Camino Primitivo Hiking Trips

The Camino Primitivo, or Original Way, is the oldest of all the Caminos: the path King Alfonso II walked from Oviedo in the ninth century to reach the newly found tomb of St James, which made him the first pilgrim to Santiago. Running about 320 km from Oviedo across the mountains of Asturias and into Galicia, it is the most demanding of the main routes, with real climbs, long remote stages and the high Hospitales variant over open moorland. In its final days it joins the busier Self-Guided Camino Frances tours at Melide for the last stretch into Santiago. It is the original Self-Guided Camino Primitivo tours in northern Spain.

There are two ways to walk it. The full route from Oviedo takes around two weeks and suits fit, experienced walkers who want the whole of the Original Way; the last 100 km from Lugo, with its Roman walls, covers the final week and earns the Compostela while keeping to gentler ground. If the climbs sound like too much, the other Self-Guided Camino de Santiago tours offer flatter, easier alternatives.

The route is walked at your own pace, with route notes and a GPS track, your luggage moved ahead each day, and rooms booked in advance. It is waymarked with yellow arrows but is genuinely hilly, with steep ascents and descents and some long stages between villages, so a good level of fitness helps; the reward is deep-green Asturian and Galician country, far quieter than the Frances. As one of the more challenging pilgrimage tours among 10Adventures’ walking tours, it ends at the cathedral in Santiago, where walkers who have collected stamps in a pilgrim passport over the last 100 km receive the Compostela.

Late spring to early autumn, roughly May to October, is the season to walk the Primitivo, when the high ground is clear of snow and the long mountain stages are at their safest. Summer is the most reliable for weather, though it can be warm; spring and autumn are quieter and greener. Winter is not recommended, with snow, fog and closed accommodation on the high sections.

Walks on offer on the Camino Primitivo, shorter to longer:

1. Self-Guided Camino Primitivo: Last 100km 7 days on the final 100 km from Lugo into Santiago.
2. Self-Guided Complete Camino Primitivo Pilgrimage 16 days on the full Original Way from Oviedo across Asturias and Galicia.