Welcome!

The 2024 edition of the guide is now available

The guide covers the Vía de la Plata and the Camino Sanabrés, from Seville to Santiago de Compostela. It was entirely updated in spring / summer of 2023 after I walked the entire route between February and June.

There are two versions of the guide

The free guide

The free guide is, as its name suggests, free. It contains the same information about pilgrim hostels and pilgrim facilities as the full guide but it doesn't contain the maps. You can get a copy of the free guide to download in PDF format from the DOWNLOADS PAGE.

The full guide

You can download a sample of the full guide HERE.

It contains:

• Information about pilgrim hostels with prices and opening dates and the facilities available
• Shops, cafés, pharmacies, banks, etc., in all of the places the Camino passes through
• Urban maps of towns and cities and detailed route maps of the Vía in rural areas
• Walking notes problematic points along the route
• Recommendations of great places to eat and important sights

You can download the full guide by making a 5€ donation HERE.

You'll also get a free copy of our comprehensive guide to preparing for the Camino, to see a sample click HERE!

If you'd prefer to buy a printed copy or an ebook for Kindle or you can buy all our books from Amazon:

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What is the Vía de la Plata?

The route followed by the Vía de la Plata was originally a Roman Road linking Asturias in the north of Spain with the port of Cádiz in the south. Its name in Spainish means The Silver Route. This name is of relatively recently origin (15th century) and is based on the belief that the Romans used this route to transport silver from Asturias to the Mediterranean port of Cádiz. Prior to that it was called al-balat, Arabic for the road.

Beginning in about the 9th century, as Santiago de Compostela was becoming popular as a Christian pilgrimage site, this route began to be used by pilgrims travelling to and from the tomb of St James the Apostle.

Starting in the 1980s the revived popularity of the Camino Francés as a walking pilgtimage route led to renewed interested in the Vía de la Plata. Since then numbers of pilgrims have increased slowly reaching a peak of 14,197 in Holy Year 2010. Since then it's been 8,061 in 2011, 8,163 in 2012, 9,016 in 2013, 8,491 in 2014, 9,221 in 2015, 9,067 in 2016, 9,138 in 2017 and 9,127 in 2018 (these are figures for pilgrims arriving in Santiago).

In contrast to the Camino Francés which is busiest in summer, the busiest times on the Vía de la Plata are spring and autumn.

Today the Vía de la Plata is a popular alternative to the Camino Francés for people looking for solitude and a more authentic Camino experience (with its accompanying difficulties).

If you'd like to find out more about what it's like to walk the Vía de la Plata, go to our donation. When you donate you'll be able to download the full guide in PDF format.

TWO

By using our online booking tool when you're reserving accommodation. If you sleep in a hotel or hostel after booking through our site we automatically receive a percentage from Booking.com. It's a win-win, it costs you nothing, the Camino Guide benefits, and a major muntinational company loses some money (that should probably be "win-win-win") We've organised our booking tool so it's easy to see what accommodation is available along the Camino. Have a look by clicking HERE.