Is there a road less traveled - for solitude and self reflection?
There are many caminos to Santiago; not just the Francés. The Sanabrés is way less busier (see data for the Vía de la Plata on the link below, at the bottom of my post). And you can reach the Sanabrés from caminos with barely any pilgrim like the Camino del Sureste or the Camino de Levante from where you can continue on the Camino Portugués de la Vía de la Plata to join the Sanabrés later tan if you reach it from the Camino del Sureste or the Vía de la Plata.
You can also walk caminos heading to Santiago ending before reaching Santiago. For example, you can walk the Camí Catalá through Zaragoza ending at the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza or you could continue from Zaragoza on the ruta del Ebro till Gallur where you would continue on the Camino Castellano-Aragonés till Santo Domingo de Silos where you could end your pilgrimage. Or you could walk to Santo Domingo de Silos following the Ruta de la Lana...
You have other pilgrim routes in Spain like the Camino(s) Lebaniego(s) (
www.caminolebaniego.com), the Camino de San Olav (
www.caminodesanolav.es), the Caminos del Santo Grial (
www.reman.es/camino-santo-caliz-grial and
www.elcaminodelsantogrial.com/intro.html), the Camino Ignaciano (
http://caminoignaciano.org), the Caminos to Caravaca de la Cruz (
www.peregrinoacaravaca.com/Caminos/caminos.htm) the Caminos to Guadalupe (
http://caminosaguadalupe.com)...
And, of course, you have pilgrim routes out of Spain.
@SYates quoted some of them on a post above.
How does the Portuguese camino compare I wonder?
The Portugués is the second on the busier list after the Francés but well behing it. You can consult data at:
http://oficinadelperegrino.com/estadisticas (scroll to the bottom of the page where you can find data of pilgrims by camino followed in the last month. If you want to see other month or year, you can select it at the top of the page).