Camino Primitivo · Stage 12 of 14
A short day of 8.8 miles on the Camino Francés, through oak, pine and eucalyptus woods with constant short climbs and drops across stream valleys. Expect company: this stretch carries everyone walking from Sarria. Boente, A Fraga Alta and Ribadiso all have beds and bars, and Ribadiso's riverside Xunta albergue, 1.9 miles before Arzúa, is a quieter alternative to the town.
The line is the waymarked route as OpenStreetMap has it. Places to stay are where Gronze or their own websites put them. Tap a marker for details; the numbers and letters match the cards and the lists below.
Gronze lists 18 albergues and hostels, ten pensiones and casas rurales and three hotels in October 2026, plus four apartment lets and a campsite. Plenty of beds, but they serve both the Francés and the Norte.
The Xunta albergue, in a restored stone house that was once the Augustinian hospital, central and on the route.
Confirmed October 2026 · Where these details come from
A newer albergue (2020) with partitions between bunks, cloth linen and towels, lockers and a garden.
Confirmed October 2026 · Where these details come from
A big, functional modern albergue on three floors with a lift and its own bar-restaurant.
Confirmed October 2026 · Where these details come from
A central pensión of eight rooms at moderate prices.
Confirmed October 2026 · Where these details come from
One of the dearer pensiones in town, nine rooms in the centre.
Confirmed October 2026 · Where these details come from
A small three-star boutique hotel of 14 rooms in the centre: the comfortable choice for a rest-day night. Gronze gives no prices.
Confirmed October 2026 · Where these details come from
A 26-room hotel on the route as you arrive, with single, double and family rooms, air conditioning and a buffet breakfast. Gronze gives no prices.
Confirmed October 2026 · Where these details come from
Before and after the stop, with the distance from it.
1.9 miles before Arzúa
At Ribadiso de Baixo, on the route 1.9 miles before Arzúa
The Xunta albergue in the restored 15th-century hospital of San Antón, by the medieval bridge over the Iso: a quieter night than Arzúa. Bathrooms are in an annex.
Confirmed October 2026 · Where these details come from
Guides' own ratings: Eroski: media (for the full Palas de Rei to Arzúa stage)
Underfoot. Mostly forest and farm tracks, with paved lanes around A Fraga Alta and a final stretch on pavements beside the main road.
Leave Melide's central roundabout by the narrow Rúa de San Pedro, cross the N-547 and pass the 12th-century church of Santa María de Melide. The path then runs through oak, pine and eucalyptus woods with repeated short climbs and drops. Soon after Santa María the route splits: the traditional line crosses the Catasol stream on stepping stones, while a waymarked option 220 yards longer crosses beside a mill; both meet again at Parabispo. After the Valverde stream and A Peroxa you reach Boente at mile 3.5, then pass under the N-547 and climb steeply to A Fraga Alta, where another short split rejoins at the O Río rest area. A bridge over the N-547 leads down into the valley of the Iso to Ribadiso de Baixo, with its medieval bridge and old pilgrim hospital. The last 1.9 miles climb steadily, pass under the N-547 in a tunnel and follow a street beside the main road into Arzúa, where the route goes through the centre on Rúa Cima do Lugar.
Arzúa calls itself the land of cheese. Arzúa-Ulloa is a soft, mild cow's-milk cheese shaped like a flattened disc, protected by a designation of origin and made across central Galicia. The standard cheese ripens for at least six days and the curado, the aged version, for at least six months. The Festa do Queixo, the cheese festival, fills the town on the first Sunday of March and has run since the mid-1970s.
Ribadiso de Baixo is a cluster of stone buildings around a medieval bridge over the Iso. The 15th-century pilgrim hospital of San Antón beside it was restored by the Xunta as a public albergue, which still takes pilgrims today.
Boente's church of Santiago keeps a Romanesque window and two capitals; the rest is later, and inside is a figure of Santiago as a pilgrim. Just beyond, around Castañeda, stood the lime kilns where medieval pilgrims left stones carried from Triacastela, to be burned into lime.
Arzúa is where the Camino del Norte, coming from Irún along the coast, meets the Francés. The 14th-century Augustinian convent of the Magdalena sheltered poor pilgrims; its chapel survives, and the Xunta albergue occupies a stone house that was once an Augustinian hospital.
Distance: Gronze's route text and Pilgrim.es give 8.8 miles, the figure used here; Eroski gives 8.7 miles on its Francés stage and 8.8 on its Primitivo stage.
Climbing: neither Gronze nor Eroski gives a figure for this section. The 910 ft of climbing is from a GPS record of a 2022 walk, on inalto.org. Its other heights don't add up (it puts the finish at 1,000 ft, and Arzúa is higher), so no descent or high and low points are given.
Arzúa: Albergue Cruce de Caminos and Hostel Cruce de Caminos Arzúa may be one business listed twice on Gronze.
Boente: Gronze listed four places in October 2026, including Casa en Camino de Santiago, a whole house at €100 to €135.
Pensión La Casona de Nené: it shares the phone +34 670 784 787 with 1930 Boutique Hotel, so the two may have the same owners. The hotel's details are from Gronze alone, which gives no price.
Cheese festival: Eroski says it has been held since 1975; Spanish Wikipedia says since 1976.
Lime kilns: the kilns and the stones from Triacastela come only from Eroski.
Confirmed October 2026. Each place to stay shows when its own details were confirmed. Phone numbers, prices and opening seasons change from year to year, so confirm them before you rely on them.