Camino de Invierno: The Complete Route Guide
Quick facts
- Start: Ponferrada, León, Spain (where it leaves the Camino Francés)
- Finish: Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- Distance: ~263 km
- Typical time: 10-13 walking days
- Busiest months: April to October. Quietest: late autumn and winter (it is the "Winter Way" by history, not because winter is its best season)
- Compostela requirement: walk at least the last 100 km and collect two stamps per day in that final stretch. The full route from Ponferrada qualifies easily; the last 100 km begins roughly around Monforte de Lemos / Chantada depending on exact stage splits.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Bierzo and Las Médulas · Out of Ponferrada past the Roman gold workings at Las Médulas, then down the Sil valley to O Barco de Valdeorras. | |||||
| 1 | Ponferrada → Borrenes | 21.3 | +435 m | −466 m | 3 of 5 |
| 2 | Borrenes → Puente de Domingo Flórez | 14.2 | +328 m | −457 m | 1 of 5 |
| 3 | Puente de Domingo Flórez → O Barco de Valdeorras | 18.6 | +201 m | −247 m | 2 of 5 |
| The Sil valley · Following the Sil through A Rúa de Petín and Quiroga, then the split at A Pobra do Brollón into Monforte de Lemos. | |||||
| 4 | O Barco de Valdeorras → A Rúa de Petín | 13.7 | +91 m | −100 m | 1 of 5 |
| 5 | A Rúa de Petín → Quiroga | 28.2 | +597 m | −650 m | 4 of 5 |
| 6 | Quiroga → A Pobra do Brollón | 23.1 | +627 m | −516 m | 3 of 5 |
| 7 | A Pobra do Brollón → Monforte de Lemos | 12.1 | +90 m | −127 m | 1 of 5 |
| Ribeira Sacra to the Plata join · The long day to Chantada, the Monte Faro country to Rodeiro, then on to Lalín, where this route joins the Vía de la Plata flow. | |||||
| 8 | Monforte de Lemos → Chantada | 31.1 | +715 m | −522 m | 5 of 5 |
| 9 | Chantada → Rodeiro | 24.5 | +676 m | −482 m | 4 of 5 |
| 10 | Rodeiro → Lalín | 22.5 | +233 m | −356 m | 3 of 5 |
| The shared finish · Shared stages with the Plata and Sanabrés walkers: Silleda, Ponte Ulla under the Pico Sacro, and the final morning into Santiago. | |||||
| 11 | Lalín → Silleda | 15.5 | +192 m | −237 m | 1 of 5 |
| 12 | Silleda → Ponte Ulla | 19.8 | +125 m | −543 m | 2 of 5 |
| 13 | Ponte Ulla → Santiago de Compostela | 20.7 | +497 m | −316 m | 3 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 Invierno
The Invierno exists because of weather. Medieval pilgrims walking the Francés faced snow on the climb to O Cebreiro in winter, so the alternative valley route from Ponferrada, following the Sil river into Galicia, became the winter option. That history gives modern pilgrims something rare: a complete, well-signed Camino that stays quiet even when the Francés is at full summer volume. It swaps the famous Francés stages after Ponferrada for the Sil canyon, the Ribeira Sacra wine country, and a southern approach to Santiago through Lalín. For a second Camino, or for anyone who wants Galicia without the crowds, it is one of the strongest choices in Spain.
The shape of the route
- Ponferrada to Las Médulas and O Barco (days 1-3): leave the Templar castle city with the Francés walkers behind you. The route passes Las Médulas, the Roman gold-mining landscape of terraced red earth, then follows the Sil valley east-to-west through small mining and wine towns toward O Barco de Valdeorras.
- O Barco to Monforte de Lemos (days 4-7): the heart of the Ribeira Sacra approach. The Sil narrows, vineyards step down impossible slopes in the canyon, and the walking turns properly Galician. Monforte de Lemos is the route's one real town in the middle, with its monastery and parador, and the natural rest and resupply point.
- Monforte to Chantada and Rodeiro (days 8-9): quieter agricultural Galicia, the climb toward Monte Faro on the provincial border country, then rolling farmland. Services thin out here; this is the stretch to plan food and beds most carefully.
- Rodeiro to Lalín and Silleda (days 10-11): the Invierno joins the Vía de la Plata / Sanabrés flow at Lalín (A Laxe). From here the walking is better supplied and more social for the final approach.
- Silleda to Santiago (final 2 days): shared final stages through Ponte Ulla, with the Pico Sacro in view, into Santiago from the south.
Stages and variants
The stage list in the route explorer above is this guide's one stage list. It runs as a flow in four sections (El Bierzo and Las Médulas, The Sil valley, Ribeira Sacra to the Plata join, and The shared finish), with no separate table down here. The Invierno 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.
Stage 1 passes Priaranza del Bierzo and Santalla del Bierzo in its first half, either of which makes a short first day of about 10 to 12 km if you would rather ease in. Stage 2 passes Las Médulas village; the optional loop through the Roman gold workings themselves adds about 6 km to the day. Quiroga to Monforte is split for real at A Pobra do Brollón (stages 6 and 7): the short stage 7 is deliberate, because stage 8 into Chantada is the route's longest day. That day can be divided at Diomondi, about 22 km out of Monforte, where there are rural stays. Strong walkers compress the whole route to 10 days; the 13 stages above are the kinder plan.
Key decision points
- Invierno vs staying on the Francés from Ponferrada: the Francés gives you O Cebreiro, Samos/Sarria, and the classic last 100 km, with crowds to match. The Invierno gives you the Sil canyon, Las Médulas, and quiet. First Camino with limited time: most people still choose the Francés. Returning pilgrims: the Invierno is often the better walk.
- Beds and food planning: the albergue network is thinner than the Francés, especially between O Barco and Lalín. Check opening seasonally, carry a real lunch on the quiet stages, and book ahead in Holy Year 2027 even here.
- The Ribeira Sacra detour time: a boat trip on the Sil canyon near Monforte/Doade is the one sightseeing add-on genuinely worth half a day if your schedule allows it.
When to walk
- April-June: the strongest window. Green valleys, full services waking up, long days, few pilgrims.
- July-August: hot in the Sil valley floor, the route's main weather warning. Start at dawn, carry extra water, and plan shade-poor stages early.
- September-October: harvest season in the Ribeira Sacra, cooler walking, a very good second window.
- November-March: the historic season, and walkable, but short days, rain, and some closed services make it a route for experienced, self-reliant pilgrims in winter, despite the name.
Practical notes
- Difficulty: moderate. No single climb matches O Cebreiro, but the cumulative rolling terrain, some long stages, and summer valley heat make it harder than its profile suggests. The Monte Faro area is the high country.
- Credencial: available in Ponferrada. Two stamps per day in the last 100 km; on quiet routes stamps take a little more asking (bars, churches, town halls), so ask early in the day.
- Beds: a mix of municipal and private albergues and small hotels, thinner than the Francés. Expect to use small hotels or pensions on some stages. Budget a little more per night than a Francés albergue-only plan.
- Food: Ribeira Sacra wines (Mencía reds), Sil valley produce, and standard Galician cooking from Monforte onward. Menú del día in the valley towns is the value play.
- Waymarking: well signed with yellow arrows and official markers, but with fewer pilgrims around, a GPX track or a current app is a sensible backup on the quiet middle stages.
- Getting there: Ponferrada is on the Francés and well connected by train and bus from León, Santiago, and Madrid. The return from Santiago needs no special planning.
Holy Year 2027 note
2027 is a Holy Year (Xacobeo). The Invierno is one of the routes likely to grow fastest in percentage terms, precisely because informed pilgrims will use it to avoid a very busy Francés final stretch. It will still be far quieter than the Francés, but the thin bed network means even a modest increase fills small albergues. Book the O Barco to Lalín stretch ahead, and do not assume a same-day bed in the smallest stops in late spring and around the July 25 feast week.