Do you want to walk the Camino de Santiago and are now looking for pointers on how to plan for it? Or is the jury still out on this and you want to know a bit more of what’s involved before you decide? Either way, you’ve come to the right place. Here you will find the 9 most crucial things to think about when planning for your Camino de Santiago.
Most of it probably applies to the other Caminos in Spain as well. But I wrote this post with the Camino Frances in mind. This is the most popular one from St. Jean Pied de Port on the French side of the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostella in Galicia, Spain.
As it is the most popular one it has the best infrastructure and is, in my opinion, therefore suited best for first-timers.
3 Things to figure out before you start planning your Camino de Santiago
Before we dive in, there are three things you want to have figured out/clarified before you start any further planning because they are the foundation to build on, so to speak.
These are:
- Getting your doc’s go-ahead. I mean, we are not talking about a walk around the block here.
- Are you going it solo or with (a) companion(s)?
- How much time and money do you have available for this by the time you go?
As there is a lot to take into account when figuring this out, I created a separate post for this. So if you haven’t thought about these things or are not 100% clear on them, I recommend you start there first.
Just follow this link.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Ok, below you will find the 9 main things to think about and plan for, to make the most of your Camino de Santiago. Not necessarily in that order, however, as they’re all connected in a way.
# 1 – Which season is the best to walk the Camino de Santiago?
Before you can answer that question, you need to know
- what you are looking for during your walk,
- your budget and
- where you want to start (read more on this below).
Winter
It is the time with the least pilgrims and therefore a good few of the hostels are closed.
So if solitude is what you are looking for and you don’t mind the cold, this is your time to go. Just make sure you get up-to-date information on which accommodations are open. You will find more on where to get this info in the resources section below.
It would suck to be stranded before dark with another 10 km/6 miles to go because you didn’t do your homework. I know what I’m talking about because it happened to me and the group I was walking with that day.
We were lucky it was not during the winter (it was the beginning of May), as that would have made it a lot worse because we had to cross the Alto de Perdón to get to the next available accommodation.
And absolutely make sure you bring the right gear as in clothes, boots, sleeping bag, etc..
Spring
It is a lovely time to go. Everything is green and lush. A lot of sunshine and warmth without the sweltering heat of the summer.
Camino traffic is picking up without being too crazy yet.
An exception to this is the time around Easter, especially La Semana Santa, the week before Easter.
Also, make sure you take other Spanish holidays into account as a lot of Spaniards walk a few stages of the Camino over a long weekend and things can be booked pretty quickly.
Summer
If you like the heat, this is your time.
The Camino Frances may go across the north of Spain, but it is still Spain. Meaning, it will be scorching during the day.
The golden-brown the summer brings along will replace the luscious green of the spring. You would be well advised to get some really early (6-ish) starts so you can make some distance without getting caught in the worst of the heat.
The advantage is that the gear you will carry (if you decide to carry it yourself) will be much lighter.
Autumn
The weather is again more bearable unless you are into the heat.
This is a great time to catch the wine festivals. Depending on when you will go. It will still be rather warm during September but nothing compared to the summer heat.
# 2 – Where do you want to start your Camino de Santiago?
That actually depends on quite a few things, like
- how much time you have.
- how far you want to walk.
- what your budget is.
- if getting the Compostela is important to you.
- if there is a part of the Camino de Santiago you absolutely want to walk.
(After reading this and doing your planning, you might come up with others as well. If so, I’d appreciate your feedback so I can add them to the list.)
Examples:
Let’s say
- You have a week and a half at your disposal.
- It is important for you to get the Compostela.
- You feel like you can walk forever.
- Your budget is roughly € 1,500.
- Which part of the Camino you will walk doesn’t really make a difference to you.
This means you will most likely start somewhere around Sarria, maybe slightly before that. Why? Because you only have a week and a half and absolutely want the Compostela.
This is the bit you would have to walk in order to get the Compostela. This stretch takes about a week (give or take, depending on a lot of factors yet again). So your flexibility in the other areas doesn’t really matter.
Or, like myself:
- I absolutely wanted to cross the Pyrenees on foot.
- I had 4 weeks and € 1,500 to spend.
- Getting the Compostela the first time around was not important to me at all.
That’s why I started in Saint Jean Pied de Port on the French side of the Pyrenees.
Bottom line is, there is no proper one starting point.
There are so many. A lot of those I spoke to who came from the U. S. or even Oz had started in Pamplona as it is the easiest to get to from the major airports. But not all of them.
Here is a list of some popular starting points:
St. Jean Pied de Port – Distance to Santiago de Compostella approx. 790km/500miles
If you want to start here, you might have two options. One is to cross the Pyrenees over the top or to walk around them.
I walked across. You cannot do this before the 1st of April, as the pass is closed before then. And even on/after that day, it might be closed if the weather doesn’t play nice.
And yet, year after year, you read about people who had to be rescued; helicopters ‘n all. Some of them might not have seen the signs that the pass is closed, others might have thought that warning doesn’t apply to them as they know a bit or two about being out in the mountains. The result was the same, they found themselves stuck or lost up there in danger of dying of hypothermia.
So if it is a priority for you to cross the Pyrenees over the top, I ask you for everyone involved: Pls. don’t be that person and make sure the pass is open before you go.
I went on April 26th 2016 and was lucky. The pass was open but there was still a lot of snow. Oh no, I’m not complaining. It was fantastic. What I loved was that I got to wear all the layers I brought on my second day. It was nice to know from the start that I didn’t lug all that stuff around in vain.
Pamplona – Distance to Santiago de Compostella = approx. 670 km /415 miles
This is the capital of the Navarre region in northern Spain with its own regional airport and is, therefore, easier to reach than many other smaller places along the way.
As it is a big city it has a lot to offer as well if you come from far away and would like to get settled in first.
The Lonely Planet knows a thing or two about Pamplona.
Sarria – Distance to Santiago de Compostella = approx.115 km/75 miles
If getting a Compostela (more on this later) is important to you and you are pressed for time, this is the closest to Santiago de Compostella you want to start.
As the minimum, you need to walk in order to get the Compostela is 100km on one of the Caminos a lot of pilgrims with limited time start here. Therefore, this is where it gets crowded.
Sarria is a town in Galicia and the one with the highest population on the Camino Frances within the region of Galicia with roughly 13,400 inhabitants.
Your own front door – Distance to Santiago de Compostella = You tell me 😉
Yep, some folks start from their own front door. Of course, for this, it is a significant advantage if your front door is within Europe.
I have met this Dutch retiree. He always wanted to walk the Camino from his own front door all the way to Santiago de Compostela once he retires. He left his home on February 29, 2016, and I met him in early May, still a good few hundred km/miles from Santiago de Compostella.
Not everyone is able to do that, and not everyone has the desire. But I thought it was really cool. That’s why I gave it a mention here.
If you choose this option, your daily Camino expenses will most likely average considerably higher as the cost of food, drinks, and accommodation probably ranges a good bit above those in Spain.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to personal preference and possibilities
How much time and money do you have available and how much of it you are willing to spend on walking the Camino de Santiago?
To list them all would just blow this post out of proportion, as there are just too many options.
# 3 – Do you want to carry all your belongings or have them forwarded?
What do I mean by having them forwarded?
There are shuttle services along the Camino Frances which will transport your pack (or a suitcase) to your next stop for a fee.
Most of the hostels have fliers out with different services, so you can choose which one would suit you best.
Some folks turn their nose up to those using these services as they kinda see it as cheating. Cheating at what, exactly, I do not know. It’s not like there is a prize at stake. Unless you view the Compostella as a medal and think those who make things more convenient for themselves shouldn’t get it. I really have no idea.
Most of the time, those judging don’t know the last thing about the person they are talking about.
There are many reasons people decide to use these services.
For instance, those French couples who walked at the same time I did. They walked with their little daypacks and had dusty pants while they were walking, as all the rest of us did. But when you met them having their pilgrim’s dinner, you could have thought they were out for a night at the Ritz. That’s because they brought suitcases full of clothes to pick from which they had transported to the next stop. To each his own. If that’s what’s important to them.
However, the reason could just as well be a medical one like it was for a friend of mine. She had a stress fracture and could not carry all the weight. But instead of canceling the trip (she came all the way from the U. S.) She was looking for options and found them in the transport services.
Or this other gentleman I met. He had his hip replaced not too long ago and could not carry the weight of a pack with all the gear. So, he too sent it ahead because he felt he needed to go on that pilgrimage and didn’t want to postpone it.
More power to both of them and everyone else who is looking for a way to make things work!
But even if you could carry everything but simply don’t feel like it, go right ahead. It’s everyone’s individual choice.
Pro:
The most obvious one has to be that it is easier because you only carry your daypack with necessities like snacks, water bottle, rain-gear, first aid kit, passport, money, credential… And it would make a difference of about 5–10kg/11-22lbs, depending on everything you bring with you.
As your daypack doesn’t weigh you down like a full backpack would, you are most likely faster and can therefore either have longer breaks or cover longer distances. Again, this depends on what’s more important to you.
When stopping somewhere it is so much easier to take the daypack off and put it back on again than it is with a full 50l backpack.
It can be the one thing that makes going on this walk possible. There could be more than one reason as I mentioned above. This could be a medical condition, like the replaced hip, healing stress fracture, back issues, etc..
Or maybe you might have spontaneously decided to go on that walk and haven’t practiced for it. To prevent injury, you could decide on starting slow and have your things forwarded so you can build a bit of stamina and muscle before you go all in.
Even though this is very convenient, it also has its downsides.
Con:
It adds to your cost at usually somewhere around €5.00.
You are not as flexible in your choices about how far to walk and when to get ready in the morning.
Of course, you are the one who calls the shots on where your things will be forwarded to. However, when you make that decision the night before, you don’t know how you feel the next day.
How far will you be able to walk? I, for instance, had days when I walked 30km/18.5miles and others when I only walked 10km/6mls because I came down with something overnight. If you have one of those days, it really sucks if you had your pack forwarded to a hostel some 20+km away.
Or maybe you met some folks you share a wavelength with and would like to spend dinner and vino with. Depending on how flexible they are, this might or might not happen if you have to go across town, off the route, to pick up your pack. And usually, this also includes a reserved bed/room as well.
I carried all my gear for the three simple reasons that I wanted to
- know what it’s like,
- see if I can do it and
- because I needed that freedom/flexibility.
After all, the primary reason I went solo was that I could do (and don’t do) only what I felt like doing (or not doing) for four weeks for the first time in my entire life.
# 4 – Where do you want to sleep on your Camino de Santiago?
To figure this out, ask yourself these 7 questions:
- What’s your budget (more on that below # 8)?
- What’s your preference re. the kind of accommodation – cheapest hostel, B&B, hotel?
- Do you think you need to stay at a proper hotel because you need the privacy and the services and you think it’s gross to share a bathroom with so many others at the hostels?
- Do you prefer the camaraderie at the hostels and don’t mind sharing the bathroom? After all, you have your slippers to wear in the shower and how bad can it be?
- Are you a planner and have to have everything scheduled and planned out to a T? Or would you rather wait and see what the Camino has to offer and then decide on the spot where you feel like staying?
- Do you have an issue with not feeling in control if there’s no detailed plan?
- Or, is that the salt in your Camino soup to not know everything in advance and just let things happen and let the way lead you?
I know a girl who even plans the coffee breaks when on a city trip and gets thrown off when her companion wants to go for a spontaneous coffee break because he saw a cafe he liked. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a lovely girl, and we get along great. But then again, we haven’t been on any trips together yet ;-).
Along the way, I have met quite a few folks who have pre-booked their accommodation for every single night. Not my cup of tea as it cuts into the flexibility/ independence I mentioned before way too much. But again, we all have our own preferences and priorities. And that’s OK. There is no one right way to do it.
I wanted to know as much as I could about the options I had but in the end, wanted to play it by ear.
So, what worked best for me was that I only booked the first night after I got to France and the last night in Santiago de Compostela before my flight back and let everything else in between just happen.
Here’s another thing to note: Most places let you book a bed or a room in advance. However, not all of them do.
Pros and cons of booking in advance:
Pros:
You don’t have to worry about being stranded because there is just no available bed/bunk/room to be found. Remember I told you about the Spaniards doing parts of the Camino during long weekends and that it gets more crowded during high-season times (like everywhere else)?
It happened to me when I was walking with a group of 5 for a few days. We were in this little town some 40 km/24 miles from León and were pretty beat at the end of that day.
There was only the odd bed available in the entire town. So, we really were out of luck. They tried to help us out as best they could and even called hotels and hostels in the next few towns within a 10 km/6 miles stretch, but it was the same everywhere.
The next availability was in León. So, no way we would make it there on foot that day as it was already between 5 pm and 6 pm. Not even the younger and fitter ones in our group.
Right, I mentioned there was a train station. As luck would have it, there was no more train for that day. That would have probably worked out cheaper as we ended up paying € 70.00 + tip. It’s actually not too bad.
We ended up taking a taxi. Something that didn’t sit well with me. The only consolation was that I didn’t do it out of laziness.
So, had we booked in advance, we would have had a place to stay in this town or the next.
You get to pick the place you want and don’t have to take what’s left if it is a busy day/time on the Camino and you’re not an early bird.
Cons:
You’re not flexible in how far you walk each day. It’s the same as having your pack forwarded.
Not every day’s the same, and you don’t feel the same every day.
Maybe you haven’t picked the right place and like another one better. One you might have passed on your way or one that was recommended to you while walking.
You might have to say goodbye earlier than you like. You’re having such a fab time with the gang you met during the day. Then it turns out they walk further/stop sooner and you miss out on all the craic or deep conversations to be had during dinner that evening.
Sure, you could always pull a no-show. But that would not be cool unless it’s unavoidable. It would be somewhat like the folks placing their infamous towels on the sun chair at the holiday resorts just to spend all day in bed nurturing their hang-over.
# 5 – What is a Compostela and where do you get it?
The Compostela is the document that certifies that you have completed the Camino de Santiago or should I say a Camino de Santiago as there are several in Spain alone. It is awarded by the Church authorities and issued at the Pilgrim’s Reception Office in the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
To get your Compostela you have to walk a minimum of 100 km/62 miles on the Camino de Santiago on foot or 200 km/124 miles if your pilgrimage is on horseback or bicycle.
At the Pilgrim’s Reception Office at Santiago de Compostela, you show your credential (more on that below) to prove that you have actually walked/rode the minimum distance and if everything is in order, you will be handed your personal Compostela. Yes, it will have your name on it.
Make sure you don’t get there in a hurry as there sometimes are lines of pilgrims waiting to get their Compostela and it can take a while.
Depending on your reason to walk the Camino de Santiago, you can choose from two different kinds of certificates. One for those who walked for religious reasons and another one for those who walked for other reasons like cultural or historical.
# 6 – Your credential (also called Camino/Pilgrim’s Passport) and where to get it?
As mentioned above you need to prove that you actually walked a minimum of 100 km/62 miles in order to get your Compostela.
You do that by means of your credential/Camino/Pilgrim’s passport, which is a little booklet like thing, you collect stamps in. You get those stamps all over the place along the Camino Frances; at all the hostels, hotels, most of the bars, cafes, and even lots of the shops.
Like with a lot of things in life, you can have the basic version or the luxury one. So you want to decide on whether you want your credential to be basic and inexpensive or pretty and are willing to pay 4x as much and on how quickly you need/want it?
If you don’t mind the way it looks and you just want it to do the job, you can get one for about €0.50–€3.00 at the tourist/pilgrim’s office when you get to your starting point. This is also the way to go if doing the walk was a rather spontaneous decision and you don’t have enough time to have it shipped.
For me, it was not so much that I absolutely wanted the fancy version. It was more that I wanted to get all the things I could already get without limiting myself. It kinda made me feel like I was getting closer to the start of the Camino with every item or shard of information I got.
That’s why I ordered my credential (the pretty version) months ahead of time from the Brothers of St. James in Dublin. I was willing to pay a tenner for it just to have it right away, instead of waiting till I got to St. Jean Pied de Port where it would have gotten it for a fraction of that.
Here’s the link to the official site in Santiago de Compostela, which provides detailed information on the conditions. You can also order your credential from there too:
# 7 – How much money do you need for the Camino de Santiago?
This answer is down to how you want to experience your pilgrimage.
Maybe you have heard of Hape Kerkeling’s book “I’m off then: losing and finding myself on the Camino de Santiago”. Hape is a German comedian/entertainer who went on that pilgrimage because of a burnout he experienced. He mostly stayed in hotels and was dining like a king for the better part of his way.
Then there are others who have €15 for the day and made it work.
So, it once again depends on quite a few variables.
I had € 1,500 for four weeks and started in Saint Jean Pied de Port. This amount was available for me to spend during my time there and didn’t include my flights and the shuttle bus to get there from the airport.
So that’s €53 a day for food/beverages, accommodation, the odd sight-seeing, and whatever else I might need/want.
What could be something unexpected?
During a steep descent into Zubiri, I somehow hurt my knee. It didn’t seem like anything major and only hurt when I was walking downhill. So I bought a knee brace to support my knee, which cost me an unexpected €28, more than half of my daily allowance.
The taxi ride I mentioned before is one of those as well.
My regular daily expenses look something like this:
- Breakfast – €4.00 – €6.00
(cafe con leche, freshly pressed OJ, tostada with tomato and olive oil) - Break 2x before lunch – €3.00 – €6.00
(cafe con leche €1.00 – €1.50 both times, snack once €1.0 – €3.00) - Lunch (sandwich/empanada or the like) €2.00 – €4.00
- Break 2x before looking for a place to stay – €2.00 -€3.00
(cafe con leche or a cañita of beer, one of those tiny ones of 0.2 cl/ 7fl. oz – €1.00 -€1.50 each) - Accommodation – €5 – €15/ €30 – €40
(usually hostels/ 1 B&B, 3 hotel rooms) - Menu del día: – €7 – €15
(three-course-menu, wine, and water) - Aquarius – €2
(sports drink)
Can you tell that I like my cafe con leche?
Then there were things like the odd treat to a little tour around the tapas bars of the larger places like Astorga, Burgos, etc. and I had to replenish things like soap, toothpaste, mouthwash… because I only got the small packages to save weight.
One thing you can do to save money is to take advantage of the kitchens at the hostels, ask some folks if they want to share a dinner with you, cook it yourselves and share the cost. This could be some pasta with marinara sauce and a nice bottle of vino for about €5 – €7 total. Yes, you can get really nice wine for about €2 – €3 a bottle in Spain.
So you see for yourself that it is a bit hard to say how much money you will need.
So far a daily budget of €35 would definitely be sufficient but would not allow you too much of a buffer for extras or a lot of luxury.
Having said that, at the time I am writing this, it is early 2021 and with everything going on I cannot be sure if these numbers will apply in the future.
I am sure you could still walk the Camino with a budget of €35/day. However, you might be more limited because the prices along the Camino might have increased to make up for the loss during the pandemic and the lack of pilgrim’s resulting from it.
# 8 – Which equipment do you need for the Camino de Santiago?
Listen closely because this is important!!!
The two most important pieces of equipment are:
Your shoes/boots and your backpack.
Make sure these two are high quality/fit perfectly.
The rest is secondary. But these two items can make or break your Camino.
There is a lot more to say on this and I will. It’s just going to be in a separate post, as it would otherwise blow this one out of proportion.
# 9 – Camino Organizers/Agencies – in case you don’t want to plan and organize it all yourself
If reading this, put you off of planning and organizing it all on your own, you might want to look into what the agencies have to offer.
You can book guided and self-guided tours. Usually, their services include booking accommodation, meals, luggage transfer, and the likes for you.
The pros for this are:
- Time saved on organizing the trip yourself.
- Contact person, if something’s not going according to plan.
- If you choose to book a walk with a guided tour, you know you will have company.
The disadvantages are:
- lack of control
- less adventure and exploration
- less flexibility
As this is not an option for me, I cannot help with any advice from experience, really.
Some of these organizers are www.caminoways.com, www.followthecamino.com, www.santiagoways.com, www.caminotravelcenter.com…
As I said, I have no experience with any of these agencies and they’re not affiliate links. I merely added them for convenience purposes so it is easier for you to compare should you be interested.
Helpful Resources:
Online Forum
There are loads of them out there. The one I found invaluable is the one on www.caminodesantiago.me.
I learned most of what I needed to know (and then some) through this forum. Every question I had someone else had already asked and answered before.
And after a while, I felt like I have been there already. Sounds weird, I know.
Website
Wise Pilgrim is an online guide for the Caminos de Santiago in Spain. Their website is pretty awesome as you can pick the Camino you plan to walk, and they have a list of pretty much all the accommodations along the way.
It has up-to-date information on the prices, services, whether they are currently open, contact info, how they’re equipped, and which services they offer. Some of them even have a link to Booking.com, which is very convenient.
They also have an app for your phone (Android and IOS) which I haven’t tried though.
Books/physical guides
“Camino de Santiago – Pilgrim Tips & Packing List” by Sybille Yates
This is a fantastic book on how to prepare for the Camino de Santiago.
I am fairly sure you could walk the entire way without a guide in booklet form. But that was not an option for me. It is just marked so well.
However, I wanted a guide, and I wanted it now for the simple reason that I was sucking up every shard of info I could get. So I bought one about six months before I left.
John Brierly’s “A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago”
As I live in Ireland, I got John Brierly’s guide for the Camino Frances. He has one for all the most popular Caminos. and for this one; you have two options, the real deal or the basic version.
The real deal: The whole book including a detailed description of the entire way and lots of info on related history.
The basic version: You can get the booklet with the bare necessities like the route map, the distance between each stage and to the next hostel incl. phone number, beds, rooms, inclines, etc.
Next time I go, the latter will do fine. And the bonus is that it is a lot lighter.
Wise Pilgrim Guide Books
Wise Pilgrim usually also sell physical guide books. Theirs even includes a credential (Camino Passport). However, they decided to not have a 2021 version printed as they cannot provide up-to-date information in it due to the current situation and things changing on what feels like a daily basis. Instead, they provide the guides as PDFs. That’s a perfect example of rolling with it; to focus on the solution, not the problem.
“Outdoors – Der Weg ist das Ziel” by Raymund Joos.
If you understand German, there is another really good one called “Outdoors – Der Weg ist das Ziel” by Raymund Joos. I didn’t use it myself but heard only good things about it from others I have met along the way and one of my friends who did the Camino before me. He swears by it.
However, there are a lot of those guide books out there. John Brierly’s is the most popular one in English to date.
Apps
There are many apps for the Camino de Santiago out there as well. However, I cannot really recommend one of them over others as I have only tried one and deleted it again.
It’s not that it was not a good app. It’s just not for me. I love physical ones better as you can make notes on them and they’re not dependent on a charged battery.
Roundup
I know, this is a pretty long read and I hope you now have a better idea of:
- What to expect during the different seasons.
- Where to start your Camino de Santiago.
- Whether you want to carry everything yourself or have it forwarded.
- Where you want to sleep.
- What a Compostela is and where/how to get it.
- What a credential/Camino passport is and where/how to get it.
- How much money you need.
- Which equipment is the most important.
- Where to find further information.
The next step is to check out my post on how to prepare your equipment and yourself for your big walk.
Now I hope you will enjoy diving into the planning as much as I did. For me, the planning of any trip, vacation, walk, is part of the whole thing and makes me feel like I’m almost there.
Enjoy!!!
As always, have a fantastic day!
Rena
Grab my packing list here: Camino Packing List
Of course, yours might vary more or less, but it will definitely give you a pretty good idea. Keep in mind that I waked from the end of April until the end of May. So if you will be on tour earlier in the year it will be much colder, especially if you are crossing the Pyrenees and at night, which means the things you pack will probably weigh a bit more and use up more space. Should you decide to go during the heat of summer, the opposite will be the case.
Useful Resources
Link with Spanish holidays
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