How many nights did you stay in Santiago after finishing, and what did you do with the extra day?
Disclosure first: I run santiago.es, a free guide to the city, so I have an interest in the answers. No ads, no bookings, nothing to sell here.
This is the one thing I cannot answer with official data, because nobody collects it: how long pilgrims actually stay in Santiago once they arrive. The Pilgrim's Office counts arrivals, not nights.
The pattern I keep seeing is one night. You get in around midday, queue for the Compostela on Rúa das Carretas, make a mass, and leave the next morning having seen a cathedral and a queue.
So, if you have finished a Camino:
How many nights did you stay in Santiago, and on which route and in which month?
Too short, too long, or about right?
Beyond the Cathedral, the Compostela and the pilgrim mass, what was worth doing with the extra time, and what was not?
Three things I can give back, in case they are useful to anyone planning right now.
Masses in the Cathedral are at 7:30, 9:30, 12:00 and 19:30. The notice still going around that the restoration works moved the pilgrim mass out of the Cathedral is from the 2019-2021 interior works and is not current, although solemnities do shuffle the schedule, so check on the day.
The botafumeiro is only guaranteed at the big solemnities. Any other day it flies because someone booked and paid for it (around 500 euros, botafumeiro@catedraldesantiago.es), so pilgrims chipping in during the mass is not a thing.
Fisterra and Muxía are a day trip, not a three-day commitment: Monbus from the bus station, 7,35 euros one way to Fisterra and 6,85 to Muxía. Most services loop through Noia, Muros and Cee and take 2h10 to 2h55; the only quick ones are the 08:00 to Fisterra (Mon-Fri) and the 14:30 to Muxía, both a bit over an hour.
I will put the answers together into a free page, no email and no paywall, and post the numbers back here once there are enough of them to mean anything. "One night was plenty" counts as an answer too.