 2026, and Holy Years multiply arrivals. If your plan is the Sarria stretch in the summer of 2027, expect more people than pages written before that date describe.

## The 33 stages, Saint-Jean to Santiago

Distances from gronze.com along the main itinerary. The third column is what remains to the Cathedral at the start of each day — the figure you actually need to choose a starting point, and the one almost no guide prints.

**Stages of the Camino Francés from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (source: Gronze)**

| Stage | Km | Km to Santiago at the start |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port – Roncesvalles | 24.2 | 763.7 |
| 2. Roncesvalles – Zubiri | 21.4 | 739.5 |
| 3. Zubiri – Pamplona | 20.4 | 718.1 |
| 4. Pamplona – Puente la Reina | 23.9 | 697.7 |
| 5. Puente la Reina – Estella | 21.6 | 673.8 |
| 6. Estella – Los Arcos | 21.3 | 652.2 |
| 7. Los Arcos – Logroño | 27.6 | 630.9 |
| 8. Logroño – Nájera | 28.5 | 603.3 |
| 9. Nájera – Santo Domingo de la Calzada | 20.7 | 574.8 |
| 10. Santo Domingo – Belorado | 22.0 | 554.1 |
| 11. Belorado – San Juan de Ortega | 23.9 | 532.1 |
| 12. San Juan de Ortega – Burgos | 25.8 | 508.2 |
| 13. Burgos – Hornillos del Camino | 20.3 | 482.4 |
| 14. Hornillos – Castrojeriz | 19.9 | 462.1 |
| 15. Castrojeriz – Frómista | 24.7 | 442.2 |
| 16. Frómista – Carrión de los Condes | 18.8 | 417.5 |
| 17. Carrión – Terradillos de los Templarios | 26.3 | 398.7 |
| 18. Terradillos – Bercianos del Real Camino | 23.2 | 372.4 |
| 19. Bercianos – Mansilla de las Mulas | 26.3 | 349.2 |
| 20. Mansilla – León | 18.4 | 322.9 |
| 21. León – San Martín del Camino | 24.6 | 304.5 |
| 22. San Martín – Astorga | 23.7 | 279.9 |
| 23. Astorga – Foncebadón | 25.8 | 256.2 |
| 24. Foncebadón – Ponferrada | 26.8 | 230.4 |
| 25. Ponferrada – Villafranca del Bierzo | 23.2 | 203.6 |
| 26. Villafranca – O Cebreiro | 27.8 | 180.4 |
| 27. O Cebreiro – Triacastela | 20.6 | 152.6 |
| 28. Triacastela – Sarria | 17.8 | 132.0 |
| 29. Sarria – Portomarín | 22.2 | 114.2 |
| 30. Portomarín – Palas de Rei | 24.8 | 92.0 |
| 31. Palas de Rei – Arzúa | 28.5 | 67.2 |
| 32. Arzúa – O Pedrouzo | 19.3 | 38.7 |
| 33. O Pedrouzo – Santiago | 19.4 | 19.4 |

Two variants change the sum and are worth keeping in mind: **stage 28 via Samos** is 7.2 km longer than via San Xil — about 25 km instead of 17.8 — and **stage 1 via Valcarlos** is 23.4 km instead of 24.2, and is compulsory in winter. There are further minor variants along the route, each shifting the total by a few hundred metres.

## Where it meets the other routes

The Francés does not walk alone through Galicia. At **Melide**, inside stage 31, the [Camino Primitivo](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/primitivo) joins it, coming from Oviedo and Lugo; from there the two share the final kilometres. The [Camino del Norte](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/norte) joins later, at **Arzúa**, in stage 32: its last two days are already the Francés. And the [Camino de Invierno](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/invierno) splits away from it at Ponferrada to re-enter Galicia somewhere else entirely. If you are choosing between routes rather than within this one, the comparison is in [every Camino route side by side](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/routes).

## Preguntas frecuentes

**How long is the whole Camino Francés?**

763.7 km over 33 stages from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, adding up Gronze's table day by day along the main itinerary. Via the Samos variant it is 770.9 km, and via Valcarlos 762.9. The range a sum can support is 763 to 771 km; there is no single official measurement.

**How many days does the full Camino Francés take?**

33 walking days from Saint-Jean, so five to six weeks in practice once you allow a rest day or two. From Roncesvalles it is 32 stages, from León 13 and from Sarria 5.

**Where do most people start the Camino Francés?**

In Sarria: 161,901 pilgrims in 2025, 66.9% of the 242,040 who walked the Francés, according to the Pilgrim's Office dashboard. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port accounted for 30,344 (12.5%), León 7,604, O Cebreiro 6,267, Ponferrada 5,542 and Roncesvalles 3,874.

**Where do I have to start the Camino Francés to get the Compostela?**

On foot, from Sarria or earlier: it is 114.2 km to Santiago, and the next stop, Portomarín, sits at 92.0 km and no longer meets the 100 km minimum. By bike you need 200 km, so neither Sarria nor O Cebreiro (152.6 km) qualifies: the first common start that clears it is Ponferrada at 203.6 km, and only by 3.6 km; Astorga (256.2 km) is the first with real slack.

**How far is León to Santiago on the Camino Francés?**

304.5 km over 13 stages, adding up Gronze's table. It is the most used intermediate start — 7,604 pilgrims in 2025 — because it fits a fortnight and León has a high-speed train from Madrid.

**What is the hardest stage of the Camino Francés?**

The first: Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Roncesvalles, 24.2 km with 1,419 metres of climb and about seven hours, the only stage Gronze scores 5 out of 5. Second is Villafranca del Bierzo to O Cebreiro, 27.8 km and 845 metres of climb, the biggest ascent on the Francés inside Spain.

**When is the Napoléon route over the Pyrenees closed?**

From 1 November to 31 March. In those months the Government of Navarre requires pilgrims to cross via Valcarlos and the Ibañeta pass, with fines for anyone using the Lepoeder variant anyway.

**What is the best month to walk the Camino Francés?**

It depends where you start, and the data shows it. Saint-Jean departures cluster in May, June and October, and August is its weakest month of the season (2,468 departures, 8.1% of its year). Sarria does the opposite: August and September together account for 31.6% of its departures. The busiest single month across the whole Francés in 2025 was September, with 35,645 pilgrims.

**Is the Camino Francés more crowded than ever?**

In absolute numbers yes: 176,075 pilgrims in 2016 and 242,040 in 2025. As a share it has fallen for nine years, from 63.4% to 45.6%, because the other routes are growing faster. From January to July 2026 it even falls in absolute terms, from 135,091 to 133,475 (−1.2%) while the Camino as a whole rises 5.5%; that is provisional, because the dashboard cleans up records for months.

Keep reading

**[Sarria to Santiago, stage by stage](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/stages-sarria-santiago)** — The final stretch — The five days two in every three Francés pilgrims walk, with albergues, climbs and the 100 km marker. — Read the guide

**[Every Camino route](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/routes)** — Comparison — The eight routes into Santiago with distances, stages, difficulty and what share of pilgrims walks each. — Read the guide

**[How to reach the start of the Camino](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/getting-to-the-start)** — Getting there — Trains, buses and timetable traps for Saint-Jean, León, Ponferrada, O Cebreiro and Sarria. — Read the guide

**[The Compostela and the credencial](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/compostela-certificate)** — The certificate — The 100 continuous kilometres, the 200 by bike, and what the Pilgrim's Office actually says. — Read the guide

**[When the Camino opens and closes](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/season)** — The calendar — The Napoléon route, the mountain albergues and luggage transfer all have dates. — Read the guide

**[How many pilgrims reach Santiago](https://santiago.es/en/camino-de-santiago/pilgrim-statistics)** — The numbers — Figures by route, by month and by country, from the Pilgrim's Office. — Read the guide