TravelMatch
The Camino from Sarria: the six official stages, and why everyone sells you five
Search for the Camino de Santiago from Sarria and everyone tells you the same thing: 115 kilometres, five stages, five days.
The Xunta de Galicia — which signposts and measures the route — publishes six.
That is not a bureaucratic detail. The difference between the two versions is a 29-kilometre day that appears in the middle of the week, exactly when your legs have had enough. It is where most plans break, and if you are walking with other people, where most groups break too.
Here are both versions, with the official distances, checked on the Xunta's own route pages on 5 October 2026.
The six official stages
| Stage | Distance | Difficulty | Estimated time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sarria → Portomarín | 22 km | Medium-high | 4h 35 |
| Portomarín → Palas de Rei | 25.1 km | Medium | 5h 55 |
| Palas de Rei → Melide | 14.6 km | Medium | 3h 40 |
| Melide → Arzúa | 14.5 km | Low | 3h 40 |
| Arzúa → Arca (O Pino) | 18.4 km | Low | 4h 35 |
| Arca → Santiago | 20.2 km | Medium | 5h 05 |
That comes to 114.8 km, which is where the "115 km" you see everywhere comes from.
And the five that everyone sells you
The commercial version merges the two short stages — Palas de Rei to Melide, and Melide to Arzúa — into a single day:
| Day | Stage | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sarria → Portomarín | 22 km |
| 2 | Portomarín → Palas de Rei | 25.1 km |
| 3 | Palas de Rei → Arzúa | 29.1 km |
| 4 | Arzúa → O Pedrouzo (Arca) | 18.4 km |
| 5 | O Pedrouzo → Santiago | 20.2 km |
Day three is 26% longer than the average of the other four. And it lands at the worst possible moment: two days of accumulated wear, and still too far out for the euphoria of arriving.
Thousands of people do it every year and it is perfectly possible. But it should be a decision you made, not something you discover at four in the afternoon somewhere between Melide and Boente.
Two miscalculations almost everyone makes
The first day is the hardest, not the third. This surprises people, and it is official: the Xunta rates the first 4.2 km out of Sarria, from the town to Barbadelo, as high difficulty — the only stretch of the whole week rated that way. You leave over the A Áspera bridge, follow the railway for about a kilometre, and then it climbs properly. Most people walk it on cold legs with a pack they have not yet learned to carry.
And the 100 km is a minimum, not a target. To receive the Compostela you need 100 continuous kilometres on foot towards Santiago on one of the officially recognised routes — 200 km if you cycle, and 100 nautical miles if you sail, finishing on foot from the port. Those are the Pilgrim Office's own published requirements, read on 5 October 2026. Sarria exists as the standard starting point because it is just over that line, which is also why it is the busiest place on the entire Camino.
The credencial, and the part that trips people up
You need a credencial, stamped along the way, and it has to be the right kind: the Pilgrim Office issues them, as do parishes, Camino associations, pilgrim albergues and confraternities authorised by the Cathedral of Santiago.
Stamps come from more places than you think — albergues mostly, since that is where pilgrims sleep, but also parishes, monasteries, cathedrals, guesthouses and town halls. Collect them generously on the final stretch rather than minimally; a thin credencial is how people end up arguing at a desk after walking 115 kilometres.
And one rule worth knowing before you plan around it: the Compostela is only issued in person and individually. Nobody can collect yours for you.
How to plan it so it does not fall apart
- Decide six days or five before you book anything. The whole plan hangs on it, and so does every bed you reserve.
- If you choose five, plan day three around the 29 km. Start earlier, carry more water, and agree in advance that the group may arrive separately.
- Treat the first morning as the hard one. Do not set a punishing target for the first day because it looks short on paper.
- Book Portomarín and Arzúa ahead in summer. They are where the five-day and six-day versions converge, so they fill first.
The thing that actually breaks Camino groups
It is not the distance. It is pace.
Walking 115 km over five or six days with other people means five or six consecutive days of somebody waiting, or somebody being left behind. One person wants to leave at six and arrive by lunch; another wants to stop at every café and reach Santiago whenever. Both are legitimate ways to walk the Camino, and they are very hard to do together.
The fix is embarrassingly simple and almost nobody does it: agree before you go that you will walk at your own pace and meet at the end of each stage. If you would be walking it with people you have just met, how to travel with a group of strangers covers what to settle first. It is the same conversation that decides every group trip, and we went through it in detail in how to travel with friends and stay friends. The Camino is one signposted path — you cannot get lost, and there is no reason to spend six days at somebody else's speed.
Where we fit
TravelMatch is for the part that is hardest to arrange: who you walk it with. You put up your dates and find people doing the same stretch at the same time, and you see where you match on pace, budget and how you like to plan before anyone books a bed.
It is free, and there is nothing to buy — you book your own albergues, as you would anyway.
Sources. Stage distances, difficulty ratings and estimated times are from the Xunta de Galicia's official Camino route pages, read on 5 October 2026 — including the Sarria–Portomarín stage at 22 km and its first 4.2 km section to Barbadelo rated high difficulty. The Compostela requirements (100 km on foot, 200 km by bicycle, 100 nautical miles under sail, on officially recognised routes, issued in person and individually) and the credencial rules are from the Pilgrim Office of the Cathedral of Santiago, read on the same date. No prices are quoted on purpose — accommodation and transport change constantly and a figure here would be wrong within weeks.