How is the Camino Primitivo different from the Camino Frances?
They both get you to Santiago, but in very contrasting ways
No two Caminos are the same, even when you’re walking along the same path, but when I decided to walk the Camino Primitivo I didn’t know how different it would be to walking the Camino Frances. It’s not better or worse but unmistakably something else, giving the pilgrim who chooses it a different experience to those walking the longer route to the south. The Primitivo heads over different terrain, it’s of a different size and scale, and it creates a different shared experience with your fellow pilgrims.
Let’s get the main point out of the way first: the Primitivo is a lot hillier than the Frances and what’s more, it’s consistently hillier. My first day took me up and down hills from Oviedo to Grado, and then the next day started with a steep ascent out of Grado, as did the day after that for the next week. The first half of the Primitivo is about gaining height as you head up into the mountains and the pass of El Acebo to enter Galicia but it’s not a steady climb, it’s a lot of ups and downs every day.
Yes, there are hills on the Frances — and the first day over the Pyrenees from Saint-Jean is probably tougher than any single day on the Primitivo — but they never come at you as relentlessly…
