Camino de Santiago

More than 58% arrived on Holy Thursday, with peaks of more than 2,000 walkers per day during the holidays, according to the Pilgrim’s Office.
The Portuguese and Portuguese Coastal Trail are the second and third busiest routes behind the French Trail.

The Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago grew by 61.34% during this Holy Week compared to 2018, which had been celebrated at the end of March. According to data from the Pilgrim’s Office, between Friday and Sunday a total of 13,969 walkers picked up the Compostela. Most of them arrived on Holy Thursday. In total, in those four days, there were more than 8,000 pilgrims, which represented 58.41% of the total and peaks of more than 2,000 daily in days such as Friday and Saturday.

Throughout Holy Week, most of the pilgrims came from abroad. In fact, 51.6% of those who picked up Compostela between Friday 12th and Sunday 21st arrived from outside Spain, especially the Portuguese, Germans, Irish and Americans.

This percentage varied in the days of greater affluence. Thus, from Maundy Thursday, were the majority of Spanish pilgrims, which in those days represented about 52% and came mostly from Madrid, Andalusia, Catalonia or Galicia.

Distributed Arrival
By itineraries, more than half of the pilgrims (57.72%) made the French Way. According to data from the Pilgrim’s Office, the second most traveled route during these days was the Portuguese Way, which was chosen by more than 23% of the pilgrims.

Also noteworthy is the Portuguese Coastal Route, which climbs one position with respect to last year’s Holy Week. In 2019 it was the third most traveled itinerary and represented about 6% of the walkers who made the Way of St. James during Easter. It was followed by the English Way, the North Way, the Primitive Way, the Silver Route and the Winter Way.