- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2009, 2014, 2017, 2024
I'm just back from walking the Ruta del Padre Sarmiento, and wanted to give a summary of the stages and the general conditions for those who might be interested in walking it in the future.
Overall it is a beautiful, stunning walk, with almost every day right along the coast of the peninsula O Salnés, in Galicia:
rutapadresarmiento.es
The route starts in Pontevedra, and where the Camino Portugués splits into the Camino Portugués Central route and the Variante Epiritual, you turn left and take the Variante Espiritual. Then in Combarro, the route splits again into the Variante Espiritual and the Padre Sarmiento, and you stay along the water in Combarro to continue on the Padre Sarmiento.
The route then takes you through some of the most (in my opinion) gorgeous coastal places in Galicia, namely Sanxenxo, O Grove, and Illa de Arousa.
I booked hotels in the towns, but three of the towns - Combarro, Vilanova de Arousa, and Padrón, do have pilgrim hostels. The average price for the hotels I chose was 55€ - 65€. It was still high season the first week of September, since Spanish kids are still out of school and families were still on vacation, but that meant that there were quite a few options for hotels. Later in the season some places would be closed. There was also pretty good weather, with rain on just a couple of days.
These were my stages, and where I stayed:
Stage 1: Pontevedra to O Covelo, 18 km, Hotel Marea
Stage 2: O Covelo to Portonovo, 11 km, Hotel Xunqueira
Stage 3: Portonovo to Balea on the O Grove peninsula, 14 km, Pensión Mar de Rosas
Stage 4: O Grove to Cambados, 20 km, Hotel El Duende
Stage 5: Cambados to Terrón near Vilanova de Arosa, 7 km, Hotel Arco Iris
Stage 6: Left my pack in the hotel in Terrón, crossed the bridge to Illa de Arousa where I spent the day, and then walked back to Terrón, 16 km, Hotel Arco Iris (2nd night)
Stage 7: Terrón to Carril beyond Vilagarcia de Arousa, 14 km, then backtracked to stay in Hotel Vilagarcia
Stage 8: Took the train from Vilagarcia de Arousa to Catoira, then walked from Catoira to Padrón, 14 km
As you can see these stages were a mix of distances, as I didn't follow the suggested stages from the website. This was a function of knowing that I generally feel best if I walk 20 km or less, but also a desire to stop in certain towns and not others. There were also no good options for accommodations on the Illa de Arousa for the night I was planning to be there, so I stayed just across the bridge in Terrón and walked in and out of Illa de Arousa without the pack, which made for a carefree day on the island.
The Camino ended for me in Padrón as I'd planned, instead of in Santiago.
A few things to note about the trail:
- Downloading the route files from the website to the Maps.me app was super helpful, as I could follow along closely to the trail when the signage was few and far between.
- It was a solitary walk. As a raging extrovert, I wondered if I would survive 8 days of walking by myself without talking to hardly anyone...and I did!
But I was a bit surprised I only saw 2 other pilgrims on the Padre Sarmiento itself. Walking into Combarro and into Vilanova de Arousa there were more pilgrims from the Camino Portugués, but that was only two days out of the eight. Otherwise I walked very much alone almost the entire time, with my only conversations being with hotel owners, grocery store clerks, and waiters. I'm not a big fan of walking through forests alone, so I tried to get through the few forest paths as quickly as possible, but otherwise the route is comprised of many paths that locals use, for example paseo marítimos (ocean promenades), and local roads.
- There was quite a bit of road/ sidewalk walking. The part out of Combarro is especially tricky, as it's about 2.5 km of walking on the road shoulder, weaving around parked cars and dodging moving cars. Otherwise much of the time on the roads was along wide sidewalks, which was fine. Thankfully there were also plenty of hours walking along the paseo marítimos.
- Cafes are few and far between, so carrying snacks and water, and learning to walk with a full bladder, were essential.
- For the most part, the route is relatively flat and there just a few elevation gains and descents.
- I needed earplugs in all the hotels, as none of them had soundproofing. I'd hoped that being in private rooms would insulate from the snores, footsteps, and conversations of others, but....nope.
To conclude, if the weather is going to be good, you're hoping for a solitary Camino, and you're keen to explore more of the Galician coast on foot, the Ruta del Padre Sarmiento would be a good way to do it. It would be important to walk when enough accommodations and restaurants were open, so July through September might be the ideal time.
Overall it is a beautiful, stunning walk, with almost every day right along the coast of the peninsula O Salnés, in Galicia:
RUTA PADRE SARMIENTO oficial
¡¡Vívela, Siéntela. Descubre sus secretos, porque toda ruta acaba, cuando te detienes!!
rutapadresarmiento.es
The route starts in Pontevedra, and where the Camino Portugués splits into the Camino Portugués Central route and the Variante Epiritual, you turn left and take the Variante Espiritual. Then in Combarro, the route splits again into the Variante Espiritual and the Padre Sarmiento, and you stay along the water in Combarro to continue on the Padre Sarmiento.
The route then takes you through some of the most (in my opinion) gorgeous coastal places in Galicia, namely Sanxenxo, O Grove, and Illa de Arousa.
I booked hotels in the towns, but three of the towns - Combarro, Vilanova de Arousa, and Padrón, do have pilgrim hostels. The average price for the hotels I chose was 55€ - 65€. It was still high season the first week of September, since Spanish kids are still out of school and families were still on vacation, but that meant that there were quite a few options for hotels. Later in the season some places would be closed. There was also pretty good weather, with rain on just a couple of days.
These were my stages, and where I stayed:
Stage 1: Pontevedra to O Covelo, 18 km, Hotel Marea
Stage 2: O Covelo to Portonovo, 11 km, Hotel Xunqueira
Stage 3: Portonovo to Balea on the O Grove peninsula, 14 km, Pensión Mar de Rosas
Stage 4: O Grove to Cambados, 20 km, Hotel El Duende
Stage 5: Cambados to Terrón near Vilanova de Arosa, 7 km, Hotel Arco Iris
Stage 6: Left my pack in the hotel in Terrón, crossed the bridge to Illa de Arousa where I spent the day, and then walked back to Terrón, 16 km, Hotel Arco Iris (2nd night)
Stage 7: Terrón to Carril beyond Vilagarcia de Arousa, 14 km, then backtracked to stay in Hotel Vilagarcia
Stage 8: Took the train from Vilagarcia de Arousa to Catoira, then walked from Catoira to Padrón, 14 km
As you can see these stages were a mix of distances, as I didn't follow the suggested stages from the website. This was a function of knowing that I generally feel best if I walk 20 km or less, but also a desire to stop in certain towns and not others. There were also no good options for accommodations on the Illa de Arousa for the night I was planning to be there, so I stayed just across the bridge in Terrón and walked in and out of Illa de Arousa without the pack, which made for a carefree day on the island.
The Camino ended for me in Padrón as I'd planned, instead of in Santiago.
A few things to note about the trail:
- Downloading the route files from the website to the Maps.me app was super helpful, as I could follow along closely to the trail when the signage was few and far between.
- It was a solitary walk. As a raging extrovert, I wondered if I would survive 8 days of walking by myself without talking to hardly anyone...and I did!
But I was a bit surprised I only saw 2 other pilgrims on the Padre Sarmiento itself. Walking into Combarro and into Vilanova de Arousa there were more pilgrims from the Camino Portugués, but that was only two days out of the eight. Otherwise I walked very much alone almost the entire time, with my only conversations being with hotel owners, grocery store clerks, and waiters. I'm not a big fan of walking through forests alone, so I tried to get through the few forest paths as quickly as possible, but otherwise the route is comprised of many paths that locals use, for example paseo marítimos (ocean promenades), and local roads.- There was quite a bit of road/ sidewalk walking. The part out of Combarro is especially tricky, as it's about 2.5 km of walking on the road shoulder, weaving around parked cars and dodging moving cars. Otherwise much of the time on the roads was along wide sidewalks, which was fine. Thankfully there were also plenty of hours walking along the paseo marítimos.
- Cafes are few and far between, so carrying snacks and water, and learning to walk with a full bladder, were essential.
- For the most part, the route is relatively flat and there just a few elevation gains and descents.
- I needed earplugs in all the hotels, as none of them had soundproofing. I'd hoped that being in private rooms would insulate from the snores, footsteps, and conversations of others, but....nope.
To conclude, if the weather is going to be good, you're hoping for a solitary Camino, and you're keen to explore more of the Galician coast on foot, the Ruta del Padre Sarmiento would be a good way to do it. It would be important to walk when enough accommodations and restaurants were open, so July through September might be the ideal time.
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