Camino de Santiago Self Drive Holiday » Itinerary

Collect your car at the airport and drive an hour to your charming hotel near the coast of the Picos de Europa National Park. Settle in this afternoon.

Your Pura guide comes to meet you this morning and take you out into the mountains. Walk along sections of amazingly well preserved Roman road cutting across the high Picos mountains.

Walk the most famous route in the Picos: the Cares Gorge. The path runs along the wall of the gorge, cut into the rock, narrowing to just two metres in places.

At the heart of the concept is an independent holiday with the guesswork taken out.

What is a Pura Self Drive Holiday?
At the heart of the concept is an independent holiday with the guesswork taken out.

What is included?
What Pura do is book your cars and hotels so that you have the basic structure of your holiday set out. We then give you the information to fill the days in a way that suits you best. That means that you travel with detailed information about the areas you are visiting. This ranges from advice on the best beaches, market days, our favourite restaurants, what to do on a rainy day, etc.

You also have a series of walking scale maps with our own walking notes. You will invariably have more walking notes than days to walk so you can choose which ones to do and which ones to save for a return visit.

To help you make the best choices, at the start of your trip you spend a full day with a Pura guide.

How tailored is it?
Here in the UK we tailor the itinerary to your needs as closely as possible. Of course, once you are actually on holiday you can choose to stick to the letter of the itinerary or change it as you go along.

Your Pura guide also helps you map out the best possible holiday according to weather forecasts, local festivals, your energy levels, etc. They can also help you make any calls you need to book optional activities. Think of it as a bit of fine-tuning. Freedom and flexibility without the guesswork.

What about the cars?
The cars we book for you are good sized cars. Because you are generally going into mountain environments, we make sure that the cars are suitably powerful.

And hotels?
The hotels we use are generally small and family run. The standard varies from luxurious, boutique style to simple, comfortable rustic type places. Rooms are en suite.

We always believe that when you wake up you should know where in the world you are so we place character, location and comfort at the top of the list. If you want uniformed staff, look elsewhere!

Walk along the rolling hills of the coast to find sandy coves and beaches. What makes this stretch of coastline so unusual and special is that you can see the high mountain peaks, some up to 2,600m, whilst standing with your feet on the sand.

Stroll round the medieval quarter of Oviedo, with its gothic cathedral, market squares and pedestrian streets surrounded by historical buildings.

Many people think of the Camino de Santiago as being just one fixed route across northern Spain. In fact there are any number of paths all feeding into it along the way.

Many people think of the Camino de Santiago as being just one fixed route across northern Spain.
There is one main route (the Camino Frances) but this is supplemented but any number of paths all feeding into it along the way.
On this holiday you follow the Camino del Norte or northern Camino which follows the north coast of Spain until it drops down to join the main camino about 100km from Santiago.
What is the difference between Caminos?
Walking the route was originally a penance – it was very dangerous indeed. Pilgrims tended to carry lots of money and were therefore a target for robbers.
As a result, pilgrims tended to choose a route that avoided mountains in favour of flat, open landscapes.
For the stretch covered by this holiday, the Camino Frances tracks to the south of the mountains along the very flat, open and windy plains of Leon.
The Camino del Norte follows a rugged coastline dominated by high mountains and is therefore infinitely more scenic.

What is the significance of the Camino?
The road to Santiago was really the inter-European cultural highway.
With some estimates of 12th century pilgrim numbers as high as 500,000 annually, the path was an incredible conduit for cultural exchange.
Its impact ranged from architecture to art, language to law. Passports, guidebooks, souvenirs, indeed the very concept of tourism originate from the Camino.

Move hotels again today as you continue your journey along the beautiful Asturian coast to the west.
Take time to explore lovely villages en route.

Today’s walk follows a circular route on ancient paths between small abandoned hamlets and some villages where you find a rural way of life which has almost died out in Europe.

Change hotels today as you drive south towards central Galicia, land of forests and mist. Along the way, return to the Grandas area where you were walking yesterday. Enjoy a short walk through forests alongside a river to a pretty waterfall.

Spend today relaxing. There are forest trails within the hotel grounds, some 20 hectares in total. You can also ride bikes along the riverbank.

Walk for a few hours along the last stretch of the Camino de Santiago. You pass the 100km marker on this path so you may witness the excitement of pilgrims building.

Travel west today as you change hotels for the last time. Stay in a friendly, relaxed hotel just outside the city of Santiago de Compostela. The drive should take you a couple of hours.

Today explore the southern part of the Galician Atlantic coast, the Rias Baixas, a group of estuaries famous for exquisite seafood, wine and scenery.

Complete your holiday with a visit to Europe’s most westerly point – Finisterre. Explore the so-called Death Coast with its characteristic fishing villages, fierce sea and rugged coastline.

Head back to the airport for your journey home.