Walking the Camino de Santiago is a great experience, the best thing about the Camino is that anybody can do it, you don’t have to be an experienced hiker or super athlete to walk it. Camino de Santiago has many different route options from a short 120 km walk to the long and challenging 800 km and even 1000 km routes depending on how much time you have, what you want to see, and how far you can walk you can choose any of the existing routes. I must warn you the Camino might be addictive, many people come back again and again after completing their first Camino route. You can find many Camino posts on our Camino de Santiago page. We tried to create the best resource that pilgrims can use to plan their journey.
By the time of writing this post we walked seven different Camino routes:
- Portuguese Camino (from Lisbon) – May 2018
- Camino Primitivo – June 2018
- Camino del Norte – October 2018
- Camino Finisterre-Muxía – November 2018
- Vía de la Plata (part of it, 214 km from Seville to Mérida) – April 2019
- Camino Inglés – May 2019
- Camino Francés – September 2019
We couldn’t do any Camino routes in 2020 due to the pandemic. In 2021 our daughter was born we didn’t get a chance to walk. This year we’re planning to restart our Camino journey. We’re going to walk the Portuguese Camino again this time with our daughter. Now when we live in Portugal we can spend even more time on the Camino de Santiago.
What is the Camino de Santiago?
Camino de Santiago or the Way of Saint James is a pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, a city in Galicia (Spain), it’s believed that in the cathedral of Santiago the body of the apostle Saint James was buried. The tradition of walking the Camino goes back to the 9th century when Spanish King Alfonso II completed the first-ever pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela from Oviedo, nowadays this route is known as the Camino Primitivo. The Camino de Santiago is not a single route but a network of routes that start in different cities, mainly in Spain (some in Portugal and France), and finish in Santiago.
Camino de Santiago routes
As I mentioned above the Camino de Santiago is not a single route, as some people think referring to the most popular route – Camino Frances, but a network of routes. In fact, you can start walking towards Santiago from anywhere in Europe and it’ll be the Camino but outside the established Camino routes it will be difficult to find an infrastructure for pilgrims; accommodation, route markings, etc.
There are several established Camino routes, they all start in different cities and end in Santiago de Compostela;
Camino Frances (the French Way) – the most popular route, about 55% of all pilgrims choose this Camino. The French route starts in Saint Jean Pied de Port, a French town near the border with Spain. Total distance 790 km. If you’re planning to complete the entire route read our post on how to get to St.Jean Pied de Port. 50% of pilgrims who complete this route walk only the last 100 km from Sarria. The last 100 kilometers to Santiago on any Camino is a required minimum for getting the Compostela (the Certificate of the Camino de Santiago).
Camino Portugues (the Portuguese Way) – the second popular route. It starts in Lisbon but most people walk it from Porto. Total distance from Lisbon – 616 km, from Porto 260 km or 280 km, depending on the route you take. There are two different routes from Porto; the Coastal route, it’s walked only by 4% of the pilgrims, and the Central route, which is walked by 20% of the pilgrims. The Coastal Route goes along the coast from Porto to Vigo, the Central Route goes inland all the way to Santiago.
Camino del Norte (the Northern Way) – this route is growing in popularity, In 2019 6% of all pilgrims who arrived in Santiago completed this Camino. The Northern Way is a great alternative to the French Camino. I’ve walked both and liked the scenery on the Camino del Norte more. The route starts in Irún, a small Spanish town on the border with France. The total distance of the Camino is 825 km.
Camino Primitivo (the Original Way) – one of the lesser walked Camino routes, about 5% of all pilgrims. It’s relatively short, 321 km but it’s considered to be one of the toughest routes due to many steep ascents and descents. The Camino Primitivo starts in Oviedo, Spain.
Via de la Plata (the Silver Way) – the longest established route of St.James, about 1000 km, one of the least walked routes, 3%. It’s not the best route to walk as the first Camino, it has less infrastructure, longer stages, etc. It starts in Seville, Spain.
Camino Inglés (the English Way) – a short, 120 km walk, from A Coruña/Ferrol, Spain. One of the least walked routes (3,5%) on the Camino. It’s probably the best option for those who just want to get a taste of the Camino before embracing a long walk.
There are more Camino routes (basically from any more or less biggish Spanish city you can start walking to Santiago); from Valencia – Camino de Levante; from Almería – Camino Mozárabe (joins with Via de la Plata after Merida); from Barcelona – Camino Catalán; from Madrid – Camino de Madrid – the last two join with the French Way after about two weeks. All these routes combined are walked by less than 1% of the pilgrims a year so you can imagine how little infrastructure they have.
There is one “special” route Camino Finisterre-Muxía, unlike the other routes, it starts in Santiago de Compostela and goes to Finisterre and Muxía, two coastal towns in Galicia. People usually walk it after completing one of the other Camino routes. Total distance from Santiago to Finisterre – 89 km and to Muxía – 86 km.
The best months for walking
The best months for doing the Camino depend on the route you choose, some routes are great in summer e.g. Camino del Norte, Camino Primitivo – it’s nice, warm, no rain; on some Caminos, the heat is unbearable e.g. Via de la Plata, and the Portuguese Camino (Lisbon part) – it’s scorching hot, dry with no shadow to hide.
The busiest time for most of the routes is July and August we’ve never walked any Camino during these months because we just don’t like it when it’s too busy with too many people. In our experience, the best walking months in sense of weather and people are; May, June, September (not for the Via de la Plata, it’s still too hot in September), and the first half of October.
We had great weather in May on the Portuguese Camino, ok weather in June on the Camino Primitivo (it was warmish but we got a lot of rain which wasn’t normal for June), good weather in October on the Camino del Norte, and bad (rainy and windy) weather in November on the Camino Finisterre. For Via de la Plata we’d suggest late March-April-beginning of May – it’s warm, no rain and not too hot yet.
As for walking the Camino completely off-season November – February the French Way is probably the best to walk mainly because there is more infrastructure (more albergues) and some of them are opened all year round. On other routes e.g. Camino del Norte most albergues are closed for the offseason and you’ll have to stay in hotels though it’ll be cheaper than in the season.
Weather-wise winter is not the best time it can rain quite a lot and it gets chilly (not all albergues have heating), in the mountains you can get snow and some passes might be closed. If you want a very quiet Camino with no people – winter is a good time otherwise try to do it between March and the beginning of November.
Pros and cons of walking the Camino
We’ve read and heard some people saying how much they didn’t like the Camino, that it’s too busy, too hot, too much walking on the road, too commercial, etc. but most of the time they didn’t even bother of making any research on the Camino de Santiago, they walked the French Way, the busiest route in high season and after that made their conclusion about the Camino in general.
We’ve done quite a lot of hiking (mostly wild hikes) all over the world but walking the Camino de Santiago was on our bucket list for quite a while, now after walking six Caminos, we’re still keen on walking other routes. Here are our pros and cons for the Camino de Santiago.
Pros of walking the Camino
Any relatively fit person can walk the Camino. You don’t need special training and don’t have to be a very athletic person. For many people, it’ll be challenging especially the first week or so. For those who are used to walking or hiking a lot, it’ll be easier. The important thing is that it’s absolutely doable. If for whatever reason you can’t or don’t want to walk for a month, choose a shorter one or walk the last 100km to Santiago on any Camino.
It’s safe, you don’t walk through the wild uninhabited areas, there are always people towns, villages on the way.
It’s easy to plan, the route is marked, the infrastructure is there, no need to book anything in advance, to arrange special permits you just arrive and start walking.
It’s not expensive, you can see many interesting places and sights without spending a lot of money.
There are many different routes depending on what you want to see you can choose between walking along the coast (Camino del Norte, Portuguese Camino Coastal Route, Camino Finisterre-Muxia), through the mountains (Camino…
