Walk 100km of the French Way starting in the Galician town of Sarria and finishing in the historic city of Santiago de Compostela where you will receive the traditional pilgrimage certificate.
TOUR INCLUDES:
- The itinerary includes:
- 5 x nights accommodation in 3-4* hotels
- Breakfast
- Air conditioned motor coach for all ground services of the itinerary including all toll fees and drivers expenses etc including transfer Santiago a Madrid
- English speaking local tour guides for all visits of itinerary
- Entrance fees Castillo en Ponferrada, Monasterio de Samos, Cathedral in Santiago and Prado Museum in Madrid
- SIM cards suitable for free mobile phones (brought by the clients)
- 1 free for the director
- For walking French Way:
- 6 x nights accommodation in hotels, typical Galician rural manors and Guestshouses (Double room with private bathroom)
- Breakfast
- Tour guide / manager 6 days
- Travel assistance insurance.
- Van support, if you need it.
- Telephone assistance during your trip.
- Luggage transfer between stages
- The Credential or Pilgrim’s Passport.
- Brochure of the road.
- Gift: Scallop of the pilgrim
Program
Day 1: Madrid-Ponferrada (400 km / 4,5 h) Visita Castillo de los Templarios (Ponferrada)
Arrival at the International airport in Madrid.
Meet your coach and driver for the transport to Ponferrada.
Arrival in Ponferrada.
Check in hotel
Meet your local guide for a visit of Castillo de los Templarios. Name & cell phone guide: to be confirmed
Back to hotel.
Dinner on your own.
Day 2: Ponferrada-Sarria Visita O Cebreiro, Monasterio de Samos
Breakfast.
Meet your local guide for a visit of O Cebreiro, Monasterio de Samos on the way to Sarria.
Name & cell phone guide: to be confirmed.
Arrive in Saria and meet your tourguide for the French Way.
Check in hotel.
Dinner on your own.
Day 3: Sarria-Portomarín (22 km) Camino Francés
Breakfast.
From the Convent of the Magdalena, you will steeply descend, with the Sarria cemetery on the right, to reach C-546 (Monforte-Lugo). Continue to the right a few meters, and exit on the left, crossing the river Barn by the Ponte Aspera. Then the path continues, parallel to the river, and crosses the railroad track, a few meters from the site of Sancti Michaelis, as shown by a Jacobean cairn, and advances for about 100 m following the road, to a creek. After crossing the creek, you will turn right to ascend, in the shadow of a carballeira, to the village of Vilei.
Here you enter a paved road that leads to the church of Barbadelo, from which you continue walking through a varied landscape of oaks, meadows and scattered farm houses, towards Rente and Mercado da Serra. After seeing these places, cross the C-535 (Sarria-Portomarín), and continue through Monzón, Xisto, Domiz, Leiman and Peruscallo, for about 2.5 km on a paved track, between masses of chestnut and carballos, and prairies surrounded by typical chantos (planted slate slabs), one of the most characteristic elements of places where the Celtic cultural stratum has survived the most.
From here, following local roads, you will cross the villages of Cortiñas, Lavandeira and Brea, for 1.5 km, in a somewhat more rugged landscape with less vegetation. With Monte Morgade below, and about half a kilometer in distance, you will reach the small village with this same name, after which you will pass the Arroyo Ferreiras and begin a gentle ascent to the village of Ferreiros.
Along a corridor between oak trees, the climb continues to an asphalt track, which crosses, and descends to Mirallos, and then continues on to Pena, and again by asphalted track, to Couto and Rozas. We must then reach the height of Pena do Cervo, from which we start the descent towards Moimentos, Mercadoiro and the valley of the Bocelo river, where Moutras sits.
Then continue, for just over 1 km, to Parrocha, where you exit through another asphalted track, which after 600 m is replaced by a road that enters Vilachá, from where you can see the modern town of Portomarín, located on a high on the right bank of the river Miño, where the road C-135 coming from Sarria joins.
Dinner on your own.
Day 4: Portomarín-Pala de rei (23,9 km) Camino Francés
Breakfast.
From the shelter descend down the steep and busy main street of Portomarín, up to the C-135 road, which you leave immediately to the left. Cross over a narrow footbridge, an arm of the Belesar Reservoir, after which, begins to skirt in slight ascent around its northern slope, Mount San Antonio, with the Torres River to the right. After approximately 2km, you will return to the C-135 in the diversion of San Mamed: to the right the small village of Cortapezas appears and to the left a pottery.
After 2 km, you will reach Toxibo and after three more, you will get to Gonzar. At the exit, leave the road on the left, taking a dirt road to the small town of Castromaior. It is followed by a slightly uneven landscape similar to the one that we have already seen, populated with small oaks, pines and brooms.
Shortly after, the path meets the road again, where it continues for approximately 1km in gentle ascent. Then you will take a road on the left that reaches the Hospital de la Cruz. Cross the N-540 here, and take a paved track that ends at the N-547 in Brea after about 10 km. The route of these 10 km mentioned above is the following: at 1.5 km, Sales of Narón; then you will reach the gentle slope of Ligonde, descending to Prebisa, Lameiros and Ligonde itself. Continue down, then cross the river Ligonde, and climb up again to Eirexe, then continue the ascent until you get to the road to Monterroso, where the descent begins to Portos.
As soon as you leave Portos, turn to the right to a famous Romanesque temple of Vilar de Donas, located about 3 km, on the other side of the N-547. After 1km, you will pass by Lestedo and see its cemetary and the Church of Santiago. Then you will leave towards the left and after a short climb, you will enter Valos. Finally, after 1km, leaving behind the small place of Mamurria, the trail ends at the N-547, at the same height as Brea.
From here, after 3 km, you will go along a path parallel to the road on your left side, and arrive at Palas de Rei. On the left hand side, and before entering the village, there are the municipal sports facilities.
Dinner on your own.
Day 5: Palas de Rei-Melide (14,9 km) Camino Francés
Breakfast.
Leave Palas de Rei on the N-547 until you reach a large curve to the left after 36km. Descend to San Culián do Camiño on a corrugated pavement, to about 3km from Palas. From here, you will go along a tarmac track, until you reach the houses of Pallota, to the right of which you will take a path that descends through a dense vegetable corridor to Outeiro da Ponte.
Cross the river Pambre and leave behind the village of Pontecampaña to start a slight ascent, which, between pines and carballos, crowns a small square past Casanova. Then descend to the valley of the river Villar, which crosses an enormous meadow. In 1km you will come to Campanilla, where you will reach the road through which, you will pass from the province of Lugo to La Coruña, between Coto and Conrnixa.
After walking briefly along the N-547, take a path elegantly paved and escorted by cypresses, through which you enter Leboreiro. Next to Disicabo, where the Seco River crosses the Magdalena Bridge and takes the compacted dirt track, lined with a row of poplars, which after crossing a small but leafy forest, leads to Furelos.
When you leave this town, you take the dirt track again and, in just over 1km, you enter Melide through the Barrio de San Pedro.
Dinner on your own.
Day 6: Melide-Arzúa (14,8 km) Camino Francés
Breakfast.
Within Melide, the road diverts to the left of the N-547 towards Barrio de Santa María and after crossing the River Lázaro and the place of Carballal, the tar covered road is directed by a lush forest of oaks and eucalyptus until Raido, past which it comes to the N-547. Leave this road by a dirt track to its left.
The path goes between pines and ferns and crosses the Arroyo Valverde, descending through A Peroxa until it gets to Boente. At the exit of the town, it crosses under the N-547, curving to the right through a tunnel and continuing its descent until it reaches the valley of the river Boente. After crossing the valley, you go back up until you get to the abandoned branch of the N-457, through which you enter Castañeda.
From this town, the trail diverts to the left through Pedrido and descends to Rio, on the banks of the Ribeiral Stream. The trail then climbs up again from the other side, to a hill covered with eucalyptus trees. Already at the top, the path cut by the road, which runs in a deep pit, passes through a footbridge. On the opposite embankment, it descends rapidly towards the river Iso, and through Ribadiso de Baixo and Riba. It then escpaes through a tunnel on the N-547 until it reaches Ribadiso da Carretera. At the exit of the town, take the N-547, and you will soon arrive in Arzúa.
Dinner on your own.
Day 7: Arzúa-Pedrouzo (19 km) Camino Francés
Breakfast.
From Cima to Lugar street, where the public hostel is located, we head to the cobbled Rua de Carmen. Its arches and facades lined with wood lead the way through Arzúa. For a more rural environment we descend to the fountain of the French, cross the Vello river and reach As Barrosas and its chapel of San Lázaro (Mojón 36 and Km 0,9). We go down to the Brandeso river, which was also a tributary of Iso (Km 1,8), and go up to the village of Querreste, a village in the parish of Burres with its hermitage of San Paio from the 18th century (Km 2,2). At the exit we avoid crossing the N-547 thanks to a tunnel and we face a steep slope, between meadows, corn crops and overlooking Arzúa, to the place of A Peroxa, also the parish of Burres (Km 3.3). The eucalyptus increasingly populating the Galician landscape and the private meadows are necesary for the survival of the cattle and the rural world. tThey stand one after the other holding up the washing of the families which is drying in the sun. We travel on tracks covered with fallen leaves and prone to getting dirty when it rains. We descend to the Ladrón creek (Km 3.9) to reach Taberna Vella (Mojón 32 and Km 5.2).
Six hundred meters later we enter Calzada, the parish of Burres and last inhabited nucleus of the Concello of Arzúa (Km 5,8). We leave the town by crossing a connecting road and continue to enter the Concello de O Pino – the last before Santiago. The first town is Calle, village of San Breixo de Ferreiros, where we pass under a hórreo (Km 7,8). We leave the village after crossing the Langüello stream and follow a network of tracks and roads to Boavista (Km 9,3) and Salceda (Km 11,1), at the foot of the N-547. We travel a few meters away from this road on the right, passing by the memory of the pilgrim Guillermo Watt, who died on the trail.
We go back to the foot of the road and pass a concessionaire of agricultural machinery to get to Oxen, place of the parish of San Miguel de Cerceda (Km 12.5).
The road, to the left of the National, leads now to the adjacent Ras (Km 13,1), from the same parish, where we escape the N-547 below. At this point the pilgrims who come from the North Way and have taken the variant of O Pine also join the path. On the other side is A Brea (Mojón 23,5 and Km 13,6) and the nearby A Rabiña (Mojón 23 and Km 14).
In parallel to the National and after crossing it again we easily overcome the climb to O Empalme, the parish of San Lourenzo de Pastor (Km 15,3). About half way there is a picnic with a fountain and a windmill that resembles that of the American farms. At the top we cross the road to enter the town and take a track on the left that descends under the eucalyptus trees. Further down, through a tunnel under the N-547, we have the option of going to visit the hermitage of Santa Irene and its baroque fountain or go to the private hostel. If we continue straight ahead we arrive at the hostel of the Xunta (Km 16,3). Thanks to a dense eucalyptus we cannot hear the noise of the road. Next we go the Mojón 20, and avoid the road again by a tunnel. A couple of houses and a sawmill and more eucalyptus trees lead to A Rua of the parish of Arca (Km 17,9). We go along an Asphalted track to reach the edge of the N-547 and we go on it to O Pedrouzo.
Dinner on your own.
Day 8: Pedrouzo-Santiago de C.(20 km) Camino Francés
Breakfast.
Only twenty kilometres in front of the 555.3 which we already travelled on during our first day to the other side of the Pyranees. Although only a week ago, far, far away, we see the Navarrese forests, the vines of La Rioja, the vast Castilian plateau and even the mountains of León and the mythical O Cebreiro, which we crossed seven days earlier. Santiago, Obradoiro square and the cathedral, to which we will definitely be excited about, are right next door.
Using the public hostel as a reference point we walk throught the village to the edge of the National and turn right by the Rua do Concello, where the Town Hall is located. We go forward for half a kilometer and when we get to the school and the sports courts we turn ninety degrees to the left. On a dirt track covered with fallen leaves, we enter a forest of eucalyptus, which we leave to get to San Anton, a village in the parish of Arca. The place takes the name of a chapel desolated by a fire (Km 1,3). Another forest awaits us at the exit of San Antón. Indigenous carballos and reforested eucalyptus, in bulk, now accompany us to the core of Amenal, the parish of San Miguel de Pereira.
We arrive by asphalted track and passing the Brandelos river we cross the N-547 by a low pass (Km 3,7), followed by a strong slope that climbs to Cimadevila, the last nucleus of the Concello de O Pino (Km 4).
The climb continues for more than a mile and a half but becomes much more accesible. Once we reach the summit, we go to the foot of the A-54 and the N-634. We are no longer surprised to see the separation fence full of small crosses. It is part of the idiosyncrasy of the pilgrimage. A monolith sculpted with the staff, the pumpkin and the scallop announces the entrance in the municipality of Santiago (Km 6.3). We go around the perimeter of the airport, leaving several rows of beacons (Km 6,7) on the left, and after crossing a secondary road we enter San Paio, village of the parish of Sabugueira (Km 7.7). Surrounding Casa Quian, we face a short steep slope and take the track to the right, which descends. We continue descending by several nuclei of the parish of Sabugueira: to Esquipa and Lavacolla (Km 9,5).
After a sharp turn we pass next to the parish church of San Pelayo, on which the year of its construction, 1840, is inscribed. We then cross the N-634a and take the detour to Villamaior. In just a hundred meters we cross the Sionlla river, covered with fish eggs and known as Lavacolla stream, a place where the pilgrims were stripped of their dirty clothes and washed in view of their next arrival to Santiago (Km 10).
We begin a comfortable climb on an asphalted track that will end in the long awaited Monte do Gozo. First we cross Villamaior (Km 11), passing next to the center of the TVG (Km 12.7) and turning 90 degrees to the left to do the same next to the territorial center of RTVE (Km 13.5). We turn ninety degrees to the right and continue to the urbanization San Marcos (Km 14,8), anteroom of Monte do Gozo. Instead of going straight, we turn left to go up to the monument erected in the Jacobean year of 1993, the same year that the nearby pilgrims’ hostel was inaugurated, the largest of the Camino that is capable of accommodating up to 300 people in a normal year and up to 800 in Xacobeo. From this point we get to see the first panoramic view of Santiago and its cathedral (Km 15,2).
We return to the trail, going beside the access to the cafeteria and the dining rooms, and down to a flight of stairs. Afterwards, we cross the motorway and the tracks and continue along the long road San Lázaro (Km 16.7), where the Galician Conference and Exhibition Center is located, and the San Lázaro pilgrims’ hostel, in which people are allowed to stay more than one night. We connect with the Rua do Valiño (Km 17.7) and continue straight on the Rua das Fontiñas and Rua dos Concheiros, where we cross the avenue of Lugo.
Afterwards we go along the street of San Pedro (Km 19), which ends at the junction with traffic lights of the Rua de Aller Ulloa. From the place where the Portima do Camiño was, we enter the historical center through Rua das Casas Reais, which goes up to Cervantes square. Going straight on the Rua da Acibechería takes us to the Praça da Inmaculada, where the monastery of San Martín Pinario is located. Finally we enter under the Arch of the Palace by a passage, where street musicians meet to play music, to access the Place of the Obradoiro, where the adventure ends. While we remove our backpacks we discover every detail of the western facade and then we head to the very center of the square. It’s hard not to get excited by this.
Travelling to Santiago de Compostela as a pilgrim is an unparalleled experience and in my opinion, there are not many trips that can be compared to this one (Km 20).
Arrival in Santiago Santiago de Compostela.
Check in hotel.
Dinner on your.
Day 9: Santiago de Compostela Guided visit Cathedral
Breakfast.
Meet your local guide for a half day city tour and a visit of the Cathedral.
Name & cell phone guide: to be confirmed.
Entrance to the the Cathedral. You can maybe see the botafumeiro in action; this giant censer flies above the transept naves and apart from being a rite only found in this city, is also an exciting experience.
Dinner on your own.
Day 10: Santiago de C.-Madrid Private coach transfer
Breakfast.
Meet your private coach for the transfer to the Madrid (600 km / 7,0 h)
Arrival in Madrid.
Check in hotel.
Dinner on your own.
Day 11: Madrid Guided city tour medio dia & Museo Prado
Breakfast.
Meet your local guide for a half day city tour and a visit of the Prado Museum.
Name & cell phone guide: to be confirmed.
Dinner on your own.
Day 12: Madrid Departure transfer
Breakfast.
Meet your private coach for the transfer to the International airport in Madrid.
