The Camino del Norte: 39 stages, and why the coastal route climbs the most

By August Frederik Kramer, who has walked the Camino twice · Last updated 18 September 2026

On the map, the Camino del Norte is the flat one. It follows the Bay of Biscay for 639.9 km of its 831.6, it never climbs above 708 m, and the passes people fear on the Camino Francés are a long way to the south. Measured along the track, it climbs 14,663 m between Irún and Santiago. That is more than any of the ten routes on this site: 4,217 m more than the Francés, which crosses the Pyrenees and the Montes de León on the way, and 2,939 m more than the Vía de la Plata, which is 163.0 km longer.

The reason is in the last column of the stage table below, the lowest point of each day. 30 of the 39 stages come within 20 m of sea level. A coastline is a series of river mouths and headlands, and the route goes down to the water at each one and climbs out again, day after day, for 30 days in a row. Nothing on the Norte is high. Almost all of it is up.

30 stages of coast, 9 of Galicia

From Irún to Ribadeo the route climbs 11,466 m over 639.9 km, which is 17.9 m for every kilometre walked, and in all that distance it never gets higher than 629 m, on day 27. Every one of those 30 stages touches the sea: the low point of each day in the table is the shore, and the climb is what comes after it.

At Ribadeo the route turns inland and changes character without changing its arithmetic. The remaining 191.7 km climb 3,182 m, 16.6 m per kilometre, nearly the same rate, but they do it once rather than daily: the route rises out of the ría, reaches the high point of the whole walk at 708 m on the stage into Sobrado, and from Abadín to Sobrado, 4 stages, never drops below 403 m. After Ribadeo no stage comes within 20 m of the sea again.

Two places on the route are shared with somebody else. At Villaviciosa, 459.2 km in on day 21, the Camino Primitivo turns off towards Oviedo; we hold no track for the link between the two, but the route it leads to has its own guide. And at Arzúa, 38.7 km from the cathedral, the Norte joins the Camino Francés and stays on it to Santiago: the last 5% of the walk is on the busiest route on the network.

The 39 stages, measured

Generated from the route itself rather than copied from a guidebook, and split where our stage planner picks: 39 days averaging 21.3 km. Two columns matter. Metres climbed per kilometre walked is what decides whether a day is hard, and the low point is where the day meets the water.

The biggest day of climbing is also the longest: day 6, Gernika-Lumo to Bilbao, 31.9 km and 836 m. The day before it, Etxebarria to Gernika-Lumo, drops 990 m, the biggest descent on the route, and descents are what damage feet: why is in our guide to the ten worst descents. The steepest day is neither of those. Day 26, La Magdalena to Aucinera, is only 15.5 km and climbs 643 m doing them, 41.5 m for every kilometre. Ranked against all 214 stages on this site, it is number 4, and the steepest of all of them is the Pyrenees crossing that opens the Francés, at 52.2.

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Not the hardest days, but the most of them

Per kilometre walked, the Norte climbs 17.6 m against 13.6 on the Francés. The Primitivo climbs 22.1 and is called the hardest route for it. The Norte’s first 6 days, Irún to Bilbao, climb 26.4 m per kilometre, which is steeper than the Primitivo as a whole, and they carry 27% of the route’s climbing in 18% of its distance. The Basque Country is the hard part, and it comes first, before your feet have hardened to anything.

The spread is the point. Take every stage on this site, 214 of them across ten routes, and call a day a climbing day when it gains 20 m or more for every kilometre. The Camino Francés has 3 such days out of 36, 8% of the route. The Norte has 15 out of 39, 38%. In the steepest tenth of the whole network, the top 21, it places 4 stages to the Francés’s 2.

So it is not a route of extremes, and the table above is honest about that: 3 routes are longer than 700 km, and of those the Norte has the lowest high point by a distance. It is a route where more than one day in three is a climbing day, on a coast where the word most people reach for is flat.

Vilalba, and the last 100 km

If you want the Compostela rather than the whole route, the town to start from is Vilalba. Our measurement puts it 119.3 km from the cathedral, 6 stages out, with room to spare. The closest stage boundary that still clears 100 km is A Silvosa, at 103.5 km: it is a hamlet on our plan rather than somewhere to travel to, and the margin is 3.5 km, which one detour can spend. Where the line falls on every other route is in our guide to the last 100 km.

39 days, which is not a holiday

The Norte is 63.0 km longer than the Francés, 3 stages longer on our plan, and climbs 4,217 m more. 39 walking days is 5 weeks and 4 days without a rest day, and the route does not split evenly at the halfway mark: the climbing is front-loaded and the sea is left behind at Ribadeo, 639.9 km in. If three weeks is what you have, three weeks from Irún is 21 stages and 459.2 km, and it ends at Villaviciosa, which is where the Primitivo forks. If you have a fortnight, the Primitivo is a fortnight and a day, and it has its own guide. If you are choosing between routes rather than reading about this one, our comparison of all ten routes puts all ten side by side.

What this page does not tell you

Which line you will actually walk. The Norte has several stretches where a waymarked coastal alternative leaves the main route, and at Santander many walkers cross the bay by boat from Somo rather than walking round it. We measure one line, on foot, and where yours differs from ours the table is wrong for you by that stage. It also says nothing about which albergues are open, because that changes every season and a list here would be wrong within a year, and nothing about the rain the coast is known for, because we do not measure it. What we publish is height, and height is the input.

The full Camino del Norte route page: every stage, the elevation profile and the app

Common questions

How long is the Camino del Norte?

831.6 km from Irún to Santiago along our own track, in 39 stages averaging 21.3 km. The longest single day in our plan is 31.9 km, Gernika-Lumo to Bilbao.

Is the Camino del Norte harder than the Camino Francés?

By climbing, yes. It climbs 14,663 m against the Francés’s 10,446, 17.6 m per kilometre against 13.6, and it has 15 days that climb 20 m or more per kilometre against 3. Its high point is lower, 708 m against 1,505: the climbing is out of river mouths, not over passes.

How many days does the Camino del Norte take?

39 walking days in our plan, which is 5 weeks and 4 days with no rest day. 30 of them are on the coast, to Ribadeo, and 9 cross Galicia.

What is the hardest stage of the Camino del Norte?

By steepness, day 26, La Magdalena to Aucinera: 15.5 km and 643 m of climbing, 41.5 m per kilometre, which ranks 4 of the 214 stages we measure across ten routes. By total climbing, day 6, Gernika-Lumo to Bilbao, with 836 m over 31.9 km.

Where does the Camino del Norte join the Camino Francés?

At Arzúa, 38.7 km from Santiago, so the last 5% of the walk is shared with the Francés and with everyone who started at Sarria.

Can you get the Compostela starting from Vilalba?

Yes. On our measurement Vilalba is 119.3 km from the cathedral against a 100 km minimum, 6 stages out. The closest qualifying stage boundary is A Silvosa at 103.5 km, with 3.5 km to spare.

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