Camino de
Santiago
¡Buen CAmino!
A wide dirt path cutting through golden fields that stretch as far as the eye can see.
Tiny hilltop towns appearing in the distance and predicting your future, showing you precisely where you’ll be in 2, 3, 5 kilometers.
Familiar faces showing up over and over again and grinning at you across the breakfast cafe, or in the albergue’s front lobby, or at the random bar in town.
Mountaintop views so beautiful that a tear comes to your eye.
Towering twin cathedrals presiding over a grand European square, where hundreds of exhausted but joyous pilgrims cry, hug, and celebrate their accomplishments.
This, and so much more, is the Camino de Santiago.
What is the Camino?
It’s a long walk. It’s pressing the pause button on normal life. It’s space to think, mourn, meditate, process, dream, seek relevation. It’s hard work. It’s room to breathe. It’s blisters, aching muscles, cool showers after a long morning in the sun. It’s joy and it’s struggle.
In more specific terms, though, the Camino is a pilgrimage journey to the city of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, where some people believe the apostle James is buried. People began making pilgrimage to Santiago in the 9th century, and the Camino became one of the major pilgrimage routes of the Middle Ages. While the Camino more or less went into hibernation for many years after that, it was revived in the 1990s or so.
Today, the Camino is quickly growing in popularity, with hundreds of thousands of people earning a “compostela” — a certificate of completion — each year. Most of these people walk the Camino for just a few days, or perhaps a week, but others set out on a longer journey — perhaps starting at the French border, and walking 500 miles along the Camino Frances route, or maybe even starting in their hometowns in Germany or Belgium or elsewhere, and walking for months.
As for me: I walked the Camino Frances in 2023, journeying for 34 days across northern Spain. I wasn’t engaging in a religious pilgrimage — I was looking for an adventure, and a whole new way to travel, and space to process my recent choice to leave my job as a lawyer.
Are you interested in doing something similar? Below, you’ll find all my posts on the Camino: from basic things you need to know about the Camino, to detailed information about packing and planning, to lengthy overviews of the Camino Frances and my own experience, and much (MUCH) more.
Basic Info About the Camino de Santiago
Still trying to figure out what the Camino even is? Wondering how much it costs, how long it takes, or what it’s like to walk the Camino as a solo traveler? Check out these posts.
Planning and Preparing for the Camino de Santiago
Are you sold on walking the Camino, but feeling daunted by the prospect of figuring out how to make it happen? Don’t worry! These posts will help you effectively plan and prepare for your Camino so you can hit the ground running (er, walking).
All About the Camino Frances
The Camino de Santiago is actually many routes to Santiago de Compostela, but the most well-known is the Camino Frances — a 500ish-mile journey beginning just over the border in France. Read my posts about the Camino Frances here!
