The Camino francés is not the only route to Santiago! It's easy to forget that because when we speak of "The Camino", it is almost always the francés that we mean. And the francés is almost inevitably every peregrino's first walk.

On the map below we have sketched in the routes on the Iberian Peninsula and those leading into Spain from France. The route lines and the table below are live links to brief descriptions of the routes. (Move your cursor around on the map and you will notice it changing shape.) So we encourage you to explore the "other" Caminos!

Some general remarks about the "other" Caminos are in order. If you are already familiar with the Camino francés either through having walked on it or through your research in advance of walking then you should be aware of those facets that make the francés different. The francés has an extremely well-developed infrastructure of albergues, bars, restaurants, water fountains and even waymarking when compared to most of the other routes. You can get by on the francés with your high school Spanish; this will not serve you very well on most of the others. Even arranging a roof over your head at night or locating where to find food may require conversations with the local populace. On the francés you are rarely out of sight of other peregrinos; on some of the other routes you will rarely be in sight of others. On the francés a stretch of 10 km without water or services is unusual; on some of the other routes, 30 km intervals may be the norm. For cyclists, a touring bike will serve on the francés while a mountain bike will be required on many of the others. None of these observations are intended to discourage branching out but they are intended to encourage thorough knowledge of what is involved.