Routes

Planner

Features

Updates

App

Get the App

Routes

Bike touring routes & trails

Descent along the road – View of Vega de Valcarce loop from Villadepalos

Routes

Bike touring routes & trails

Descent along the road – View of Vega de Valcarce loop from Villadepalos

Hard

4.0

(2)

riders

Descent along the road – View of Vega de Valcarce loop from Villadepalos

03:45

62.1km

480m

Cycling

Hard bike ride. Very good fitness required. Mostly paved surfaces. Suitable for all skill levels. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.

Last updated: August 1, 2026

Tips

Includes a segment in which cycling is not permitted

After 33.2 km for 51 m

Waypoints

Start point

Train Station

Get Directions

10.9 km

Villafranca del Bierzo Castle

Highlight • Castle

Villafranca del Bierzo takes its name from French immigrants who (re)populated the region after the Reconquista and built a castle. Villafranca thus became a stage of the Camino. In later centuries it was the capital of a county.
Here we find the Santiago church from 1186, the 16th century fortress, the authentic Calle del Agua, the Plaza Mayor, the San Nicolas church, a Jesuit monastery and a former monastery church of San Francisco. Francis of Assisi founded the monastery in the 13th century on his pilgrimage to Santiago.

Translated by Google •

Tip by

12.5 km

Valcarce River

Highlight • River

Path

Translated by Google •

Tip by

18.7 km

Camino de Santiago Milestone – 179 km to Santiago

Highlight • Monument

The goal is now approaching and the excitement is growing

Translated by Google •

Tip by

19.9 km

Trabadelo and Río Valcarce

Highlight • Settlement

nice little village

Translated by Google •

Tip by

30.2 km

Descent along the road

Highlight • Trail

From Las Herrerias de Valcarce the ascent to O Cebreiro begins - about 10 km long and 750 meters in altitude.

Translated by Google •

Tip by

33.2 km

View of Vega de Valcarce

Highlight • Viewpoint

Vega de Valcarce is a municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. It is framed in the beautiful Valcarce Valley, which follows the course of the French Way for 14 kilometers before reaching Galicia.
The origin of this town dates from the eleventh century and, according to popular legend, is born of a Galician family that before building the first house lived a few months inside a chestnut tree.
The history of the town is closely related to the Camino de Santiago and the medieval entrance to the Kingdom of Galicia. The entire Valcarce valley formed a lordship in the Middle Ages and, for a good part of it, powerful archbishops of Compostela placed in the area numerous feudal lords who divided the lordship in the region.
The feudal lords imposed on anyone who wanted to pass to Galicia a payment known as "portazgo", something like a toll like those we know today. In 1702 King Alfonso VI intervened to suppress this privilege, however it would not disappear until many years later.
viajecaminodesantiago.com/camino-frances/vega-valcarce

Tip by

34.4 km