From Leon to Santiago

[SiobhanGalway]

Hi
I am hoping to walk part of the Camino in May with a friend, who is new to this - we only have 4 days to walk and I'm wondering which would be the nicests stretch to walk between Leon and Santiago? Is it possible to fly to Santiago and take a train to Leon and start from there, or is it possible to get off along the way at other points, such as Portomarin or Ponferrada - if we choose to start from here? as we only have a short time we want to be walking in the countryside and not on a busy road -

Also - is it is possible to fly to Leon from Ireland?

thanks for any advice !

Siobhan

 

[scruffy1]

Leon is worth visiting all in itself for a day or two, the walk out is, well, one should never say disaparging words about the Camino, lets say the walk out is less than inspiring, or worse. Sarria would be a good place to start but hard to get there from SdC. Pamplona to Logroño is about 90 kilometers can be done, beautiful scenery, interesting monuments Eunate church/Alto del Perdón, lovely cities nice villages, both easily accessed by plane/train. Cheap flights from Éire? Sorry, can't help but there must be something with Ryan.

 

[whariwharangi]

Hi
I am hoping to walk part of the Camino in May with a friend, who is new to this - we only have 4 days to walk and I'm wondering which would be the nicests stretch to walk between Leon and Santiago? Is it possible to fly to Santiago and take a train to Leon and start from there, or is it possible to get off along the way at other points, such as Portomarin or Ponferrada - if we choose to start from here? as we only have a short time we want to be walking in the countryside and not on a busy road -

Also - is it is possible to fly to Leon from Ireland?

thanks for any advice !

Siobhan

Leon is not a very busy airport and currently has only domestic flights connecting to Barcelona. The easiest way to get to Leon is bus or train from Madrid.

It is possible to fly to Santiago and take the train to Leon. There is one per day. It is also possible to go from Santiago to Medina del Campo and transfer to another train to Leon. The second option currently has 3 trains per day.

If you travel from Ireland ... it might be worth considering a flight to Madrid and home from Santiago. If you must get a round trip ticket its probably better to go to Madrid.

The train from Santiago to Leon goes via Ponferrada and Astorga. The only town on the camino between Ponferrada and Santiago that has train service is Sarria.

There is bus service to all the villages on the route ... If you are away from the highway, service is limited. Between Astorga and Ponferrada its once per week. Places after Peidrafita do Cebreiro and before Palas del Rei, its once per day in each direction. Larger villages like Portmarin have more buses but they go to places like Lugo; off the camino.

 

[lahyre]

Hello there SiobhanGalway...

In 2014 I walked from León to Santiago in 12 days. It's a very nice walk and many times I walked away from the roads.

I'd suggest two options:

You can fly to León from Ireland but not directly, so it'd be better fly to Madrid and from there get a train to Sarria (I'll be doing this in march to walk with my old man) and from there catch a bus to Barbadelo or Portomarín. Why am I telling you these two cities? Because if I were you I'd love to do one of the two options:

This one was what I did on 2014
Day 1 - Barbadelo to Hospital da Cruz (30.8km)
Day 2 - Hospital da Cruz to Melide (28.5km)
Day 3 - Melide to O Pedrouzo (33.8km)
Day 4 - O Pedrouzo to Santiago de Compostela (20.8km)

As you told you friend is not used to walk, you guys could do this:
Day 1 - Portomarín to Palas de Rei (25.6km)
Day 2 - Palas de Rei to Arzúa (29.8km)
day 3 - Arzúa to O Pedrouzo (19km)
Day 4 - O Pedrouzo to SDC (20km)

From Santiago you can fly back home or if you bought a return ticket you can get a train to Madrid and then come back home.

PS: You can also fly to SDC and from there use bus or train to get where you want to.

Buen Camino!

 

[John Finn]

I would consider Pamplona to Logrono. Fly to Bilbao from Dublin with Aer Lingus, get a bus to Pamplona (there's no train service) and get a train from Logrono back to Bilbao.

Use: http://www.termibus.es/ for bus times and https://venta.renfe.com/vol/home.do for the train. I don't think they have May schedules online yet but if you check bus/train times for the next week or so you can be pretty sure the same times will apply in May.

Try to get at least one overnight in Bilbao - it's a great city.

 

[SiobhanGalway]

Thanks for all the replies and great suggestions ... Will check them all out on the map. I'd like to spend one night in Santiago on our way home as I've heard it is a great experience.

This is all really helpful !

 

[movinmaggie]

Thanks for all the replies and great suggestions ... Will check them all out on the map. I'd like to spend one night in Santiago on our way home as I've heard it is a great experience.

This is all really helpful !

And.....you may want more than one night in Santiago. It has much to offer.

 

[NualaOC]

Hi Siobhan,

Just to echo what others have said:

1. If you want to start in or near Leon, you're probably best flying to Madrid and taking a train or bus to Leon. The early morning flight from Dublin arrives in Madrid at 9.55am. There are trains from Madrid Chamartin at 11.05 (it would be difficult to catch that one!) and at 14.40. There's also a bus from Madrid at 12.00. The trains take from about 2 hours 20 mins. The 12 noon bus arrives in Leon at 15.45.
2. If you decide to start somewhere near Sarria, you could consider flying in and out of Santiago - and follow a version of @lahyre 's suggested itinerary.

And - to throw in a wild card - have you considered walking the Camino Ingles? You could easily walk from A Coruna to Santiago in 4 days. It's a very nice walk.
Or - just to really complicate things - how about walking from Santiago to Finisterre or Muxia? There are plenty of buses back to Santiago.

Good luck and enjoy the planning!

Nuala