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Camino Primitivo: The Complete Route Guide

Quick facts

The route: map, elevation, and stages

314.9 km on the track 14 stages +6920 m total climb −6948 m total descent
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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

StageWalkKmClimbDescentDifficulty
Asturian valleys · Green valleys and steady climbing through cider country, Oviedo to Borres.
1Oviedo → Grado26.0+322 m−473 m3 of 5
2Grado → Salas22.0+574 m−444 m3 of 5
3Salas → Tineo20.0+677 m−243 m3 of 5
4Tineo → Borres17.0+380 m−428 m2 of 5
The mountains · The Hospitales or Pola de Allande choice, then the big climbs to Grandas de Salime and the crossing into Galicia.
5Borres → Berducedo24.0+987 m−734 m4 of 5
Variant: Hospitales route, the high line past the ruined pilgrim hospitals. H1 Borres to Berducedo, 25.4 km, measured on our track a little over the 24 km usually quoted. No services and no water to count on, and the wrong choice in fog, storms, or high wind. It meets the main line again before Berducedo. Switch to the Hospitales route chip above to walk it stage by stage.
6Berducedo → Grandas de Salime20.0+690 m−1036 m4 of 5
7Grandas de Salime → A Fonsagrada25.0+791 m−407 m4 of 5
High Galicia to Lugo · High, rolling, quiet country to Lugo and its Roman walls. Long stages, so plan the split points.
8A Fonsagrada → O Cádavo Baleira23.0+632 m−866 m4 of 5
9O Cádavo → Lugo30.0+418 m−655 m4 of 5
Lugo to Santiago · The route softens, joins the Francés at Melide, and walks the busy final stretch into Santiago.
10Lugo → San Román da Retorta19.0+285 m−188 m2 of 5
11San Román → Melide28.0+387 m−497 m4 of 5
12Melide → Arzúa14.0+231 m−302 m1 of 5
13Arzúa → O Pedrouzo19.0+286 m−387 m2 of 5
14O Pedrouzo → Santiago de Compostela20.0+260 m−288 m2 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.

Open these days in the planner

Why the Primitivo

The Primitivo is the original Camino. In the 9th century King Alfonso II walked from Oviedo to Santiago to verify the reported tomb of St James, and his route is still the one on the ground today. It is widely considered the hardest of the main routes and, by a lot of pilgrims, the most beautiful: Asturian and Galician mountains, high open ridges, reservoirs, and long quiet stretches with very few people. If the Francés is the social Camino, the Primitivo is the mountain one. It rewards fitness and punishes complacency about weather.

The big choice: Hospitales or Pola de Allande

After Tineo the route splits for the toughest and most celebrated section: - Hospitales route (~24 km, Borres to Berducedo via Puerto del Palo): the high route past the ruins of medieval pilgrim hospitals. Exposed, no services, no water sources to count on, and the best views on the entire Primitivo in clear weather. Do not walk it in fog, storms, or high wind. - Pola de Allande route (~27-28 km): the lower, sheltered option through Pola de Allande with full services, then a long climb to Puerto del Palo where the routes rejoin. The bad-weather default, and a good walk in its own right. Decide the night before in Borres or Tineo based on the forecast, not on pride. Both routes meet again before Berducedo.

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 (Asturian valleys, The mountains, High Galicia to Lugo, and Lugo to Santiago), and the Hospitales route appears inside it at Borres, where the two ways split, not in a separate table down here. Switch ways with the chips above the map to see the Hospitales route's own stage, profile, and totals.

Stage 5 is the choice. The Hospitales line runs Borres to Berducedo in one high day, 25.4 km measured on our track against the 24 km usually quoted, past the ruins of the medieval pilgrim hospitals and across Puerto del Palo. At Puerto del Palo it rejoins the main line and shares it through Berducedo and on to Santiago. There are no services and no water to count on between Borres and Berducedo on this line, and it is the wrong choice in fog, storms, or high wind.

The Pola de Allande line is the sheltered alternative on the main line, through the only town with full services between Tineo and Berducedo: 12.7 km from Borres to Pola de Allande, then 18.7 km on to Berducedo, 31.4 km in all measured along our track, against 27 to 28 km usually quoted, and about 6 km longer than the Hospitales line. Split at Pola de Allande it also breaks the longest mountain day into two shorter ones, which is how many pilgrims walk it in bad weather or early and late in the season.

Strong walkers compress this; many pilgrims add a rest day in Lugo, whose complete Roman walls are a UNESCO site and worth a slow evening walk on top.

Sections at a glance

When to walk

Practical notes

Holy Year 2027 note

2027 is a Holy Year (Xacobeo) and even the Primitivo will feel it, above all after Melide and in Lugo around the July 25 feast week. The mountain section will stay comparatively quiet, which is a real part of this route's appeal that year. Book Oviedo, Lugo, and the entire post-Melide stretch earlier than usual.

Stage by stage

Every stage on its own page, with its elevation profile, walking time, and the services along it.

Town by town

Every stage town on its own page, with the stages in and out, the services in town, and every named place to stay.

Wildfire check

Fire season in Spain and Portugal runs roughly May to October, and a dry stretch can close or fill with smoke with little warning. Before you set off, and each morning while you walk in dry country, check the EFFIS current fire map for active fires near your route.

If officials close a stretch, follow their instructions and reroute or wait it out. Never light a fire anywhere on the route.

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Keep planning

More routes: Camino Francés · Camino Portugués · Camino del Norte. Or get the free one-page stage planner.