The Via de la Plata (VdlP) is an ancient Roman commercial route in Spain that went from Andalucia in southern Spain to the north and later was also used as a pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. The official camino route starts in Sevilla and is ~1000 km long.
In February 2020, I returned to Spain (yet again) and walked ~half of the Via de la Plata from Sevilla to Salamanca, passing through the major cities of Mérida, Cáceres, and Plasencia. Little did I know that this would be my last adventure for a while.
This post includes my daily itinerary, a photo gallery showing typical scenery and terrain along the route, and some thoughts about the trip.
My purpose this time was not to reach Santiago, as it had been for all my prior caminos. Instead, I was primarily there to train for a big adventure I had planned later that spring (unfortunately canceled due to the pandemic). During the walk, I carried 30-35 lbs (14-16kg) in my backpack to train my back and toughen up the legs, feet, tendons, etc. You can comfortably walk any camino carrying significantly less (8kg max).
Given that it was still February, the weather was perfect: mostly sunny, chilly mornings, warm afternoons. This was a perfect early season camino. However, given the early season, there were very few pilgrims on the route. I saw ~10 pilgrims during the entire 19 days (almost all were German). But as with every camino, the pilgrims I met were all great and we shared fun meals together in the evenings.
This was the first camino where I was not planning to walk all the way to Santiago. While I still walked a respectable distance (460km), it did not have that “pull” to Santiago I’ve always felt before which keeps you going. On a few ‘bad’ days, I even thought about stopping as it was ‘only training’. I am glad I continued on.
This was also the first camino where I had already seen a majority of the route. On my Euro bike tour just 4 months earlier, I had cycled this same section but in the opposite direction from Salamanca to Sevilla. The towns and cities I went through were the same, I stayed in some of the same albergues, the terrain was familiar, and I could always anticipate what was coming next. The lack of novelty on this trip affected my enthusiasm somewhat. I did enjoy the official camino walking route better than the cycling route I had taken earlier, which was primarily on roads and along the national highway. The camino route has almost zero pavement (as opposed to the Norte) and is mostly along gravel farm roads. If I were to do this route again, I would cycle the camino route.
The biggest highlight of this camino were the wonderful historic cities en route: Sevilla, Merida, Cáceres, Salamanca, (and Zamora if I had continued on). There were so many Roman sites to visit in these cities. I would recommend spending an extra day (or at least half day) exploring each of these cities.
Another highlight was seeing the famed black Iberian pigs all along the route. They provide the signature Spanish jamón ibérico. The town of Monesterio along the route is quite famous for its jamón, which is exquisite.
There were some memorable albergues I stayed in (I marked my favorites in the itinerary below). However, the town of Torremejía just before Mérida earned the distinction of the absolute worst town with the worst accommodation options out of over 140 days across all my caminos. The service was rude, the food was horrible, even the grocery store was dismal. For anyone planning to walk this route, I strongly recommend figuring out an alternative itinerary that allows you to skip this godforsaken town, even if it means extra distance off the main route.
The terrain was predominantly flat for as far as the eye can see. There were a couple of days with appreciable elevation gain and those were my favorite days. In general, I prefer routes that more akin to hiking than walking, so the Primitivo remains my favorite camino. I look forward to walking the mountainous Camino Aragonés and Camino del Salvador in the future.
Overall, I enjoyed this camino and it served my intended purpose to get into hiking condition. However, it was not as memorable and impactful as some of the others I have walked. I attribute that to having seen this route before as well as not culminating the walk in Santiago. I hope to return in the future to finish walking from Salamanca to Santiago.
As I was getting closer to Salamanca, I was starting to worry about COVID-19, as the outbreak in Italy was growing. I decided to skip the last day from Morille to Salamanca as I wanted to wrap up this adventure and quickly make travel plans to return to the US. I feared Spain was going to have an outbreak soon (it did) and that travel from Europe would get very complicated very soon (it did). Thankfully, my timing worked out as my return trip two days later to the US was safe and uneventful. Not long after, the US issued a travel ban from Europe which jammed airports as travelers were scrambling to get on final flights heading back home. As we all know, most of the world came to a standstill not long after this, but that’s another story altogether.
Buen camino!
Route: Sevilla to Morille (Salamanca) Dates: February 10, 2020 to February 28, 2020 Walking days: 19 Distance: 460 km (285 miles) Average per day: 24 km (15 miles) Longest day: 34 km (21 miles) Shortest day: 13 km (8 miles)
| Day | Date | Distance (km) | Finish | Accomodation (*favorites) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Sun 09-Feb-20 | Sevilla | Albergue Triana | |
| 1 | Mon 10-Feb-20 | 25 | Guillena | Albergue Luz del Camino |
| 2 | Tue 11-Feb-20 | 19 | Castilblanco de los Arroyos | *Casa Salvadora |
| 3 | Wed 12-Feb-20 | 28 | El Real de la Jara (taxi 16km to avoid roadwalk) | *Alojamiento Molina |
| 4 | Thu 13-Feb-20 | 23 | Monesterio | Albergue Las Moreras |
| 5 | Fri 14-Feb-20 | 22 | Fuente de Cantos | Apartamentos El Zaguán |
| 6 | Sat 15-Feb-20 | 26 | Zafra | *Albergue Convento San Francisco |
| 7 | Sun 16-Feb-20 | 21 | Villafranca de los Barros | *Albergue El Carmen |
| 8 | Mon 17-Feb-20 | 28 | Torremejía | Hostal Milenium (worst place/town ever) |
| 9 | Tue 18-Feb-20 | 31 | El Carrascalejo | *Albergue El Carrascalejo |
| 10 | Wed 19-Feb-20 | 20 | Alcuéscar | Casa de Acogida de los Esclavos de María |
| 11 | Thu 20-Feb-20 | 27 | Valdesalor | Hostal Posada de la Plata |
| 12 | Fri 21-Feb-20 | 13 | Cáceres | Albergue Las Veletas |
| 13 | Sat 22-Feb-20 | 34 | Embalse de Alcántara | *Albergue del Embalse de Alcántara |
| 14 | Sun 23-Feb-20 | 20 | Grimaldo | Albergue de peregrinos de Grimaldo |
| 15 | Mon 24-Feb-20 | 20 | Galisteo (taxi to Plasencia) | *Albergue Santa Ana Plasencia |
| 16 | Tue 25-Feb-20 | 20 | Caparra (started in Carcaboso, shuttle to Hostal) | Hostal Asturias |
| 17 | Wed 26-Feb-20 | 21 | Baños de Montemayor | *Albergue Turístico Vía de la Plata |
| 18 | Thu 27-Feb-20 | 34 | Fuenterroble | *Albergue parroquial Santa María |
| 19 | Fri 28-Feb-20 | 30 | Morille (ride to Salamanca) | Salamanca (Friend) |
Photo Gallery
Below is a short photo gallery to give a sense of the scenery and terrain of the Via de la Plata from Sevilla to Salamanca.
