Camino de Baztán: The Complete Route Guide
Quick facts
- Start: Bayonne, France
- Finish: Arre, Spain, where the route joins the Camino Francés at the Trinidad de Arre, about 5 km short of Pamplona centre
- Distance: ~103 km
- Typical time: 6 to 7 walking days
- Busiest months: May to September. Quietest: winter, when the two passes are serious weather country
- Compostela requirement: this route ends at the Francés join, not Santiago, so it earns no Compostela on its own. Most walkers continue from Arre through Pamplona on the Camino Francés, and Bayonne to Santiago that way is about 840 km in all.
The route: map, elevation, and stages
Weather on the route
Five day forecast from Open-Meteo for the start, midpoint, and finish towns. Check again closer to your walk.
Route track: Nederlands Genootschap van Sint Jacob (santiago.nl), republished with credit. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Dashed line: shared finish on another route.
Open the full-screen map app Plan this route Download the GPX track The same map, app-style: full screen, offline packs, and find-me while you walk. Plan this route opens the planner: regroup these stages into your own days, with a start date and a daily budget.
Places on this way
Places load with the map view.
Elevation sampled from terrain data (Terrarium DEM, built on SRTM) along the track. Hover the profile to trace the route on the map, or focus it and use the arrow keys. Click a stage band, a stage number, or a table row to zoom to that stage.
Stages
| Stage | Walk | Km | Climb | Descent | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Out of Bayonne and the French Basque country · South out of Bayonne along the Nive through Villefranque to Ustaritz, then Souraïde and Ainhoa to the border crossing at Dantxarinea and Urdazubi / Urdax. | |||||
| 1 | Bayonne → Ustaritz | 14.2 | +37 m | −46 m | 1 of 5 |
| 2 | Ustaritz → Urdazubi / Urdax | 21.5 | +447 m | −360 m | 3 of 5 |
| The Baztan valley · Up the Baztan valley over the Otsondo pass through Amaiur, Arizkun, and Elbete to Elizondo, the valley capital, then the short day through Lekaroz, Irurita, and Ziga to Berroeta. | |||||
| 3 | Urdazubi / Urdax → Elizondo | 18.5 | +589 m | −470 m | 3 of 5 |
| 4 | Elizondo → Berroeta | 9.3 | +261 m | −104 m | 1 of 5 |
| Over Belate to the Francés · Through Almandoz and over the Puerto de Belate, then Lantz and Olagüe, and the final run through Ostiz and Sorauren to Arre, where the route joins the Francés at the Trinidad de Arre. | |||||
| 5 | Berroeta → Olagüe | 19.3 | +720 m | −528 m | 3 of 5 |
| 6 | Olagüe → Arre | 19.7 | +109 m | −197 m | 2 of 5 |
Plan your own days
The stages above are one way to walk this route, not the only way. Every stage town starts highlighted below, because the stages as written sleep in each one. Tap a highlighted town to walk through it and sleep at the next stop instead, and tap it again to split the days back. Your days update as you tap. Set a start date and a daily budget here and every day carries its date and its cost on this page. Open these days in the planner to carry this exact grouping into your plan, where GPX, copy, and print exports apply to it. Dates and budget set here are saved into the same plan, so they are already set when you open it there.
Why the Baztán
The Baztán is the Basque feeder onto the Francés, and the gentlest mountain crossing of the Pyrenees on any Camino. Instead of the high Napoleon crossing out of Saint-Jean, it leaves France from Bayonne, follows the Nive south through the French Basque villages, crosses into Spain at Dantxarinea, and climbs the green Baztan valley to Elizondo. From there it turns south over the Puerto de Belate and drops to Arre, joining the Francés just above Pamplona. It is short, green on both sides of the border, and quiet: a route for walkers who want a Pyrenean crossing with villages every few kilometres rather than one big exposed day, and who like the idea of starting in France and walking into Pamplona on the third oldest road of all.
The shape of the route
- Bayonne to Ustaritz (day 1): south out of Bayonne along the Nive through Villefranque to Ustaritz, an easy river day to open.
- Ustaritz to Urdazubi / Urdax (day 2): through Souraïde and Ainhoa, then the border crossing at Dantxarinea into Spain and Urdax, the first Spanish stage town.
- Urdazubi / Urdax to Elizondo (day 3): up the Baztan valley over the Otsondo pass, through Amaiur and Arizkun and Elbete, into Elizondo, the valley capital and the biggest town since Bayonne.
- Elizondo to Berroeta (day 4): the route's short day, through Lekaroz and Irurita and Ziga to Berroeta. The tourism stage division keeps this same short stage: it is the standard stop before the Belate climb.
- Berroeta to Olagüe (day 5): through Almandoz and over the Puerto de Belate, the route's second pass, then down through Lantz to Olagüe.
- Olagüe to Arre (day 6): the final run south through Ostiz and Sorauren to Arre, ending at the Trinidad de Arre where the Baztán joins the Francés, about 5 km short of Pamplona centre.
Stages and variants
The stage list in the route explorer above is this guide's one stage list. It runs as a flow in three sections (Out of Bayonne and the French Basque country, The Baztan valley, and Over Belate to the Francés), with no separate table down here. The Baztán carries no variant ways in the openly licensed track set we build from, so the flow is sections only. Distances in the list are measured along the route track itself, town centre to town centre.
The six stages are the standard shape of this route, the same division the Baztán tourism stage list uses, with its last stage running on to Pamplona where ours ends at the Arre join. Five legs sit in the 14 to 22 km band; the one short day, Elizondo to Berroeta at 9.3 km, is deliberate, the standard stop before the Belate climb, and it makes a natural half rest day in Elizondo or an easy morning start. Six days is the standard walk; seven, splitting nothing but taking Pamplona as a rest day at the end, is the kinder plan.
Key decision points
- Baztán or Napoleon into Spain: from Bayonne the Baztán is the low, village by village crossing, two moderate passes instead of one high one, and it puts you in Pamplona rather than Roncesvalles. Walkers set on the classic Saint-Jean start and the high crossing should take the Francés; walkers who want the quieter Basque road should take this one.
- End at Arre or walk on: Arre is the honest end of this route, at the Francés join. Pamplona centre is about 5 km further on the Francés through Villava and Burlada, and most walkers simply keep walking into the city and sleep there on the last night.
- Where to sleep: the valley towns are small and the bed network is thinner than the Francés. Elizondo is the one full service stop between Bayonne and Pamplona; book the small village nights ahead in season.
When to walk
- May-June: the strongest window. The valleys are at their greenest, the passes are clear in most years, and the days are long.
- July-August: warm in the valley bottoms and the busiest the route gets, which is still quiet by Francés standards.
- September-October: quiet, cooler, good walking; days shorten and the passes need watching again late in the window.
- November-April: a winter walk. Snow is possible on the Otsondo and Belate crossings for months, some village services close, and short days leave little slack. For experienced, self-reliant pilgrims only.
Practical notes
- Difficulty: moderate. No single day is hard, but there are two real passes, Otsondo on day 3 and Belate on day 5, and the climbing is steady rather than steep.
- Credencial: pick one up in Bayonne before you start. Stamp as you go; in the small villages, bars, albergues, and town halls are the reliable stamp points, on both sides of the border.
- Beds: a small network of pilgrim albergues and village hostals in the stage towns, with Elizondo carrying the widest choice. Expect to book some nights ahead in season.
- Food and water: villages come often on this route, but bars keep their own hours and days, so carry a real lunch and full water on stages 2, 3, and 5 rather than counting on the next village.
- Waymarking: yellow arrows and official markers, thinner than on the Francés, and the French opening days follow local Basque path marking as much as Camino marking. A GPX track or a current app is a sensible backup.
- Getting there and onward: Bayonne is a French rail hub with good links from Paris and the coast. Arre joins the Francés above Pamplona, a major Camino city with train and bus links if you are stopping there.
Holy Year 2027 note
2027 is a Holy Year (Xacobeo). The Baztán itself will stay far quieter than the Francés it joins, but its bed network is small enough that even a modest Holy Year increase can fill the village albergues. Book the small town nights ahead, and expect Pamplona and everything west of it on the Francés to be busier than usual.