Via Francigena

The Via Francigena can be started on any day of the year, always taking into account the weather and the season in which you want to travel, so that your clothes are the right ones.

The best way to get to the starting point of your Via Francigena is to arrive at the airport, train station or bus station nearest to the town from where you will start walking.

Once you confirm your Via Francigena, you will send us the arrival information for your flight, train or bus and, from there, we organize a private transfer to the town where you should start your Via Francigena.

Yes, you can. All the routes on the Via Francigena are suitable for pilgrims to travel solo.

Also, whether you are travelling alone, or travelling accompanied but want to sleep in a single room, Santiago Ways offer this option to you.

We can book all your nights of accommodation in single rooms at an additional cost. We suggest you book well in advance since they are usually in high demand.

On the Via Francigena, you will find hundreds of pilgrims walking on their own. Many of them may have come to the Via Francigena alone; others have probably moved away from their fellow travellers for a few hours because of the difference in speed when walking.

In any case, all the routes on the Via Francigena are very well signposted, so you will have no problem if you go on your own.

The Via Francigena is done in a self-guided mode. Thus, each traveller has the opportunity to advance on their own and at their own pace along the routes marked on the complete itinerary of the route, which is sent one month before starting the Via Francigena.

However, we offer organized groups with accompanying guide on the Camino de Santiago from Sarria to Santiago. We have specific dates already established, and we carry them out in groups of up to 15 people, with guaranteed departures. The guides in charge of these routes speak English and Spanish.

We already have all the dates published until 2021, so you are encouraged to reserve your place before the groups are filled.

The complete itinerary of the route is a guide that we prepare for you with information about the maps, route profiles and places of interest, kilometre by kilometre on each of the stages that you will go through on the Via Francigena.

The travel distances and travel times indicated for each route on both the website and the itinerary we send you are based on reference values. It depends on each pilgrim exactly how they carry out these times and distances, according to the speed at which they progress.

You will receive it by email one month before starting your Via Francigena along with all the documentation for the trip: accommodation reservations, baggage transfers, among others.

On average, a stage of the Via Francigena with Santiago Ways has 15 to 20 km.

Both sedentary people and those who regularly exercise should physically prepare for doing the Via Francigena.

Sedentary people can start with moderate activity and continue progressively. They should start by taking small 20-minute walks, two or three times a week. It is suggested to increase the time until you reach walk about 4 or 5 kilometres every hour.

People with regular physical activity can start by walking from 45 to 60 minutes a day and increase the amount of time and kilometres they travel in the same span of time.

Generally, it is recommended to start training for about three months before starting the route.

There is no minimum number of days in advance to book, although on certain dates the occupancy of the accommodation is higher, especially in high season, and in dates of religious interest.

Therefore, in order to guarantee availability in the best accommodation, we suggest you book as much in advance as possible, so that we can meet all of your needs.

We suggest you to bring the following items: light and fast drying clothing, waterproof jacket and trousers, sun hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, a pair of shoes suitable for hiking, trekking poles, a pair of shoes to rest in, a jacket that doesn’t take up much space and a bottle to carry water.

Depending on the time of year in which you make the route, these items may vary.

Remember that with Santiago Ways, you have included a baggage transfer service between stages, so we will take your backpack from one accommodation to another so that you only worry about walking (maximum 1 piece of 20 kg per person).

For this reason, we suggest you prepare a second backpack, much smaller, that you can carry with you every day with water, sunscreen, cap, sunglasses, documents, some food and cash.

Every day, at 8:00 am, you must bring your luggage, properly labelled, to the reception. One of our carriers will pick it up and take it to the place where you are going to stay on your next stage.

Delivery time varies according to the distance between stages and the carrier’s delivery route. Usually, delivery is made before 4 p.m.

To complete the Via Francigena it is advisable to have travel insurance with all the necessary coverage, especially emergency evacuation and medical care.

To do this, we suggest you take out the Travel Assistance Insurance and Cancellation Insurance that we offer you in Santiago Ways. If you want more information about it, we will be happy to answer your questions.

Yes, all rooms you book with Santiago Ways to do the Via Francigena have a private bathroom.

Yes. We offer accommodation in single rooms and double rooms, according to the requirements of each pilgrim.

Single rooms have a special surcharge and are subject to availability and according to location.

We work with multiple accommodations in all locations which allows us to guarantee the best quality rooms for our pilgrims, provided that they are booked well in advance.

The name and exact location of each hotel is sent about one month before the start of the Via Francigena with all the documentation related to the trip.

No. All the accommodations we book for our pilgrims have private rooms with private bathrooms in order to guarantee all the comfort needed to rest properly.

All the accommodations that we book are in the centre of the towns or villages. In any case, depending on availability, if any accommodation is somewhat far from the centre, most of them are accessible on foot.

When necessary, Santiago Ways could offer a round trip transfer so that the pilgrim can reach their accommodation in the most comfortable way possible and return the next day to the point on the route from where he must continue the Via Francigena.

All the accommodation that we book in Santiago Ways offers the necessary comfort to rest after long days of walking.

We work with Hotels and Country Cottages, always with private bathroom rooms.