7 nights | 30 miles/day
Self guided from EUR € 670
Tap above to jump to different sections of this tour
-
Camino de Santiago: A Pilgrim’s Route
7 night self guided bike tour in Spain
The Camino de Santiago is a great cycling experience for several reasons. First of all, it is a tour full of history. People have been walking this route for over 1,000 years and, along the way, you will find beautiful cathedrals, churches, and quaint old villages.
It is a very varied tour, as every day you move on and see completely new scenery. The area of Castilla is very different to Galicia from a cultural as well as a landscape point of view. Enjoy great food and wine, as the Galicians are well-known for the excellent quality of their produce, including fish, seafood, and meat.
The Camino is also a great opportunity to meet people from all over the world. Millions of people walk or bike along the Camino and many do it solo, thus open to talking to others along the way.
This cycling tour is probably one of the best cycling experiences one can have. It has got a combination of factors that make it a unique experience, which goes further from a common cycling holiday!
It's also possible to travel the entire Camino (from Roncesvalles to Santiago) as an 18 day/17 night tour. Please inquire for further details.
If you are interested in a guided experience, please contact us for details and pricing.
Highlights
- Astorga's Gothic Cathedral
- Monte de la Cruz, known as the 'Iron Cross'
- Picturesque town square in Villafranca
- Gastronomy in Galicia
- River Oribio
- Cathedral of Santiago
Learn More
Learn more about self-guided tours or see more Spain bike tours.
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
![Sarria Spain (photo:vladd)]()
![Camino De Santiago]()
![Camino De Santiago (photo:maxkukurudziak)]()
![Astorga Gothic Cathedral Spain (photo:manuellopez)]()
![Camino De Santiago Pilgrim Route]()
![Camino De Santiago Biking]()
![Camino De Santiago Pilgrim]()
![Paella Spain (photo:sandrawei)]()
![Camino De Santiago Pilgrim Tour]()
![Camino De Santiago (photo:jontyson)]()
Traveler photos
-
-
Daily program
Day 1: Arrival to Astorga
Individual arrival to Astorga. The town of Astorga is a place full of history and life. Make sure to visit the town center's impressive gothic cathedral and Neogothical Episcopal Palace, designed by Antonio Gaudi.
Overnight in Astorga.Day 2: Astorga – Molinaseca (30 miles/49 km, 2320 ft/707 m)
Today you will cycle into the Maragatería area, a wooded mountainous region where beautiful villages with large red stone houses dot the landscape. Here, you will climb to the highest point of the tour. Once you reach an altitude of 1.510m, traditionally each pilgrim leaves a stone they have carried all the way from their homeland, so you might want to bring your own small pebble with you! Later, the tour descends into the rich valley of the Bierzo.
Overnight in Molinaseca.Day 3: Molinaseca – Herrerias / O'Cebreiro (30-37 miles/49-59 km, 2201-4498 ft/671-1371 m)
Today you will cycle through the flat, cultivated landscapes of the Bierzo valley, which produces excellent wines, fruit and vegetables. Around mid-day, you will reach the mountains as you go through the historic town of Villafranca del Bierzo. Depending on which hotel you are at, you will then have to climb the famously steep O'Cebreiro mountain pass which separates the regions of Castilla and Galicia or stay at the foothills and do the climb the next morning..
Overnight in Herrerías.Day 4: Herrerias / O'Cebreiro – Sarria (34-28 miles/54-45 km, 3143-846 ft/958-258 m)
Today you will be in a new region, with a very different climate, vegetation, and people. Galicia is green Spain, wooded and mountainous. Today you will descend into the small town of Samos where you will find an ancient monastery from the Middle Ages which still remains inhabited by monks. Don't miss the opportunity to visit it! Your route then meanders alongside streams that lead to the town of Sarria.
Overnight in Sarria.Day 5: Sarria – Palais de Rei (30 miles/48 km, 3665 ft/1177 m)
Today's cycle ride runs through very nice rural Galician countryside, passing through many little villages. Most of this stage is along tree-lined roads and pathways and there is a mix of following secondary roads and old paths. About halfway through the route, you come across the town of Portomarin that was rebuilt on a hill after having to move the old town in the 1950's to construct a reservoir. You carry on till Palais de Rei, a small town full of the pilgrim spirit.
Overnight in Palais de Rei.Day 6: Palais de Rei – O Pino/O Pedrouzo(37 miles/60 km, 3862 ft/1177 m)
Today you'll be tempted to stop and savor every village you encounter, each one a hidden gem with stone-built houses, narrow streets and seemingly caught in a time warp! Breathe the history along the way and imagine how many thousands of people over the centuries have shaped this legendary route.
Overnight in O Pino/O Pedrouzo.Day 7: O Pino/O Pedrouzo – Santiago (17 miles/27 km, 1965 ft/599 m)
Time to relish the last remaining ride of your adventure. Today the Camino leads you into the very heart of the unique city of pilgrims, Santiago de Compostela, into the Plaza de Obradoiro overlooking the Cathedral built in honor of Saint James. With a buzz of satisfaction and a smile on your face, you will arrive with enough time to get your “Compostelana” or Pilgrim’s Passport. This singular city offers many important landmarks for you to enjoy, every corner imbued with history and atmosphere.
Overnight in Santiago.Day 8: Individual Departure
After breakfast, individual departure or extended stay.Surface and terrain
The tour takes place along moderately hilly terrain. All of the tour takes place along paved secondary roads, closely following the Camino itself which is occupied by walkers.
We do not cycle along the Camino itself as you would need mountain bikes as the terrain can be very technical and so we prefer to offer the route along quiet country roads very close to the Camino and on hybrid bikes.
There are two major climbs: one on cycling day 1 up to Cruz de Ferro mountain pass and the other on cycling day 2 to O´Cebreiro, entering Galicia. Other days have many small climbs and descents but not nearly as long as these two.
Tarmac: 100%.
Hotels
These are sample hotels and may vary by availability.
The accommodations on this tour are 2- and 3-star hotels and family-run rural accommodations.
Hotel Astur Plaza, Astorga
www.hotelasturplaza.esHostal el Palacio, Molinaseca
www.casaelpalacio.comHotel Casa Lixa, Herrerias
www.casalixa.comHotel Roma, Sarria
Hotelroma1930.esPensión Casa Camiño, Palas de Rei
Pensioncasacamino.es/restauranteHotel O'pino, Rua
www.hotelopino.comHotel Avenida, Santiago de Compostela
www.hotelesavenida.comInterested in visiting other areas before or after your tour? Visit our hotels page to learn more about lodging options.
How to get there
Tour Start
Nearest airport: Madrid, Spain
Nearest train station: Astorga, SpainTour End
Nearest airport: Santiago or Madrid, Spain
Nearest train station: Santiago de Compostela, SpainTransfers from Madrid to Astorga and from Santiago to Madrid are easy via bus.
Tips on getting to and from your tour
-
Dates
Prices
-
Tour package
Per person, double occupancy € 670 Single room surcharge (1 person/1 room) € 133 Extra luggage (per item) € 63 Optional dinner package € 90 Bike Rentals
Hybrid touring bike, 24-speed € 100 Electrically assisted bike € 180 GPS unit (1 per room) € 30 Extra Nights, Astorga
Per person, double occupancy € 48 Single room (1 person/1 room) € 70 Extra Nights, Santiago
Per person, double occupancy € 45 Single room (1 person/1 room) € 75 -
Tour package
Per person, double occupancy €742 Single use room (1 person/1 room) €942 Bike Rentals
Hybrid touring bike, 24-speed €90 Electrically assisted bike €180 Additional Options
Optional dinner package(not in Santiago) €120 GPS unit (1 per room) €30 Extra luggage (per item) €74
Extra evenings in Astorga and Santiago available on request.
Included services
- 7-nights accommodation
- Daily breakfast
- Luggage transfer between hotels (limit to one piece per person, up to 20kg)
- Detailed maps and roadbook with your trail clearly marked, instructions to find the hotels each night, and recommendations for things to do and places to visit
- Emergency telephone support in English and Spanish
- The pilgrim’s passport (to be stamped at designated locations in order to acquire certificate in Santiago)
Bike rentals
Bikes are available to be rented (in advance at the time of booking) include:
- Hybrid bikes with 24-gears (men's and ladies bikes) or equivalent
- Electrically assisted bikes*
*More about electrically-assisted bikes >
Each bike is equipped with the following at no additional charge:
- Odometer
- 1 Rear pannier
- Mudguard
- Map carrier
- Helmet
- Water bottle
- Lock(per room)
- Repair kit, pump, spare inner-tube, multi-tool (1 per room)
GPS units are available to rent for €30 (1 per room)
Bike protection can be purchased at the time of booking. You can read more about that https://www.biketours.com/info/trip-prep/bikes/HERE.
Pedals:
The bikes will have flat pedals. You are welcome to bring your own pedals, but please also bring your own shoes and necessary equipment to change the pedals.Helmets:
Although a bike helmet is included with rental, we recommend for safety and hygiene reasons that you bring your own helmet.
-
-
Route Map
Maps are for information purposes only and reflect typical routes between overnight locations. They may not reflect your actual route.
-
Reviews
-
★★★★★ Fabio Freire de Carvalho Matos 3 weeks ago
One of the best journey in my live
The bike was not so good, but de experience was great. Galícia is a wonderfull place and its people are so kind and happy. I love the organization, all the hostel and hotels, the food, and the maps is very importants for de tourists.
-
★★★★★ Matthew Rogers 2 months ago
Great adventure
So many great stops. Really loved Las Ferrerías even tho it’s the smallest town - low cultural interest but great people. Two improvements - for O Pino either stay in the town (rather than outside, we had to bike to dinner) or skip that stop. Would be a long day from Palas de Rei (another favorite) but might be worth it. Add another day/night in Santiago to make up for it. Loved Molinaseca - very lively town beach on the river. There are too many great memories to list here, but you guys really did a great job. O Cebreiro beautiful. The Galician castle detour highly recommended. I loved your throwback book of directions. Had to keep in our toes but getting lost sometimes is part of the fun. Going to hit you here with things to improve but it does not mean we did not enjoy our time. The bike I had was in terrible shape - your non e-bike fleet needs some help. By the way, you should tell people who are planning to not use ebikes that this is fairly strenuous! I’m a fairly strong cyclist and I was wasted after most days on the mechanical bike. Maybe it was the extreme heat though that made it seem tougher. Family loved the e-bikes, but the keys were broken, making it more difficult to charge at night. I think your mechanic in Astorga should have checked my back wheel better and should have had the tools to fix the key situation.
Many thanks for a super memorable experience. Will recommend 100%!
- What was the date of your tour?
- July 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- Over 10
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
-
★★★★★ Gillhart September 29, 2019
Cosmic!
Cycling the Camino was a
revelation! The routes chosen, the hotels (minus one loud one in Sarria), the food, the transport of luggage, everything was thoughtfully organized and otherwise excellent. I highly recommend this trip! (I do have some suggestions about maps and directions which will make the trip even better. Let me know if you’d like them, Biketours!!)- How many tours have you completed?
- None
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
-
BikeTours.com staff reply from Chloe September 30, 2019
Thanks for the high-star review! If you like to send us your suggestions, simply respond to the email generated by this response. We'd love to know more!
-
★★★★★ Jeff ak October 8, 2017
Excellent way to tour Spain
So many positives and a few negatives. First the trail was excellent for mountain bikes with a mix of paved roads and dirt trails. Great rolling hills and scenery. Lots of walkers and sometimes we shared trail which could be crowded and sometimes we were on highway. Most people friendly and understood sharing trail with bikes. We were surprised to see hundreds of people a day walking the trail.
Signage was yellow markers/arrows and was excellent. Most of the time we followed them but bike markers were not too good. My major complaint was our maps were not good. They were google type maps that were either too detailed and small that you couldn't read them or too general and broad that you didn't know where to go. We got lost and had to rely on a book with detailed directions comparing it to a general map. That was frustrating especially when the walking trail and bike trail diverged. If in doubt we followed the yellow markers with the walkers but we got onto some really bad hills and had to push bikes. I suggested to the booking company to provide mid level detailed google maps with major landmarks noted on map.
Overall it was a good trip and the hotels were small and generally 3 star. The small towns were interesting and excellent. Booking company Tee Travel was very good and responsive to our bike problems - one bike had no front brakes and they had it repaired and delivered to our hotel. Overall our bikes were very good rental equipment.
I highly recommend someone in your group speaks Spanish as we would have had major problems if no one spoke Spanish. The bikes were delivered to our leon hotel by an employee that only spoke Spanish so he could not answer our English questions. Fortunately we had someone in our group that spoke both languages fluently so she translated questions and answers. Our Spanish translator also helped us with getting directions from locals and ordering food. Most hotel employees spoke adequate English.
Favorite city was ponferrada due to a huge castle. Our favorite hotel was portomarin due to small cabins overlooking a river and vineyards. Also best service and meal was in portomarin where we got all you could eat veal, salad and dessert for $13 euros each.
You should be an intermediate biker since sitting on a bike for 53 K a day is difficult for a week. I was a casual bike rider and paid the price on my rear end.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Oct 1st 2017
- How many tours have you completed?
- First one
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
-
BikeTours.com staff reply from Brittany October 9, 2017
We're happy to hear you had a great time overall! Thanks very much for letting us know about the maps. We'll speak with our local operator partner about upgrading the maps for future clients.
-
★★★★★ Jeff August 14, 2017
A great way to experience the Camino
Riding bikes is the perfect way to experience the Camino for the person who does not have the months available to walk. Although certainly less physically demanding that walking, biking is not for everyone. It was more difficult than we expected.
- What was the date of your tour?
- August, 2017
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
-
★★★★★ Fuzzy June 23, 2017
Fantastic Tour
Well organized, great accommodation.
Beautiful scenery. Good bikes- What was the date of your tour?
- May 30-June 5/17
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
-
★★★★★ Sagan September 29, 2016
Follow along the path to glorious Santiago de Compostela
Started the trip in Astorga, we arrived on market day (Tuesday) so all the squares were packed with people and stalls.
Everyday our bags were picked up between 830 - 9am.
The Road book resetting of bike computers were invaluable and really easy to use.
This tour had more climbs than expected and on some days there were very steep and very long ascents.
Downhills were challenging too. We had trained but do not live somewhere with the same terrain. By day three you were used to it.
You are always on the road most road users are respectful to cyclists leaving plenty of room. The worst traffic was going into Santiago but only for 10Km
All hotels were easy to fiind and overall everyone was friendly. Best place was El Capricho de Josana in Las Herrerias the food was amazing.
I would recommend getting your Pilgrim passport and collecting stamps along the way a great souvenir to have and you can collect your certificate in Santiago.
Arriving in Santiago felt great and a real sense of achievement that we were not expecting.- What was the date of your tour?
- 6th Sept 2016
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
-
★★★★★ Dad and sons August 23, 2016
Biking the Camino with my sons
A real biking adventure. The biking camino was much more mountainous than we imagined. It was beautiful scenery, thrilling, strenuous, dangerous, rewarding and memorable. We hiked the first half and stayed in hostels. From Astorga we biked and stayed in hotels. Hiking and hostels were much more conducive to meeting incredible new friends. The price of the biking tour seemed a bit expensive for what you recieve.
- What was the date of your tour?
- August 2016
- How many tours have you completed?
- I've done many bike rides
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
-
★★★★★ Robert June 4, 2016
Great way to experience the Camino
The tour was well organised with bikes in good order and daily luggage transfers between hotels very effecient. All the hotels were clean, comfortable and friendly, and we found plenty of good and cheap restaurants for dinner. The food and wine were a highlight for our group. The daily rides were varied and apart from the last day to Santiago, the roads were uncrowded with little traffic. On the last day we found local roads to avoid the busy main roads which was easy to do and extended the day's ride to about 50kms. Highly recommended and we are now looking to book another ride later in the year.
- What was the date of your tour?
- end april / early may
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
-
