The last day: forest tracks for 4 miles, then the airport, Lavacolla and a climb on asphalt to Monte do Gozo, where the cathedral towers come into view, and nearly 3 miles of city streets to Praza do Obradoiro. Leave early if you want the noon Pilgrims' Mass, which from 16 October 2026 is held at the church of San Agustín while the cathedral's main chapel is under works. Beds are not short: Gronze lists 40 places, and the city has many more.
First view of the towers from Monte do Gozo, mile 9.3Pilgrims' Masses at San Agustín from 16 October 2026Botafumeiro out of service since August 2026Pre-register online with the Pilgrim Office
Distance
12.1 miles19.4 km
Climbing
1,040 ft up1,130 ft down
High point
1,350 ftLow point 830 ft
Walking time
4 to 5 hours
Difficulty
Easy
Beds in Santiago de Compostela
40 placesPlenty
Map of the stage
Places to stay in Santiago de Compostela
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 Santiago de Compostela
40 places · Plenty
Gronze lists 40 places, a selection of what the city has, so beds are rarely short. San Lázaro is on the Camino 2 miles out; the Seminario Menor, the private albergues of the old town and its hotels, from the Parador down, are the usual choices.
Public albergue · dormPilgrims onlyOpen all year
Residencia de peregrinos San Lázaro
Xunta residence on the Camino as you enter the city, 2 miles before the cathedral, with a garden terrace; you can stay up to three nights. The toilets and showers are outside the dormitories, and city bus 6 runs to the old town.
Beds
80 dorm beds in six dormitories of 12 to 16
Price
Dorm €10
Season
Open all year
Where
Rúa da Vesada 2, San Lázaro, on the Camino 2 miles before the cathedral
Meals
Kitchen and dining room; no meals
Booking
Gronze and other guides say it takes reservations, by phone; check-in from 13:00
The city's oldest and largest pilgrim albergue, in part of the archdiocese's seminary on the edge of the old town, about 15 minutes' walk from the cathedral, with a garden, a small cafeteria and a shop. Dormitories hold 7 to 29 in low beds, and its 81 private rooms are the cheapest rooms near the centre.
Beds
169 dorm beds in 16 dormitories, and 81 single, double and triple rooms
Price
Dorm €20 to €25; single €25 to €30; double €50 to €59; triple €72 to €84; breakfast €5
Season
Open all year
Where
Avenida Quiroga Palacios 2, 0.6 miles from the cathedral
Meals
Breakfast €5; kitchen; small cafeteria and shop
Booking
Booking.com, phone or email; check-in 14:00 to 00:30
Private albergue in a restored five-storey building with a lift, in the old town 110 yards from the cathedral. Some dormitories have double beds behind a sliding door, and reception is staffed around the clock.
Beds
62 dorm beds in eight dormitories of 2 to 12, and one room for four
Price
Dorm from €22; double bed behind a sliding door from €44; room for four from €120
Season
1 March to 14 December
Where
Rúa do Preguntoiro 10, old town, 110 yards from the cathedral
Meals
Kitchen; no meals
Booking
Booking.com, its own website or email; check-in 14:00 to 23:00
A guesthouse in the vast Benedictine monastery of San Martín Pinario, across the square from the cathedral's north side, which has taken in pilgrims since the late 16th century. Simple rooms at pilgrim rates, with meals available.
Beds
183 rooms
Price
Pilgrim rates €35 to €56; pilgrim double with breakfast €56; lunch or dinner €16
Where
Praza da Inmaculada 3, old town, beside the cathedral
Meals
Breakfast included in the pilgrim double; lunch or dinner €16
Five-star Parador on Praza do Obradoiro, in the royal hospital for pilgrims that the Catholic Monarchs funded in 1499, built round four cloisters and a hotel since 1954. The splurge for a rest-day night; it still gives a free meal to the first pilgrims each day who show their Compostela.
Beds
137 rooms
Where
Praza do Obradoiro 1, beside the cathedral
Meals
Breakfast included, Gronze says
Booking
Parador website, Booking.com or phone; Gronze suggests asking about pilgrim rates
Four-star hotel in the 18th-century Franciscan convent, where friars still live, 270 yards from the cathedral. Rooms vary with the old building, and there's an indoor pool with a jacuzzi, good for a rest day.
Beds
82 rooms
Where
Campillo de San Francisco 3, old town, 270 yards from the cathedral
Small three-star hotel just off Praza da Quintana, behind the cathedral, with attic doubles that look onto it. No car access; continental breakfast is €10 if not included.
Beds
26 rooms
Where
Rúa da Conga 9, old town, 160 yards from the cathedral
Meals
Continental breakfast 7:00 to 12:00, €10 if not included
EasyEasy: 12 miles and about 1,040 ft of climbing on tracks, quiet roads and pavements, with services all the way; the climb to Monte do Gozo is the only sustained effort.
Guides' own ratings: Eroski: media
Underfoot. Forest tracks for the first 4 miles, then mostly asphalt lanes and roadside paths past the airport and up to Monte do Gozo, and the last 2.7 miles on city pavements.
From the centre of O Pedrouzo, take Rúa do Concello past the town hall and turn left at the sports ground onto a forest track. The first 4 miles are the last real woodland of the Camino, eucalyptus with one last oak grove, through San Antón and Amenal, then a climb to Cimadevila. The path then loops round the end of the airport runway, past the stone marking the start of Santiago's municipality, and drops to San Paio and Lavacolla (mile 5.9), where it crosses the busy N-634. A climb on asphalt through Vilamaior passes the Galician and Spanish television transmitter stations to San Marcos and Monte do Gozo (mile 9.3), where the towers come into view. A long, steep descent on a ramp and bridges over the motorway, railway and ring road lead into San Lázaro and 2.7 miles of city streets: Rúa do Valiño, Fontiñas and Concheiros, across Avenida de Lugo, then Rúa de San Pedro to the old town at the site of the Porta do Camiño. Through Casas Reais, Praza de Cervantes and Acibechería you come down under the arch of the archbishop's palace into Praza do Obradoiro.
Good to know
To leave O Pedrouzo from the centre, take Rúa do Concello past the town hall and turn left at the sports ground; there's no need to walk back to the junction where you left the Camino.
Pre-register online before you arrive, with the single-pilgrim form on oficinadelperegrino.com; at the office you take a numbered ticket with a QR code that lets you follow the queue on your phone.
The Pilgrim Office is at Rúa das Carretas 33, a few minutes from the cathedral, and is open every day from 9:00 to 19:00 except 25 December and 1 January (October 2026); in busy periods it can't promise the Compostela on the same day.
The Compostela is free and needs the last 100 km (62 miles) on foot on one route, with two dated stamps a day; a certificate of distance, with your starting point and the distance walked, costs €3.
From Friday 16 October 2026, until further notice, works on the cathedral's main chapel move the 9:30, 12:00 and 19:30 Pilgrims' Masses to the nearby church of San Agustín, and the 7:30 Mass to the cathedral's Communion chapel; the cathedral stays open for visits from 7:00 to 21:00.
A Mass in English is held at 10:30 in the Pilgrim Office chapel every day except Wednesday (cathedral website, October 2026).
The botafumeiro has been out of service since late August 2026 because of restoration work on the dome, and the cathedral has given no date for its return.
Backpacks aren't allowed in the cathedral: Correos runs a left-luggage office at Rúa do Franco 4, two minutes away, at €4 a day for a backpack, open daily 8:30 to 20:30 until 30 November 2026, then 10:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on holidays.
Santiago airport (Rosalía de Castro, still called Lavacolla) is 7.5 miles from the centre; city bus 6A runs there from Praza de Galicia for €1, paid on board, and a taxi costs about €23.
The train station on Rúa do Hórreo is about 1.1 miles from the cathedral; high-speed trains reach Madrid in about 3.5 hours, and regional trains run to A Coruña and Vigo about hourly.
2027 is a Holy Year: the cathedral opens the Holy Door at 17:00 on 31 December 2026.
Along the way
Mile 2.1
Amenal
Hotel and two pensiones
Mile 4.5
San Paio
Bar, guesthouse
Mile 5.9
Lavacolla
Bars and restaurants, shop, pharmacy, albergues, pensiones and hotels
Mile 6.7
Vilamaior
Albergue, May to September
Mile 9.0
San Marcos
Bar, shop, hotel
Mile 9.3
Monte do Gozo
Two large albergues, hotel, bar, shop, cash machine
Mile 10.4
San Lázaro
Xunta pilgrim residence; city bus 6 to the old town
Tradition says a hermit, Pelagius, found the apostle's tomb in about 814 after seeing lights over the forest, and King Alfonso II built a chapel over it. The present Romanesque cathedral was begun in 1075 and consecrated in 1211; its baroque Obradoiro front, by Fernando de Casas Novoa, was finished in 1740. The relics, hidden in 1589 for fear of English raids, were found again in 1879 and lie in the crypt below the high altar.
Pórtico da Gloria
Master Mateo's workshop carved the triple portal that now stands behind the Obradoiro front; the date 1188 is cut on its lintel, and the whole work was finished for the consecration in 1211. Christ in Majesty fills the central tympanum, with St James on the column below. Visits are by timed ticket, booked through the cathedral's website.
The botafumeiro
The great censer first appears in the 12th-century Codex Calixtinus as the 'turibulum magnum'. The one in use, a brass censer about 5 feet tall made by José Losada in 1851, is swung across the transept on a rope by eight red-robed men, the tiraboleiros. It flies at a dozen solemn feasts a year and when a group pays for it, but it has been out of service since late August 2026 while the dome is restored.
Monte do Gozo
The Mount of Joy, a hill of about 1,210 ft, is where pilgrims first saw the cathedral towers; Archbishop Diego Gelmírez had a chapel built on it in 1105. The hilltop was reworked for Pope John Paul II's visit for World Youth Day in 1989, and for the 1993 Holy Year it became a complex of albergues and other buildings.
Lavacolla
Medieval pilgrims stopped at the stream at Lavacolla to wash before entering the city, so as not to arrive dirty. One theory takes the village's name from that washing; another says the name is older than the pilgrimage.
Look out for
Mile 0.6
The last oak grove. Between San Antón and Amenal the path crosses the last carballeira, or oak grove, on the Camino, between eucalyptus plantations.
Mile 3.9
Round the airport. A stone marker with pilgrim symbols marks the start of Santiago's municipality; the path then loops round the end of the runway, which once cut the Camino.
Mile 5.9
Lavacolla. The Camino skirts the church, with restaurants in the square below its steps, then crosses the busy N-634. Stalls here sell wax seals to decorate your credential.
Mile 9.3
First sight of the towers. Gronze says the large monument that crowned Monte do Gozo's nearer hill has gone; for the classic photo, walk to the southern hill, with its two statues of pilgrims by the sculptor Acuña.
Mile 9.4
Steep descent. The ramp down from Monte do Gozo is long and steep, hard on tired knees, before the bridges over the motorway, railway and ring road.
Mile 11.5
Porta do Camiño. Rúa de San Pedro ends at the site of the Porta do Camiño, the medieval gate by which pilgrims entered the walled city.
Mile 12.1
Into the cathedral. In an ordinary year you enter by the Praterías door on the south side; the Holy Door on Praza da Quintana opens on 31 December 2026 for the 2027 Holy Year.
What couldn't be confirmed, and where sources disagree
Pilgrims' Mass: the cathedral's notice of 17 September 2026 says that from 16 October 2026, until further notice, the 9:30, 12:00 and 19:30 Masses are at San Agustín and the 7:30 Mass in the Communion chapel, during work on the main chapel's wooden platform. Cathedral visits continue 7:00 to 21:00. Nothing was found on whether the hug of the Apostle (Gronze gives 11:00 to 19:00) or the crypt (7:00 to 20:30) is affected.
Botafumeiro: the cathedral's liturgy page says restoration work has put it out of action, and gives no dates. The city's site, santiago.es, says it stopped on 24 August 2026 because scaffolding for restoring the dome blocks its mechanism, and that the cathedral said on 5 September it was still out of service. A cathedral email passed on in a June 2026 forum post said it would be out from mid-August until further notice; Gronze says from September 2026. Sources give its weight as 53 kg (the cathedral), 62 kg (santiago.es), 60 kg (Gronze) and 80 kg (English Wikipedia).
Pilgrim Office: official hours are 9:00 to 19:00 daily, closed 25 December and 1 January; Eroski's page still says 10:00 to 18:00. That the Compostela is free comes from Eroski and older forum posts; the official page gives no price.
Lavacolla: the name the 12th-century Codex Calixtinus gives it couldn't be confirmed from a source, so it isn't given here.
Monte do Gozo: Gronze's stage notes say the large monument on the nearer hill has gone, but its page for the place still mentions climbing to the monument for Pope John Paul II's visit; which is right couldn't be confirmed.
San Lázaro: Gronze says it takes reservations, and alberguescaminosantiago.com (updated 2 August 2026) says to phone +34 626 925 625 or +34 981 571 488. The Xunta's page doesn't mention booking, and a February 2025 Gronze article says Xunta albergues don't normally take reservations. Booking online through caminodesantiago.gal couldn't be confirmed. Gronze also lists a Hotel San Lázaro, 1.2 miles from the cathedral.
Parador: no prices could be found. The free meal for the first pilgrims each day is from the Pilgrim Office page; Wikipedia (2022) says the first ten, at three meals a day.
San Francisco Hotel Monumento: its site shows no prices.
Getting home: Aena confirms airport bus line 6A (Tralusa, Tussa network); the €1 fare couldn't be checked with Tussa and comes from a 2026 conference page and sources from 2022 to 2024. The train time to Madrid, about 3.5 hours, is from the same conference page; Santiago Turismo's train page is out of date. The station distance is an estimate from Gronze, which puts Albergue La Estación 1.1 miles from the cathedral and about 110 yards from the station.
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.