Two amateur pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago

Seven years ago, my mother and I decided to walk the Camino de Santiago, ambitiously starting from Saint-Jean. We were thinking of doing it sometime after my studies but it never worked out since I left for India right away. We kept talking about it and last year I finally said “Let’s fix a date. Next year it is!”. So finally after all these years, the planning started.

The first question was: which route to take? To my surprise, I learned that are multiple versions of the Camino, each with their own difficulties and different lengths. The actual Camino de Frances starts across the border in France and is around 800 km long. There is another one closer to the coast, one which starts in Portugal, one in the South of Spain, and one somewhere in the mountains. On our trip, we even learned that there is no limit to that and you could theoretically even start from wherever you live. We learned of a woman who walked for around 2000 km starting from Poland. There are extensions like the Westweg in Germany which you can include. Just google “Camino de Santiago routes” to get an overview. 

None of us had ever done any longer trekking tour before. The maximum amount of trekking for me was the Triund Trek in McLeodganj, India, but that was just for 2 days and hardly anything to compare it with. Another question was the accommodation. To be honest, I have never been the hostel type and let’s face it: if you’re going for the regular hostel Camino version, you will be sharing the room and bathroom with way too many people. Way too much for me! Additionally, my Mom is in her late 60ies and although she’s extremely fit for her age, this was another factor to consider.
Hence, after a lot of research and discussions, we decided to go for the softie version: 111 km starting from Sarria, around 20 km every day for a week. Plus another 30 km from Finisterre to Muxia. Luggage transfer and pre-booked hotels included. Because a real pilgrim needs her hairdryer and 10 different outfits, just in case ? For trekking amateurs like us this seemed ambitious enough.

Both of us had to do some major shopping for proper trekking boots and general outdoor equipment. If you’re planning the same, you might want to check out my Camino shopping and packing list. You will feel every gram on your back, so you really want to stick to the essentials unless you have an extra bag being shipped from town to town.

So let me share my experiences on how to plan your own rather comfortable – but depending on the comfort level also more pricy – Camino.

There are two ways you can do it: you either pre-book the hotels or single dorm rooms yourself or you can go through a travel company specialised on the Camino. The advantage with the latter is that you will get luggage transfer with it – of course, another additional cost. Depending on the company, you can customise the length of the legs with them based on your needs. Some people cover 30 km per day, others might want to take it slow and only cover around 20 km a day. Don’t underestimate how hilly it can be, so even an 18 km leg can be quite exhausting. And as you will see from my guides for each of the stopovers, you might want to have some time left of the day to explore the places and enjoy the food. Why it’s recommended to pre-book hotels or dorm-rooms is that especially during the peak time it can be extremely difficult to find anything.

You need to walk at least 100 km into Santiago to receive your Compostela certificate. To prove this, you’re going to collect stamps on the way, in churches and chapels, dorms and restaurants. With 111 km away, Sarria is the most popular place to start. There are packages for both the entire Camino and the short version. It all depends on you, whether you’re fit enough and/or have enough time.

There are a lot of travel agencies to choose from. We used the German agency https://www.pures-reisen.de/ and were extremely happy with them. Here are some other links you can check out to get an idea. There should be agencies in every country so for non-English speakers, it would be advisable to book through those.

https://caminoways.com/

https://followthecamino.com/

The last thing to consider when planning your trip is the time of the year. You might want to avoid July and August, as they are the most popular (= very crowded) and can be unpleasantly hot. May, June and September are better options as both the weather is perfect and it’s not yet so crowded. We went in May and it was just lovely! 

Here is an overview of our route, around 150 km in total:

Arrival in Sarria via bus from Santiago de Compostela airport

Sarria – Portomarin

Portomarin – Lestedo

Lestedo – Melide

Melide – Arzua

Arzua – A Rua

A Rua – Santiago de Compostela

2 night stay in Santiago

Santiago – Finisterre via bus

Finisterre – Lires

Lires – Finesterre

Finesterre – Santiago by bus

1 night stay in Santiago