Walking The Way : 8 Helpful Insider Tips and Tricks for a Buen Camino

Revised April 2022

So you’re considering walking the Camino Santiago!  Great idea – you are about to embark upon an amazing journey – not only a journey on foot, but also a journey of spirituality, nature, peace, mindfulness, camaraderie, and simple joy.  A journey taken by peregrinos (pilgrims) for centuries for many reasons – for loss, for prayer, for exercise, in gratitude, for love.

Understandably this is not the first blog post about walking The Camino, but I hope to answer some of the questions that I had before walking; questions you may have too.

Everyone has a different experience on the Camino – so please take my recommendations as just that – recommendations.  After walking the Portuguese Central Camino from Porto to Santiago in May, 2019 –  224 km (150 miles) with 11 days of walking in the rain, the sun, uphill and down – here are my tips and suggestions for a bom caminho. (That’s how they say it in Portuguese 😙.)

Boots or Shoes?

I hesitate to call the Portuguese Central Camino a “walk” vs. a “hike” – even though on most of the days, you’re simply ambling through charming medieval villages, meadows exploding with vibrant colorful flowers, mossy lush forests and friendly towns on cobblestone streets, sidewalks,  dirt trails and paved village roads.  And “cobblestone streets” sounds so charming – and they are! – but walking on them is hard on your feet and you’ll want something comfortable and cushioned. However, there are a couple of tough days of uphill and downhill climbs.  Nothing very technical, but certainly those days can be considered hikes rather than strolls through the countryside.

 On the bridge at the crossroads (crossriver?) between Portugal and Spain in my Altra Timp Trail shoes.

Most of the people I met and saw on my journey were wearing either running shoes or trail shoes, but there were some folks wearing hiking boots.  My suggestion would be first and foremost, wear whatever is most comfortable for you! If you have tried and true footwear that you love and trust for walking and hiking distances, go for it.  But if you’re shopping for something specifically for hiking The Way, there’s no need to get sturdy, heavy-duty hiking boots.  I walked in Altra Timp Trail hiking shoes, and my friend Theresa wore Brooks running shoes.  We both carried Chaco sport sandals in our packs as our backup shoes, but wore those only perhaps 10% of the time on The Way, but 100% as our walking-around shoes after arriving at our destination each day. And you know that you need to wear your new shoes at home to try them out before bringing them on a walk of this distance, right? REI and Hoka One-One are two companies that will let you buy shoes and wear them, and return if needed.  After all, how do you know if a shoe or boot is going to be awesome unless you try it out on a real hike??

Socks…🧦

Make sure to have good quality merino wool socks   – don’t skimp and DON’T bring cotton socks! Wool wicks moisture, doesn’t get stinky and magically stays cool or warm.

I wore Injini brand merino wool toe socks, (super sexy, I know!) because my last two toes like to crawl over each other and not stay in their proper place which causes blisters – the toe socks were a great way to keep them separated and prevent them from creating friction (and friction is what creates blisters!) If your toes tend to do this as well, there are little silicone “sleeves” you can slip over the offending toe to keep it separate from the next one and you can buy these online or in pharmacies.

 

Trekking Poles or Not?

I high-fived myself numerous times on the Camino for bringing poles!!  Actually, I didn’t BRING them from Colorado – because I was traveling with a carry-on bag and not a checked bag, I wasn’t allowed to bring them in my carry-on backpack on the plane from the USA (I’ve heard that European flights aren’t as strict about bringing poles as carry-on items) and wasn’t willing to pay for checking my poles.

So I purchased hiking poles with shock absorbers in them for about $40/pair at Decathlon, which is a popular European sports store similar to Dick’s or Sports Authority in the USA, easy to find throughout any major city in Europe, and I left the poles at my last hostel for someone else to enjoy them, rather than bringing them back home with me.

Using poles lessens the impact on your lower body – it takes the burden off your knees and hips and distributes it more equally to your arms and upper body.  Using poles going uphill helps because you can pull yourself up the incline by planting your poles ahead of you, and going downhill, you can brace yourself as you hike down by planting your poles in front of you, especially helpful when hiking on loose rock and scree.  Using the poles on flat ground creates a rhythm, giving you a faster speed as well.  If you’re not sure how to use them properly (I wasn’t very confident before the Camino), just go to YouTube and watch a few videos and practice at home beforehand.  There are even trekking pole classes at some of the REI stores in the USA! I was 200% thrilled I had my poles, and used them every single day. (and almost forget them every single day too! 🤪At the hostel. At the cafe. At the restaurant!!!)

Tour Company or DIY?

OK, you’re reading a post written by someone that LOOOOVES to organize travel, research hotels and restaurants, and book things herself.  So. That being said, I am puzzled as to why someone would pay a company a shit-ton of money to book a “self-guided” tour – you pay this company to book the hostels/hotels for you ahead of time, and to send your bags ahead to the next town for you, and they email you a printout of the trail to follow from stage to stage (the sections of the trail that most people follow from Village A to Village B are called “stages”). I actually saw a tour online (at my favorite sporting goods store) that offered 5 days on the Camino with hotels and meals included…for $3000. WTAF?? Honestly? Theresa and I each spent around $500 for 12 days for the same – meals and simple accommodations and a few days of sending our bags ahead. Yes. For 12 days.

I purchased the “Bible” book of the trail – Ed Brierley’s Camino guide, and also downloaded the “Wise Pilgrim” camino app to my phone which contains an interactive map of the trail showing where you are on the trail (even without internet) and has links to many hostels, hotels, “albergues” (similar to hostels) and restaurants along the way.

You cannot get lost on this trail!  Even ME!!!

The iconic scallop seashell and sunshine yellow arrows are truly everywhere…

…the moment you hesitate and try to decide whether you’re supposed to go left/right/straight, there’s an arrow or three pointing you along The Way.  It’s nearly impossible to get lost.  You really don’t need a printout or even the book.

Each evening, Theresa and I would assess how far we thought we would like to go the next day (based on the “standard” stages of the Camino in Brierley’s book, the condition of our feet, the elevation gain and the weather forecast) and booked accommodations online for the next night.  We mainly used Booking.com to find places and it worked out perfectly. Although many people choose to arrive in the next town without accommodation reservations and either walk into a municipal-owned albergue (a super inexpensive dorm-type hostel that doesn’t accept reservations) and grab a bed, we decided we wanted to take our time, choosing to leisurely leave our current accommodations at 8:30 or 9 am to begin our day’s walk and avoid the “bed race” – some walkers they get up at o ‘dark thirty to try get to the next stage before everyone else to guarantee they get a bed for the night. We paid anywhere from $12 to $25/per person per night for very basic to very lovely places located along The Way.

And although we chose to carry our own backpacks most days, we did send them along on the day we knew it was going to be very hot, as well as the two days we would be dealing with a lot of uphill and downhill climbing.  For 5 to 7 Euros, you can have local vans pick up your bag from your hostel/hotel in the morning and drop it off wherever you’re staying later that day.  There are a few companies that have been doing this for years – we used TuiTrans and Way to Santiago.  All the hostels/hotels have the little envelopes you’ll need – you email the transport company that evening to let them know where you are staying and where you’re headed the next day, fill in the info on the little envelope and put the $$ inside, pin the envelope to your backpack, and leave the pack at reception before 8 am for pick up and drop off at the next stage. Voila.  Super-duper simple, cheap, easy and efficient!!

Sleeping bag: yes or no?

This was a tough one…we wrestled with it a lot before heading to Portugal.  The goal is to keep your backpack as light as possible to make it easier to carry….but we had heard stories of albergues and hostels with no blankets, paper sheets (😱right??) and no heat.  We each decided to carry a sleeping bag and only used it once or maybe twice.  I purchased a super puffy bag from AegisMax for about 80 bucks that only weighed 408 grams (14 ounces) so I was ok with carrying it.  “Better to have it and not use it, than to need it and not have it” I always say, right kids?
Hiking from May 7th-20th, the weather was not too cold and all the places we stayed had blankets and proper bedding, but I’d suggest you either get a lightweight down blanket or sleeping bag and bring it.  And if you’re sending your bag ahead each day or every few days, you’ll hardly notice it!

Packing List

You can find perhaps one bazillion packing lists on Facebook Camino pages, Pinterest, other blogs and the like.   I traveled with a wonderful Gregory Jade 38-liter backpack plus a fanny-pack.  Here’s a photo of what i brought…If you’d like my packing list, message me here or on my FB page and I’ll send it along.

So hey…What Does a Day on The Camino Look Like?

We woke around 7:30 or 8, got dressed, tossed our stuff back into our backpack and either sent it ahead by courier as detailed above or carried it, grabbed some coffee and maybe a croissant or breakfast sandwich at the first bakery we saw as we began our walk  (breakfast is rarely included at the hostels and hotels) and were on the trail by 8:30 or 9.  We would stop for coffee around 11, or maybe just wait and stop for lunch around 1…hike a few more hours, stop for a beer, and then roll into town after 18-25 km (12-15 miles).

We would check in to our reserved room, take a shower, wash our socks and undies in the sink, hang them to dry (or if we were lucky, use a washing machine at the accommodations to wash our pants and maybe even get to wash our travel towel!), hang up our shirt from the day to air out if it didn’t need washing (thank goodness for merino wool – it’s really true when they say it wicks moisture and doesn’t get stinky!!) and then we would rest for an hour or so before going out to explore the town and find somewhere for dinner.

Many towns are taking a siesta from about 2 pm to 5 pm which means stores, restaurants and bars are closed, so it was usually super quiet when we would arrive. We used this time to regroup, plan for tomorrow and put our feet up for a bit.

Most restaurants offer “peregrine” or “pilgrim” menus for those walking the Camino.  Usually, these consist of a choice of pork loin, chicken or fish, rice and French fries (yes, both!) and a handful of salad, a glass of wine or a beer and some bread for 8-10 euros.  Nothing fancy, very carb-heavy and simple, but it does the trick!  We occasionally chose pizza or something other than the Pilgrim menu. After dinner, we’d head back to our accommodations, choose whether to send our bag ahead or not (and send a quick email to the company to arrange it if we were doing so), and maybe reserve the next day’s lodging.  Read a book? Chat with fellow pilgrims? Read up on tomorrow’s village to see what it had to offer? Relax? Then we’d be asleep by 10:30 and ready for another day’s adventure!

We stayed in a variety of places – small albergues (like hostels), inexpensive hotels with a private room and private or shared bath down the hall, dorm-type hostels with 6-10 bunks, small family-run cafes with beds upstairs…you can choose beautiful hotels, cheap ‘casa rural’ accommodations and anything in-between depending on your budget.  And finally…

What do you do with clothes/laptop/etc you need while traveling before or after the Camino but don’t want to carry while you’re walking? 

Because I was traveling for two months before and after the Camino itself, I had a laptop, big headphones, a Kindle, other clothes, a jacket and toiletries that I wasn’t willing to carry every day on the trail.  All my research online showed that it was simple enough to send your box/suitcase/small backpack of extras ahead to Santiago by using the TuiTrans or other transport vans for about $50.  You would send it ahead to a company in Santiago that would store it for you until you arrived, at a cost of another $50.  I was struggling with this…$100 to send my stuff ahead?  Hmm…Instead, what we did was go to the post office in Porto, get some free large boxes from the super-helpful lady behind the counter and fill the boxes with our extra stuff and mail them to the 4-star hotel, The NH Collection Santiago we had booked in Santiago as a treat for our day of arrival.  I had contacted the hotel beforehand, and they were gracious enough to offer to hold our boxes until we arrived 10-12 days later –for no cost.  We paid about $24 to ship our boxes to Santiago from Porto, thereby saving us about $75 each – which when combined, more than paid for our night at a swanky hotel!

And there you have it.  My 8 tips and tricks for enjoying the Camino.  I hope I’ve answered some of your logistical questions about walking the Camino – please feel free to ask me anything you’re wondering about – I’ll do my best to answer your questions about how/what/when for the Camino Portuguese.

Buen camino! (Spanish) and Bom caminho!! (Portuguese)

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                           See you there! 😉

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk.  Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts.                      ~ Soren Kiekegaard