What is and isn’t included

What is and isn’t included:

Trip price includes accommodations (double occupancy), all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) each day, except 3 dinners (Burgos, Logroño and Molinaseca), all entry fees, pre-departure information, experienced guides, support vehicle, all transportation during the trip.

Tour does not include: Airfare to Spain is not included nor is required health/travel insurance or transportation to and from the starting (Pamplona) and ending (Santiago de Compostela) points. Personal amenities such as drinks and snacks at end of walks or in free time are not included.

Single Supplement: The single supplement fee is €320 for this tour.

Optional Wine Tour: On Day 3 in Logroño we offer an optional visit to a Rioja winery with a commented tasting - price per person 20€, minimum four participants for the optional to run.

Map

Itinerary

Daily Itinerary

Day 1 - Pamplona
Walking Distance: 5.1 miles / 8.3 km
After meeting at our hotel in the heart of Pamplona’s historical district, we’ll head up to the Pyrenees and the French border. From there we’ll descend on foot through beech forest to Roncesvalles, the tiny hamlet where the medieval epic Song of Roland places the defeat of Charlemagne’s army and the death of Roland. Our walk will continue through the deciduous forest to Burguete, a typical Navarran mountain village and Hemingway’s preferred stop over for trout fishing (see The Sun Also Rises). Upon return to Pamplona, we’ll enjoy Navarran cuisine in one of the old quarter’s most long-standing restaurants.

Day 2 - Estella
Walking Distance : 8.3 miles / 13.5 km
The day starts with a walking tour of Pamplona paying special attention to the famous streets associated with the annual 'Running of the Bulls'. We’ll briefly enter the town’s 14th C Gothic cathedral. Afterwards we quickly leave behind the city and enter the tranquil rolling fields that ascend to the Sierra del Perdón. We’ll picnic on local specialties and then briefly visit the enigmatic, 8-sided Romanesque church of Eunate. In Puente la Reina, we’ll marvel at its perfectly balanced 11th century stone bridge. In the afternoon walk to Cirauqui the Camino unites with a 1900-year-old section of Roman road. From their we’ll enjoy a rest in our riverside hotel set on the outskirts of Estella.

Day 3 - Logroño
Walking Distance : 6.3 miles/ 10.3 km With optionals 9.4 miles / 15.3 km
The day starts in Estella, a lovely small town split in two by the Ega River and surrounded by conic, wooded hills topped with castles (or their ruins) and churches attesting to its long history as a crucial center of commerce and worship. After visiting Estella’s most important monuments, our walk enters a dense forest of evergreen oaks, passes through fields of red poppies, wheat, grapes and white asparagus; the latter a local specialty grown underground.  After lunch we’ll walk through Torres del Río and past another architectural wonder of the Camino : the 12th century, 8-sided Holy Sepulchral Church. We’ll continue on to Logroño, capital of the La Rioja region - home of some of Spain’s most celebrated red wines. Enjoy an optional wine tour in a nearby cellar and then dinner on your own in this vibrant city.

Day 4 - Santo Domingo de la Calzada
Walking Distance: 5.9 miles / 9.6 km with optional 9.6 miles / 15.6 km
From Logroño we shuttle to Nájera born out of red earthen cliffs and where an 11thC apparition of the Virgin Mary in a cave led to the construction of a spectacular monastery. From here we'll walk among cultivated fields of wheat and wine, pass villages and perhaps encounter a flock of sheep before reaching Santo Domingo de la Calzada. We'll stay in the town's luxurious parador, a stone's throw from the Cathedral which we'll visit after some relaxing free time in this delightful small town, famed for being the center of one of the Camino’s most famous and celebrated legends.

Day 5 - Burgos
Walking Distance : 9.3 miles / 15 km
Today's walk ascends and traverses the Montes de Oca, densely populated by oaks, pines, wildflowers, birds and small mammals. This section was dreaded in the Middle Ages as a particularly dangerous hang-out for bandits and wolves and many pilgrims lost their way in the forest. A 12th century monk, San Juan de Ortega, constructed a monastery (by the same name) in the heart of the lonesome area in order to assist pilgrims. After reaching the monastery on foot we'll visit the saint's tomb and point out a mysterious Romanesque capital which depicts the Nativity and draws hundreds of people each Spring and Fall. Shuttle to stately Burgos, built along the Arlanzón River. Enjoy a guided walking tour of the magnificent Gothic Cathedral. Dinner will be on your own tonight in this enchanting Castilian city and final resting place of Spain's great epic hero, El Cid.

Day 6 - Carrión de los Condes
Walking Distance: 8.9 miles / 14.4 km With optionals 12.3 miles / 19.9 km
The meseta (high tablelands) walk is a true highlight. Surrounded by interminable fields of cereal grains and with no signs or sounds of civilization to distract you, we’ll walk to our picnic spot, a small outpost in the middle of nowhere. After our picnic we walk along the Canal de Castilla, a 18^th C public works project that brought water to this dry outback. Shuttle to Carrión de los Condes where we sleep and dine in style at the exclusive San Zoilo monastery.

Day 7 - León
Walking Distance: 6.5 miles / 10.6 km
The sun will rise upon our backs as we wend our way through cultivated wheat fields and pass from village to village in the gently rolling Leonese countryside. We’ll visit a remarkable, well-preserved bath complex of a 3rd century AD Hispanic Roman villa and enjoy the high-quality mosaics and curious architectural floor plan. Once in León city, founded as a Roman outpost, we’ll have a guided walking tour of the old quarter housing two jewels of Romanesque and Gothic architecture (San Isidoro and the Cathedral). The latter is particularly famous for its luminescent 13th to 17th century stained glass windows.

Day 8 - Molinaseca
Walking Distance: 9mi/14.6km With optional 12.7mi/20.6km
Beginning in Puente Orbigo, we’ll cross its long, stone bridge witness to various bizarre encounters including a 15th century knight, Suero de Quiñones, who in a demonstration of his unrequited love challenged all the knights who passed the bridge to a joust during a 30-day period. From the bridge we’ll walk to the Cruz de Santo Toribio overlooking Astorga, a strategic Roman.After the picnic we’ll stop for coffee in Astorga before heading up into the desolate Leonese foothills in an area called the Maragatería, a rural area dotted with small villages. From the semi-abandoned village Foncebadón, the walk ascends to the Cruz de Ferro (Iron Cross), one of the Camino's most emblematic points.

Day 9 - Samos
Walking Distance: 5.6 miles / 9 km With optionals 9.6 miles / 15.5 km.
Drive through Ponferrada past the Templar castle and then on to our trailhead at the hamlet of Herrerías to walk one of the Camino's most challenging and celebrated sections. We ascend along a corredoira, a stone pathway, among chestnuts and then open countryside, through two villages finally reaching Galicia and the pass of Cebreiro. Here, we'll visit a pre-Roman style dwelling, a palloza, and have our delicious picnic including hearty Galician bread and outstanding Cebreiro cheese. We'll continue to Samos, famed for its Benedictine monastery founded in the 6th century. Enjoy a quiet afternoon in the village of Samos at our riverside hotel.

Day 10 - Arzúa
Walking Distance: 11.9 miles / 19.3 km
Galician landscapes are mountainous, green, forested and largely rural. On today’s walk we’ll pass through various rustic hamlets on ancient pathways. Stone dominates in architecture and village life is largely agricultural. We’ll pass Portomarín a town flooded in the 1950s to make way for a dam further downstream. Our gentle afternoon walk takes us through fragrant eucalypt forests before we continue on to Arzúa. Tonight’s quarters are in a lovely country mansion, a fine example of Galician noble's homes of the 18th century. Enjoy a cooking class with the owners tonight!

Day 11 - Santiago de Compostela
Walking distance : 4 miles / 6.5 km With Optionals 4.9 miles / 8km
Today the journey comes to an end in Santiago. We’ll walk through woodlands and farms before shuttling to the city gates to reach the main plaza on foot in time to attend the 12 Noon Pilgrim’s Mass (optional). If in luck, the Cathedral’s special incense burner, the Botafumeiro, will swing at the end of the Pilgrim’s Mass. In the afternoon we’ll have a guided walking tour of the town and explain the pilgrims’ most important rituals. We’ll say farewell to one another in the exquisite Reyes Católicos Parador over dinner and then enjoy a well-earned slumber within its luxurious walls.