A shorter day of 12.4 miles: a gradual climb past As Seixas to the wind-farm ridge of the Alto do Careón at 2,329 ft, then a long descent on quiet lanes to Melide. In Melide the Primitivo joins the Camino Francés, and the character of the walk changes: from here you share paths, bars and beds with walkers coming from Sarria. Beds are plentiful, but there are none for the last 8.1 miles after Casacamiño.
Alto do Careón, 2,329 ft, mile 6No beds for 8.1 miles after CasacamiñoJoins the Camino Francés in MelidePulpo at Ezequiel or A Garnacha
Distance
12.4 miles20 km
Climbing
1,050 ft up1,330 ft down
High point
2,330 ftLow point 1,490 ft
Walking time
4.5 to 5 hours
Difficulty
Moderate
Beds in Melide
25 placesPlenty
Map of the stage
Places to stay in Melide
Look out for
The walk12Places to stay: green for dorms, blue for roomsASightsVillages on the wayDashed ring: position approximate
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.
Where to sleep in Melide
25 places · Plenty
Gronze lists 11 albergues with about 490 dorm beds, 11 pensiones and three hotels (October 2026), so there is plenty of choice, but you share it with walkers on the Francés. Melide's hotels are modest; Hotel Lux Melide is the most comfortable.
Public albergue · dormPilgrims onlyOpen all year
Albergue de peregrinos de Melide
The Xunta albergue, a newer building in the old town with dorms of 4 to 56 beds, kitchen without utensils, washer and dryer.
Beds
140 dorm beds in six dorms
Price
Dorm €10
Season
All year; check-in 13:00
Where
On the route as you leave town on the Francés, Rúa San Antonio
A small pensión of five rooms, one adapted for limited mobility, on the Praza da Constitución in the centre. Gronze lists it as Pensión Praza das Coles.
Probably the most comfortable bed in town: a central three-star hotel with lift, air conditioning, buffet breakfast and parking, rated 9.4 by Booking.com guests in October 2026. Good for a rest-day night.
Beds
35 rooms and a studio for four
Where
Central and on the route, Rúa Cantón de San Roque 5
A 37-room hotel with its own restaurant serving Galician food, including pulpo, plus lift and air conditioning. Its website offers 10% off for booking direct.
Beds
37 rooms
Where
At the Francés entrance to town, Avenida de Lugo 119, 220 yards from the route
ModerateAt 12.4 miles and about 1,050 ft of climbing it sits on the line between Easy and Moderate; the steady climb to the Careón tips it to Moderate.
Guides' own ratings: Eroski: media (San Román to Melide); Gronze: 2
Underfoot. Mostly quiet asphalt lanes, with dirt and stony tracks between As Seixas and the Careón.
From the bridge a track climbs to the LU-231, which the route follows for about 1.2 miles, with a short loop through A Leboreira. It then leaves the road for a rural lane past Merlán to As Seixas at mile 3.5, where the Xunta albergue is 110 yards off the route. A dirt track climbs for 0.8 miles to Casacamiño, then a stony track crosses a low rise with good views and drops to Hospital das Seixas, which has a shaded rest area and a fountain at its far end. A quiet asphalt road then climbs to the Alto do Careón (2,329 ft), the pass among wind turbines that marks the border between Lugo and A Coruña provinces. The far side is a long, easy descent on a quiet road, then a turn left down to Vilouriz and a track across meadows to Vilamor. The last 4 miles or so are on local roads through more built-up country, crossing the Furelos, to a junction where you turn left into Melide; in the town centre the Primitivo merges with the Camino Francés.
Good to know
Fog is common on the Careón ridge and can make the waymarks hard to follow.
Casa Goriños in As Seixas is closed on Thursdays, according to Gronze.
After Casacamiño there are no beds for 8.1 miles, until Melide.
Melide's Xunta albergue (140 beds) takes no bookings and is shared with everyone on the Francés; book a private place if you want certainty in summer.
From Melide on, expect far more walkers than on the Primitivo, on the paths and in the bars.
Along the way
Mile 1.4
A Leboreira
Small albergue opened in 2025; no bar or shop
Mile 3.5
As Seixas
Xunta albergue, two private albergues, bar Casa Goriños (closed Thursdays)
Melide sits near the geographic centre of Galicia, and the Primitivo joins the Camino Francés here, about 33 miles from Santiago. The change is sudden: A Ponte Ferreira has five places to stay, Melide has 25 with about 490 dorm beds, and its Xunta albergue alone has 140. Many of the new faces started in Sarria, the most popular starting point, two or three days back.
Pulpo á feira
Melide is known across Galicia for pulpo á feira: octopus boiled, cut into rounds with scissors and served on a wooden plate with olive oil, coarse salt and paprika, usually with bread and Ribeiro wine. Gronze and Eroski both name the pulperías Ezequiel and A Garnacha. The town's other speciality is pastries: ricos, butter biscuits, and melindres, glazed rings.
San Pedro and the oldest cruceiro
Melide's Romanesque church of San Pedro was taken down and its doorway rebuilt at the Campo de San Roque as the chapel of San Roque. Beside it stands a 14th-century stone cross, a cruceiro, which Eroski and Gronze describe as the oldest, or one of the oldest, in Galicia.
Hospital das Seixas
The hamlet below the Careón is named for a medieval pilgrim hospital; the historian Ricardo Polín attributes it to the Knights Hospitaller, the Order of St John.
Look out for
Mile 5.2
Hospital das Seixas. Last hamlet in Lugo province, with a fountain and a shaded rest area at its far end before the climb to the pass.
Mile 5.9
Alto do Careón. The pass at 2,329 ft among wind turbines, on the border between Lugo and A Coruña provinces, with wide views in clear weather.
Mile 12.1
Sancti Spiritus. Primitivo pilgrims traditionally entered Melide by the monastery-hospital of Sancti Spiritus, which now houses the Museo da Terra de Melide.
Mile 12.4
San Roque and its cruceiro. The chapel of San Roque, built with the doorway of the old church of San Pedro, and the 14th-century cross beside it, in the centre on the Francés.
Mile 12.4
Pulpo. Ezequiel and A Garnacha are the pulperías the guides name; octopus with bread and a bowl of Ribeiro is the classic Melide meal.
What couldn't be confirmed, and where sources disagree
Climbing: Gronze's two figures, 1,050 ft and 1,330 ft, aren't labelled. They're read as up and down, which fits A Ponte Ferreira at about 1,770 ft and Melide at about 1,490 ft. Melide is taken as the low point, though the Furelos crossing before town may be a little lower.
Estimates: the distances to Hospital das Seixas, the Alto do Careón, Vilamor and Irago de Arriba are worked out from Senditur's and Eroski's times and distances.
Melide: Gronze listed 26 places in October 2026, counting Apartamentos O Lagar. The total of about 490 dorm beds wasn't recounted.
Alfonso II El Casto: Gronze gives 1 April to 20 December; its own website, dated May 2026, says Easter to October.
Hotel Lux Melide: its old website, luxmelide.net, now redirects to an unrelated site, and its three stars come from Gronze and a guest review. Gronze gives no prices for Melide's three hotels; lastminute.com showed Lux Melide from $72.
San Pedro: Gronze describes a San Pedro church with medieval paintings of Santiago as a warrior. That seems to be a different building from the old San Pedro whose doorway became the San Roque chapel; the history here follows 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.