Camino de Santiago, Sarria: Your Comprehensive Guide

Each year, thousands of pilgrims set out on the Camino de Santiago from Sarria, embarking on the final 120 kilometers of their sacred journey. Foodie and travel lover that I am, I did a lot of research about each destination. Here’s a comprehensive guide to Sarria.

Sarria is the most popular point to start the Camino as it’s well connected to other places in Spain. It’s 120 km from there till Santiago which means it’s the necessary distance to get the certificate. To get one, one has to walk a minimum of 100 km or 200 km via cycle. It took us around 2 hrs to reach there from Santiago (3.5 hrs including the way from the airport to the bus as well as the waiting time).

What to see

There’s actually not much to see or do apart from eating, especially since most people are only there for one day. The historic part of the town along the Camino is quite lovely with all its albergues and restaurants. Apart from that, there’s the church Santa Mariña, a former monastery which is now a hostel and an old castelo which is in ruins except for its tower.

What to eat

What I’ve read about Galicia – and what I can confirm from my limited experience – is that the same dishes are often prepared completely differently in different parts of Galicia. There are certain dishes which you can only get there.

As for Sarria, their meats are supposedly standing out: Chorizo and chircharrones prensados made from Celtic pork, Sarria ham and veal (entrecôte and steak) as well as different kinds of game. Fish wise trout and eel are also among their specialities.

The following dishes are supposed to be especially good here:

• Caldo Gallego (Galician broth made of potatoes, white beans, cabbage and meat)
• Callos a la gallega (a traditional stew with tripe and chickpeas)
• Empanadas (meat pie with different sorts of fillings)
• Filloas (kind of Spanish crepes which can be sweet or filled with meat)
• Cheese with quince
• Tarta de Santiago (Tarta de Santiago)
• Hilos de la leche frita (fried milk)

Unfortunately, my mother’s a vegetarian and my stomach capacity is only limited so I couldn’t try as much as I would have wanted (although I had enough food to feel like rolling back to the hotel).

After examining the menus of all restaurants on the Rue Maior and not finding many vegetarian options besides raciones with cheese and ensalada mixta, we decided to have dinner at Meson O Tapas. There are other options though like vegetarian hamburgers or pizza but we wanted to go for something typical Galician – turned out to be very difficult!

One typical Galician thing is the menu del día, a three-course meal which consists of a starter, a main, postre (dessert) as well as a bebida (drink). I’m not sure why they consider the first one a starter: It’s usually so much that one feels full already. At least I do and I can eat a LOT (resulting in a fifth-month-of-pregnancy look after only 4 days. Surprise, it’s a food baby!).

Since I’ve read so much about the Caldo Gallego, I really wanted to try that. I was quite disappointed as I found it not as flavourful as I expected it to be. Maybe that’s due to my Indianized taste buds but I think that it’s due to lack of meat. Hopefully, I’ll find another restaurant to try it again.

We also ordered two different kinds of cheeses, a very flavourful harder one and a mild soft one which was rather neutral in taste. Their plates are always so big that one would’ve been more than enough ^_^

They added the same soft cheese to the ensalada mixta as well, another reason why it became impossible to finish it.

For the very first time, we had the famous Tarta de Santiago, an almond cake with a lemony touch. We both fell completely in love with it – even Mom who’s not at all a cake fan. (Check out the recipe, it’s my new favourite cake!)

Price wise, Galicia is generally super cheap and this particular restaurant is especially targeted for pilgrims = especially cheap. For the meal of the day including a drink, we paid 8.50 EUR. Raciones cost mostly below 5 EUR and wine is generally so cheap that you could drown yourself in it for only 20 EUR if you wanted to. Coca-Cola, on the other hand, costs twice as much – which didn’t stop me though (addict talking).

Of course, the food prices get more expensive the closer you get to Santiago.

What we liked about the restaurant is the cosy and friendly atmosphere. The waiters call everyone nothing else than amigo/a and are very helpful when it comes to choosing – which was quite important on day one for the rather clueless Germans.

All in all, I think for tapas the restaurant is OK but not so much for mains. There are definitely better places to eat. Looking at the prices though it’s absolutely fine. Nice ambiance and staff.

Where to stay

We stayed in Hotel Alfonso IX which is apparently quite popular. Lots of other pilgrims which we met on the way stayed there as well. It’s close to the city centre and Camino. The restaurant is supposed to be good as well but unfortunately, we didn’t have the chance to try it.

There are lots of Albuerges (hostels) on the Rue Maior which is located directly at the Camino. You find most of the restaurants there as well. What I heard from a fellow pilgrim (but a “proper” one who stayed in hostels throughout) was that from Sarria onwards the beds became more expensive. Before it was around 6 EUR for a room, from there onwards around 10 EUR.