Towns Along The Way – Logroño & Los Arcos

So Logroño and Los Arcos are the last two towns beginning with “L” left to discuss. So far, it has been fun, but the Towns Along the Way series is nowhere near complete 🙂 Logroño is the first city you will meet in La Rioja while Los Arcos, is 10km beforehand and one of the last few towns you will encounter in Navarra.

Logroño (Map)

Logroño is the capital of the La Rioja province in northern Spain. The population of the city is just over 150,000 and is the largest city you will walk through after leaving Pamplona 3 to 4 days earlier. The city is a centre of the trade in Rioja wine and also produces wood, metal, and textile products. You should arrive in Logroño in 7 or 8 days if you follow Brierley’s guide.

Walking into Logroño is far from attactive as the Camino hugs the main road. Some choose to by-pass the city as a result and walk to Navarrete. You will spot the “Comunidad de La Rioja” sign and later on the “Puente de Piedra” bridge over the Ebro river. Logroño awaits you at this stage. I have started a Camino from here in 2013 and passed through the following year. I love the city but it is very easy to get lost.

There are plenty of places to stay (Gronze) also. Most people choose to stay in hotels or hostels here. That’s exactly what I did in 2013, choosing to stay in Pension Logrono before I started that year’s Camino. This hostal was perfect, however the owner (at the time) had limited English…no, scrap that, she had no English. Or maybe it was a case of I not knowing enough Spanish? Either way, there were communication problems! In 2014, I chose to stay in one of the many albergues.

There are over 50 “taperías” located near the town centre. The traditional tapas restaurants often serve only one tapa, meaning one serving, or media ración (half portion), a small plate of tapas. Calle de Laurel, known as “the path of the elephants” is the main street where restaurants and tapas bars offer some of the best pinchos and tapas in northern Spain. Calle Portales is the main street in the old town, where people like to walk and sit in the terraces to eat a meal or drink wine. Finally, make sure you visit the Con-catedral de Santa María de la Redonda close to Calle Portales. It is also in the old town and was designated a protected building in 1931. The cathedral, while not as large as Leon or Burgos, is a fine work of art.

And here is Logrono in 5 minutes:

Los Arcos (Map)

Los Arcos (meaning The Arches in English) is a town in Navarra, much smaller than Logroño, with over 1,000 inhabitants. It is situated between Estella and Logroño. It has a number of albergues, all of which have received good reviews (Gronze). I haven’t stayed in Los Arcos myself, choosing to walk to Torres del Rio a further 8km away.