Camino de Santiago Q&A: Answers to your top 5 questions
all of our best experience and advice in one place
Hello there reader! This is going to be a little different to our normal Sunday Substack… Thanks to a little leap in subscribers over the last couple of weeks (hello and welcome, we’re very glad you’re here) we wanted to create a little index of all of our Camino de Santiago-related content and to answer some of your most frequently asked questions. Let’s go!
Photo: Walking the Camino de Santiago, taken by a fellow pilgrim in June 2022
If this is the first time we’re meeting (hello!) then let us introduce ourselves. We’re Mark and Louise (in terms of our writing here mainly Louise, but sometimes Mark too) and we are on a mission to encourage you not to wait to do the things on your bucket list but to find ways to start now. When Mark was diagnosed with stage 3 prostate cancer back in 2021, we decided to stop waiting “til the kids leave home” to do the things we wanted to do and instead find ways to start doing them now.
So in 2022, we found ourselves walking the Camino de Santiago, all 500 miles from St Jean Pied de Port in France, to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, with two of our teenage children (we have five children between us in total - but not all of them chose to come). And it truly was one of the hardest and best things we’ve ever done.
If you’re even slightly tempted to walk the Camino, or indeed try anything a little out of your comfort zone, then we’re here to encourage you, support you and cheer you on!
Today we’re going to tackle the five questions we get asked the most about the Camino de Santiago. Let’s get started.
Photo: Camino Finisterre, Louise’s iPhone, September 2022
Which Camino route is best for me?
Did you know that there are 281 listed Caminos, covering more than 51,500 miles of routes through 29 different countries? Nor did we. The most famous of the routes is the Camino Frances, journeying 500 miles from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. This is the most popular route but you don’t have to walk it all, many people for their first Camino walk the final 100km from Sarria to Santiago. Another popular Camino is from Santiago to Finisterre (‘the end of the earth’) or back from Finisterre to Santiago, but you also have the Camino Norte (along the north coast of Spain from San Sebastian) and the Camino Portuguese from Porto. Then there’s the Mozarabe in southern Spain which Mark started this January and there’s even one on the Balearic islands. The Camino world is your oyster….
To help you choose the best route for you:
You could watch our entire 40-day journey on the Camino Frances in 40 minutes
Find out more about the final 100km walking from Sarria starting with this vlog
Watch our entire Camino Finisterre playlist or read our Substack piece about finishing the Camino Finisterre.
Photo: Our Credencial, Santiago de Compostela, Louise’s iPhone, June 2022
How do I get a Pilgrim's Passport?
If you’re tackling the Camino de Santiago on foot, then you have to walk at least the last 100km (which works out to be roughly from Sarria) to receive your Credencial, the official document proving that you have walked the Camino. You’ll need to show a pilgrim’s passport in the Pilgrim’s Office in Santiago, which will need to contain at least two stamps from each day of your last 100km. Pilgrim’s passports can be picked up at the official Pilgrim’s Offices in Santiago and St Jean Pied de Port, as well as in various tourist offices along the route.
To find out more about the Pilgrim’s Passport:
Watch us collect our passports from the office in St Jean Pied de Port
Visit the websites to get the opening times of the Pilgrim’s Office in St Jean Pied de Port, the Church of Santa Marina de Sarria and the Pilgrim’s Office in Santiago de Compostela.
Photo: Triacastela, Camino de Santiago, Louise’s iPhone, June 2022
How much does the Camino cost?
Perhaps the easiest answer is how much do you want to spend? We walked with people who were staying in luxury accommodation and paradors all the way - and others who spent every night in an albergue or pilgrim’s hostel. We tended to stay in a mix of dormitories, albergues and the occasional Airbnb for a little extra privacy. Expect to spend at least 40 to 50 euros a day for food and accommodation per person, but you can easily spend a lot more.
To find out more about budgeting, costs and planning your Camino:
Feel free to use our Camino de Santiago planning template which includes links to all of the places we stayed
Read our in-depth guides to five of the biggest cities on the Camino Frances, including where to stay, what to do and where to eat:
Photo: Which is the right way? Camino de Santiago, Louise’s iPhone, June 2022
What is the Camino de Santiago really like?
The Camino de Santiago is as hard as you imagine it will be, and as easy. It’s without question a tough physical challenge, and you may well find the things you expect to be hard are easy, and the things you think you’ll find easy are hard. Truly, it’s the best thing we’ve ever done and probably the hardest too. No two Caminos are the same, and no two people will have the same experience even if they’re walking together. Our biggest takeaway, or piece of advice for other peregrinos, is to walk your own Camino. There is no single right way (despite what some Camino purists will try to tell you). If you need to get a taxi, skip a section, or send your bag on with one of the wonderful local bag services, then please; you do you. This is your Camino and only you know best how to walk it.
To find out more about what the Camino de Santiago was really like for us:
You can watch our whole journey, from start to finish, on our daily YouTube vlogs
Read our reflections on Substack on the Camino de Santiago one year after completing it
Watch the late-night live QA we recorded after we’d finished the Camino de Santiago.
Photo: Santiago de Compostela, Louise’s iPhone, June 2022
How do I train for the Camino?
First up a confession, we did not train for our Camino. This was a risky choice, but with a busy life at home and a reasonable basic level of fitness, it was the choice we made. If we were to do it again for the first time, we’d have trained more and broken in our shoes for longer. And that’s important advice - if there’s one thing you need to do in advance of your walk, it’s break in your shoes as much as you possibly can.
If you can train, then it’s well worth increasing your daily steps and trying to get out for a longer walk up to three times a week before you start your Camino. The fitter you are, and the more used to walking, the more you’re going to enjoy your journey.
To find out more about preparation for the Camino de Santiago:
Watch our vlog about what we packed for our Camino, what we didn’t need and what we couldn’t live without
Read more about our Camino de Santiago packing list on our Substack page.
Photo: Camino Finisterre, Louise’s iPhone, September 2022
My idea for this post was to create one space where you can find everything we have created so far to help you with your journey walking the Camino de Santiago and to answer some of the questions we get asked the most.
I hope you’ve found this helpful! Watch this space for more about the Camino de Santiago, including some insights we’ll be sharing soon on Mark’s first couple of days walking the Camino Mozarabe from Granada back in January. We’re also very excited to be walking the first week of the Camino Norte this coming April, and we’re planning to take you along with us with daily posts here on Substack.
Buen Camino! 👣 We’ll see you on the road.
Louise and Mark x
👣 Here are a few other ways we might be able to help and encourage you with your own Camino de Santiago journey:
Ask us any questions about the Camino in the comments below and we’ll answer you as best we can, as soon as we can.
Book a 30-minute chat with us over video call to ask us anything about the Camino de Santiago one-to-one (or two-to-one!).