Make the pilgrimage: Compostela's cathedral marks the end of a 460-mile trail. (TURESPANA)

Comment On This Article

Add to My Favorites

You don't have to be a pilgrim to grab your bike or boots and join in a 1,000-year-old tradition, traveling all or part of the 460-mile Camino de Santiago. But as you walk its footpaths, country lanes and forest tracks, you're following in the footsteps of generations of pilgrims. After all, this is Spain, where every child has both a birthday and a saint's day, and even the tiniest pueblo holds its annual fiesta in honor of the local saint. The pilgrims, another sign of the country's faith, walk toward their goal: the stunning cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, western Spain, once Christendom's third-holiest site (after Jerusalem and Rome). Hike down from Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees to thread, via Pamplona and the vineyards of Rioja, up to the Meseta, Spain's vast inland plateau. Overnight at refugios and hospitales, simple, centuries-old accommodations, which dot the well-marked trail about every 10 miles.