The same great content and more in your pocket, the most up-to-date guidebook to the Camino Francés available.
Wise Pilgrim APPZubiri is the first town of any real size after the Pyrenees crossing, sitting in the valley of the Arga river. It's a working town rather than a tourist one — a Magnesitas factory dominates the approach — but it has the services you need after the mountains.
Two restaurants serve pilgrim menus on opposite ends of town. A well-stocked shop near the church has everything to assemble your own meal. Several albergues operate here; on extremely busy days the municipal facilities sometimes set up overflow capacity.
The town makes a practical stopping point if you started in Roncesvalles and want a manageable first (or second) day. It's about 22 km from Roncesvalles, or 6 km short of Larrasoaña.
The name Zubiri comes from the Basque for 'village of the bridge,' and the bridge in question is the medieval Puente de la Rabia over the Arga. Legend holds that animals led three times around the bridge's central pillar would be cured of rabies — a folk tradition that persisted well into the modern era.
