A shorter day than the first but a hilly one: it opens with a climb of about 1,000 ft in 3.1 miles to the Alto del Fresno, drops steeply to the Narcea valley at Cornellana, then climbs again up the Nonaya valley to Salas. Cornellana, 6.6 miles in, is the only village with full services; after it there's just a petrol-station bar at Casazorrina. Salas has eight places and about 94 dorm beds, but only one says it is open all year.
1,000 ft climb to the Alto del FresnoFirst bar at Doriga, mile 4.8Cornellana monastery, mile 6.6After Cornellana, only Casazorrina for 7 milesSalas old town and Valdés tomb
Distance
13.9 miles22.3 km
Climbing
2,120 ft up1,540 ft down
High point
1,200 ftLow point 160 ft
Walking time
5 to 6 hours
Difficulty
Moderate
Beds in Salas
8 placesPlenty
Map of the stage
Places to stay in Salas
Nearby, if Salas is full
Look out for
The walk12Places to stay: green for dorms, blue for rooms3Other places to stayASightsVillages 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 Salas
8 places · Plenty
Five albergues with 94 dorm beds and three hotels. Only Villa de Salas says it is open all year: the municipal albergue is closed from December to March, Valle del Nonaya and Cielito Lindo close in October, and Casa Sueño's albergue on 21 December.
Public albergue · dormPilgrims only
Albergue municipal de peregrinos de Salas
Municipal albergue opened in 2010, at the town entrance. It issues credentials free.
Beds
16 dorm beds in two dorms
Price
Dorm €9
Season
1 April to 30 November
Where
At the entrance to town, 160 yards from the route, at Urbanización La Veiga 8
Meals
Microwave; washer and dryer; no kitchen listed
Booking
No reservations: first come, first served; check-in 12:00 to 20:00, doors close 22:00
Private albergue on the church square. The dorm is on the ground floor, with good mattresses, lockers and reading lights; the doubles upstairs share a bathroom and a small kitchen-dining room. Self-service breakfast from 06:00 and a massage service.
Beds
20 dorm beds in one dorm and three private rooms
Price
Dorm with breakfast €16; double €53 (2026)
Season
1 April to 15 October
Where
In the centre, on the route, on the church square at Calle Arzobispo Valdés 5
Meals
Breakfast included; meals and dinner to order; picnics; kitchen; washer and dryer
Booking
Phone, email or Booking.com; check-in 13:30 to 20:00
Modern albergue in the same building as the Hotel Casa Sueño, known for its communal dinner with vegetarian options. Well placed for an early start on the next stage.
Opened in 2024 at the town entrance, with a bar-café; the only place in Salas that says it is open all year. Gronze also lists a private room at €60 for four people and €90 for six.
Beds
16 dorm beds in three dorms and one private room
Price
Dorm €15; double €60
Season
Open all year
Where
At the entrance to town, 110 yards from the route, at Plaza Veiga del Rey 32
Two-star hotel with a restaurant in the 16th-century palace of the Valdés Salas family, joined to the medieval tower. Breakfast is included; ask for the pilgrim price. A second phone is +34 722 467 033.
Three-star hotel in a low-energy Passivhaus building, with 10 rooms with their own bathrooms, mountain views, a lounge with a wood fire and a garden. The best private room in Salas; free cancellation up to seven days before.
Beds
10 rooms
Price
Single €52; double €67; triple €100
Where
On the route at the way out of town, 550 yards from the centre, at Calle Ondinas 19
Before and after the stop, with the distance from it.
Public albergue · dormPilgrims only
Albergue de peregrinos de San Juan de Villapañada
11.7 miles before Salas, then 0.5 miles off the route
Behind the church at the end of the hamlet, 870 yards off the route on a signed turn; 2.2 miles past Grado
Municipal albergue in a hamlet with no bar or shop; staying here after Grado gets half the next morning's climb done. The host, Domingo, knows the Primitivo well. A second phone is +34 985 750 068. If it is full, Gronze suggests going on to Cabruñana.
Beds
20 dorm beds in one dorm
Price
Dorm €7.50
Season
1 March to 31 October
Meals
Kitchen with only basic supplies, so bring food from Grado; washer and dryer
Booking
No reservations: first come, first served; check-in 15:00; sleeping bag required
10.8 miles before Salas, then 1.1 miles off the route
At the Alto del Fresno, 3.1 miles into the stage, take the road right towards Cabruñana; the albergue is 1.1 miles off the route
Municipal albergue off the route, open all year and taking bookings. Next morning you can rejoin the Camino below Doriga instead of climbing back to the pass.
Beds
18 dorm beds in one dorm
Price
Dorm €7.50
Season
Open all year
Meals
Kitchen; the albergue sells some dishes and drinks; bring food to cook
On the route beside the church at Doriga, 4.8 miles into the stage and 9.1 miles before Salas
A dorm in a small wooden hut beside Doriga's village bar, which serves breakfast and set menus. Not an official albergue; confirm opening in low season.
In the monastery at Cornellana, entered by the alley on its right (west) side; 6.6 miles into the stage and 7.2 miles before Salas
Municipal albergue inside the old monastery, run by the Salas en el Camino association. Building work on the monastery in 2026 does not affect it, according to Gronze. A second phone is +34 985 834 262.
Beds
31 dorm beds in four dorms
Price
Dorm €9
Season
Open all year
Meals
Kitchen with microwave and fridge; washer and dryer by donation; bars and shops in the village
Booking
No reservations: first come, first served; check-in from 14:00 (until 19:00 from November to March)
Beside the route in Casazorrina, 11.9 miles into the stage and 1.9 miles before Salas
Private albergue with a bar beside the route, the last beds before Salas. Dinner has a vegetarian option and there are picnics to take away. A second phone is +34 649 643 231.
Beds
21 dorm beds in four dorms and four private rooms
Price
Dorm €15 to €20 depending on season; double €65; room for four €80; dinner €17; breakfast €8
Season
1 April to 14 October
Meals
Bar-café; dinner €17 with a vegetarian option; breakfast €8; picnics
ModerateAt 13.9 miles with about 2,100 ft of climbing it is moderate on both counts, though the opening climb is steep and the descents after the Alto del Fresno and Doriga are slippery when wet.
Guides' own ratings: Gronze: 2; Eroski: media (for its stage from San Juan de Villapañada, 12.6 miles); Senditur: moderada
Underfoot. Steep concrete and asphalt lanes on the first climb, then forest paths, farm tracks and short road sections beside the N-634 and the A-63 motorway, with some muddy, stony descents.
You cross most of Grado on streets, turn off just past a small petrol station and climb a steep concrete lane whose gradient slowly eases. The climb continues on asphalt past the signed turn for San Juan de Villapañada's albergue, 2.2 miles in, to the Alto del Fresno, where the sanctuary of Nuestra Señora del Fresno stands on the hill to the right. A steep descent beside the A-63 motorway passes the fountain and bridge of La Meredal to Doriga, then the route follows the AS-15 road along the Narcea valley and crosses the river into Cornellana and its monastery. Behind the monastery a steady climb on a lane gives views back over the valley, past Sobrerriba and along wooded hillsides, skirting a quarry. After the church of Santiago de Villazón and a stone bridge over the Nonaya you reach Casazorrina, then pass under the motorway and the N-634 and finish on a wooded track and the AS-226 into Salas. Gronze is blunt about the motorway, which it says has done lasting damage to this stretch.
Good to know
Eat before you leave Grado: the first bar, Cá Pacita at Doriga, opens at 10:00 or later and its hours are irregular, so phone +34 684 613 861 if you're counting on it.
Buy food in Cornellana; after it the only stop is the petrol-station bar and shop at Casazorrina, on the far side of the N-634, so cross with care.
The descent from Doriga to the N-634 is short but overgrown and slippery, especially after rain.
Just after the Narcea bridge, a riverside path on the left goes straight to the monastery and saves about 220 yards; the official route follows the road past the shops.
Senditur warns of wasps, the odd aggressive dog and hunters in the hunting season on this stage.
The municipal albergues in Salas and Cornellana both issue credentials.
Fitter walkers can carry on to the donation albergue at Bodenaya, 4.4 miles past Salas, but it has only 10 beds and takes bookings, so reserve ahead.
Along the way
Mile 2.2
San Juan de Villapañada turn
Albergue 870 yards off the route; no bar or shop
Mile 4.8
Doriga
Bar Cá Pacita with meals and bunks; opens at 10:00 or later
Mile 6.6
Cornellana
Bars, restaurants, shops, bakeries and the monastery albergue
The Infanta Cristina founded the monastery of San Salvador in 1024, and in 1122 Count Suero Bermúdez gave it to the French abbey of Cluny, which made it one of the most important monasteries in Asturias. Its Romanesque apses and a portal survive; the façade and cloister are 18th-century Baroque. It closed in 1835, when church lands were sold off, and building work was under way in 2026. Local tradition says the monks rang the bells when the first salmon of the year came up the Narcea, which is why the season's first salmon is still called the 'campanu'.
Salas and the Inquisitor
Salas was the seat of the Valdés family. Fernando de Valdés Salas (1483 to 1568), born here, became archbishop of Seville and Inquisitor General, issued Spain's 1559 index of banned books and left the bequest that founded the University of Oviedo. His alabaster tomb, carved by the Italian sculptor Pompeo Leoni between 1576 and 1582, is in the collegiate church of Santa María la Mayor, which the family built in the first half of the 16th century.
Tower and palace
The 14th-century tower, much rebuilt, is joined by an arch to the 16th-century Valdés Salas palace, built around an arcaded courtyard, which now houses a hotel, a cultural centre and the tourist office. The tower holds a small museum with carved stones from the 10th-century church of San Martín.
Look out for
Mile 3.1
Sanctuary of El Fresno. The 16th to 17th-century hilltop shrine to the right of the pass has wide views; Eroski says it is spectacular at dawn.
Mile 4.8
Doriga. The village has the church of Santa Eulalia, said to have been consecrated in the 12th century, and the Palacio de Doriga, built between the 14th and 16th centuries and protected as a heritage monument.
Mile 5.3
Salmon centre. Casa del Río, an interpretation centre about the Narcea's salmon, is on the road into Cornellana. Distance approximate.
Mile 6.6
Cornellana bakeries. Look for bollos preñaos, bread rolls baked around chorizo, and the apple and octopus empanadas at Pastelería Casino; salmon is on most menus in season.
Mile 10.9
Santiago de Villazón. A small church and fountain at Quintana, just before the old stone bridge over the Nonaya. Distance approximate.
Mile 13.9
Eating in Salas. Casa Pachón is a pilgrim favourite for its huge set menu; buy carajitos del profesor, hazelnut, sugar and egg-white biscuits that travel well, at the original shop at Avenida Galicia 21.
Mile 13.9
The yew of San Martín. In the cemetery of San Martín de Salas stands a yew about 49 ft tall with a trunk about 20 ft round.
What couldn't be confirmed, and where sources disagree
Climbing: Senditur's GPS log gives 13.9 miles, 2,550 ft up and 1,970 ft down, more than Gronze's 2,120 ft and 1,540 ft.
Alto del Fresno: Gronze's route notes put it about 2.6 miles in, but Gronze also gives the climb as about 980 ft over 3.1 miles, the figure used here.
Distances: those given for Llamas and Santiago de Villazón are converted from Eroski's figures and are approximate.
Doriga: Gronze lists 12 beds at Cá Pacita, in a wooden hut by the bar, at €15 and open all year. Eroski says about 16 beds.
Cabruñana: Gronze says there are no shops or restaurants nearby, but Eroski mentions a bar-restaurant at the foot of the albergue.
Salas municipal albergue: an older Eroski note says the keys are collected at Restaurante Menéndez on the Plaza de la Veiga. Gronze (2026) gives check-in 12:00 to 20:00 with a manager on site.
Valle del Nonaya: Gronze lists no kitchen, but the albergue's own website lists one, with an induction hob. The website also says the private rooms share a bathroom.
Hotel Castillo Valdés Salas: Gronze links the Booking.com listing castillo-valdes-salas, but a second listing seems to exist at castillo-de-valdes-salas. Check which one takes bookings.
Hotel Soto: Gronze's prices (single from €20, double from €30) look out of date. No website, email or season could be found.
Cielito Lindo: Gronze notes new management in 2025. Its website didn't load in October 2026.
Hotel Casa Sueño: its meals are assumed to be the albergue's, which Gronze lists with a bar-restaurant.
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.