Camino del Norte: Guernica to Bilbao

By the time we got to Guernica, we had already completed the majority of our hiking (posts on that can be found here and here). My body was starting to feel it, especially my left knee which sporadically acts up after a lot of physical activity. The downhill had taken its toll on my knee and it had gotten pretty swollen and achy. I was ready for that day off!

After checking into our cute airbnb, we ventured out to get a nice dinner of pintxos and a couple glasses of Txakoli, our go-to wine of choice on the trip. Dinner was followed by ice cream and doing some much-needed laundry in our apartment (and icing my knee).

Without realizing it, our day off in Guernica coincided with the National Day of Spain so a lot of places would be closed. I was grateful for this as it made me feel better about taking it super easy on the day off. Outside of a slow and meandering walk through town, with the necessary stop at the mural replica of Picasso’s Guernica and a sighting of the Guernica tree, I spent most of the day rest, relaxing, and napping. Just what my body needed!

We had two days left of hiking! The day after Guernica was a shorter day of about 12 miles and we took advantage of that! We got the latest start thus far and had a nice, lazy morning with a few errands. After grabbing lunch, we hit the trail around 2pm — we knew the town we were going to that night, Lezama, was very small without much to do so we figured we’d soak up a larger spot while we could.

A lot of the day was on roads, both paved and dirt, and we had some lovely views of hills and cute houses. The first 3/4 of the hike was pretty remote with no towns, just two water stops. There were a lot of friendly locals who chatted with us along the way. We also saw a lot of animals including sheep, goats, mini-horses, cows, cats, and dogs. There were also a fair amount of Basque freedom graffiti and signs throughout the day.

We stopped in Larabetza for a drink and a bite. It is a super cute town with a nice plaza lined with a couple of cafes and a hotel. As we walked up, we noticed a few locals sitting outside one of the cafes playing music. It felt like a cool place and, if I were to do it again, I would take the advice of many of the books and blogs, and stay the night in Larabetza instead of Lezama.

While the hotel in Lezama was very nice, the town itself was pretty disappointing. We wandered around for quite awhile before finding a single place that was open for dinner. The place we did find served almost inedible food. There were a couple of parks but, besides that, it didn’t seem like Lezama had much to offer.

The next stop after Lezama was Bilbao — our final destination! The hotel provided a delicious breakfast which even included a homemade pastry. Our hike started out along a busy road and then the route turned into a nice path in the woods that climbed fairly significantly. After reaching the top of the climb, we were once again on the side of a road.

Today was just supposed to be 7 miles but it ended up being 9 due to poor signage. The directions we had were not super clear and the signage pretty much dropped off when we were walking alongside the curvy road at the top of the hill. We definitely did some backtracking while trying to figure out where the turn down to Bilbao was. Eventually, we found a friendly local who pointed us in the right direction — I still don’t know how we would’ve figured it out as there wasn’t any clear indication of where to turn.

Of course, once we were aways down the path, there were plenty of Camino shells and signs! The path into Bilbao was paved, full of locals running and biking, and accompanied by nice views of the vibrant city. I was very excited (and relieved!) to make it to Bilbao!

In total, the additional mileage on the final day made the distance we walked on the Camino 101 miles!

Tips for the Camino del Norte:

• Depending on the time of year, you will want to book lodging in advance. We traveled in the shoulder season (early October) and still did this. There are some towns where there is only 1 or 2 lodging options (Markina and Lezama for the section we did) and I would definitely recommend booking those in advance regardless of when you are trekking. If you aren’t traveling during peak season (peak season is June – August), it would probably be nice not booking everything in advance to give yourself some flexibility to stay in towns longer if you really like it (or shorten your stay if you don’t).
• Because there are so many places to stop along the way, it is really not necessary to carry much with you in the way of snacks. I would recommend throwing a trail bar or two in your bag and grabbing a piece of fruit from the hotel breakfast when possible. Otherwise, it’s just not necessary.
• We tended to take too much water with us — again, there are places to stop more so than on other types of hiking excursions. Some of the advice in the books made it seem like there were less options than there actually was. Again, we were hiking in cooler months so you’d want more if you were trekking in the summer but 1.5 liters was typically good to start out with because it could easily be refilled along the way.
• A daypack worked for my needs. I was able to cram in my clothes, a change of shoes, toiletries, water, and a couple of exterior layers (raincoat, a longsleeved second layer, and a vest). Some people hired a service to take their luggage along but I liked having access to my belongings and the weight wasn’t too much. We did ensure that we had laundry access every few days which made the daypack possible.
• I listened to a lot of audiobooks while hiking which I very much enjoyed. Having audiobooks, podcasts, and/or music downloaded in advance might help with getting you through some of the longer days!