There are many places at home and in Spain. Many pilgrims will walk for only one week, and then maybe come back and pick up where they left off. These are the best one-week start points. Two weeks is a decent amount of time to walk and it gives you lots of choices. Here are the best start points on all the routes. It is easy to spend little on the Camino and just as easy to spend a lot. This biggest costs are food and where you decide to stay each night. Welcome to the Camino de Santiago our aim is to help you with all the information you need for any of the Camino routes.
It is the busiest and best-supported route. Santiago de Compostela is the destination for all the Camino routes; you can walk, cycle, or even ride these walking paths. Most pilgrims walk and plan and organize everything themselves. This is where we can help — we are not a tour company — but we pass on our experience of walking, how hard it was, what walking gear we needed and how fit we had to be before setting out — see all the frequently asked questions. I hope this is enough to get you interested and started. This section is a new addition. I expect it will never be finished as I keep getting sent questions that I would never have thought of.
If you have any other questions on the Camino de Santiago, just go to the forum and post them there. The Camino de Santiago is for everyone, young, old, fit, unfit, religious or otherwise. One of the surprising observations I had was that people I thought would drop didn't - and most of the people I saw with problems were younger people - perhaps trying to push their walking too fast. One great bit of advice I got was - slow down - a Frenchman I met kept telling me this - I listened after a while and traveled as far, but with much less pain and strain.
I have just published my guidebook on the Camino Frances. You can read more on the book page. I have a request of pilgrims walking or cycling the Camino de Santiago. Keeping this site up to date is a must, a few pilgrims email me information on new hostels and I add them to the list. My request is this - if you can send me by email, caminoadventures gmail. Scan and email would be easiest or email me and I will send you my postal address here in Ireland. In 2, pilgrims completed the Camino.
- Adventurous Women.
- The Medieval Village (Dover Books on History, Political and Social Science)!
- Music Therapy.
- Native American Tribes: The History and Culture of the Navajo!
In there was 19,, then in , there was 93, These are only the pilgrims that asked for and received a Compostela, therefore many more completed the routes. Figures compliments of the Office de Acogida al Peregrino. And lastly, I write on my own blog at lesliegilmour. Click on the map to the right, and it will expand to the full page. What is the Best Time to Walk the Camino? It looked huge from the outside, but since I arrived at night, I couldn't tell just how enormous this albergue was.
There's a series of buildings to house pilgrims. Incredibly, during the summer they're overflowing in capacity. To be fair, most albergues are far smaller, hosting fewer than pilgrims. Still, one hundred is a lot! When I received my Compostela the certificate of completion in Santiago, I asked one of the four volunteers what's the maximum pilgrims the office processed in one day. The answer blew me away: The line was down the stairs and wound around the streets outside. Pilgrims waited for hours to get their piece of paper. You'll surely break the record then, right? We worked overtime to do 1, It's hard to grasp these numbers, but here's one last attempt.
I saw just one day hiker, two snowmobilers, and two skiers. Although I saw a few more backpackers during the last 6, km, each year fewer than backpackers finish the CDT. On a summer day on El Camino, it's common that pilgrims finish per hour! Every year, more than , pilgrims earn a compostela which means they walked at least km. They come from over countries. The volume of pilgrims is simply staggering. One old guy who hiked the Appalachian Trail once told me, "What makes a thru-hike great is that an ordinary person can, with much effort, finish it and feel like Superman.
Few are good enough for the Olympics, but completing a thru-hike makes you feel like an Olympian. However, if doing an American thru-hike makes you feel like Superman, then doing El Camino might make an Appalachian Trail veteran feel like Spiderman. It's not that the El Camino isn't physically challenging. The frequent pavement and heat cause many to develop feet, joint, and back problems. However, the flat terrain and easy access to creature comforts make El Camino de Santiago far easier than any of the Triple Crown trails.
And that's precisely why it's so popular.
El Camino de Santiago de Compostela Pilgrimage in Spain The Way of St Jame
Most people would rather walk just 20 km on a flat path, eat a warm restaurant meal, and have a shower and bed at the end of every day, than walk 40 km on a steep mountain trail, far from amenities. If the price is more road walking and less engaging scenery, most people are happy with the tradeoff. But hike your own hike. One thing is certain, as much as I'm not fond of El Camino, I celebrate, applaud, and admire anyone who finishes it.
10 Reasons Why El Camino Santiago Sucks
In fact, I found finishing El Camino requires more mental toughness than the Triple Crown because El Camino is less rewarding to the wilderness lover than the Triple Crown. Although I'm criticizing El Camino, that doesn't mean I don't respect or salute those who hike it. My heart would soar whenever I saw anyone over 65 years old walking El Camino. Their stories were always the greatest and most inspiring. Some have asked me to compare El Camino with the Triple Crown. Let's compare the distances. The majority of pilgrims start somewhere near the Pyrenees, doing km. Pilgrims are impressed when someone comes from Switzerland, Germany or Austria, doing just over 2, km.
And those who start farther become legends. One guy that many talked about had walked from Jerusalem, about 6, km. Furthermore, consider that the Triple Crown trails go over relatively isolated, steep mountain ranges. Thru-hikers may have to cover up to km between convenient resupply points. On El Camino, you'll never go more than 10 km between resupply points and it's mostly flat terrain everywhere.
The point of these comparisons is not to argue that the Triple Crown trails are "better" than El Camino Santiago, but rather to illustrate that they are nearly incomparable! They are totally different experiences. They're so different that if you like one, you'll probably dislike the other. Hence, this explains why I think El Camino de Santiago sucks.
Camino de Santiago
Some Camino fans will argue that my way to Santiago had two major flaws. First, the alternate through Los Picos de Europa and Asturias , while scenic, made me miss out on nearly half of El Camino Frances, so my journey wasn't typical. Second, by avoiding albergues , I missed out on the social aspect of El Camino, which, for many pilgrims, is the best part of the journey. Although I understand these criticisms, I hiked with enough pilgrims and stayed at enough albergues to get a good idea about the social side of El Camino. However, I want more than cool international people on a trail.
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I can get a multicultural experience on the New York City Subway. A trail, for me, should take me away from civilization and deep into nature. On that metric, El Camino fails miserably. The Spanish call the place Finisterra , but the local Gallegos, who have their own language in the Galician region of Spain, call the place Fisterra.
The Romans gave its name because they believe it was the end of the earth. As brilliant as the Romans were, they didn't have GPS. As a result, Fisterra is a big hoax. Although it may feel like you're standing on the edge of the world when you're in Fisterra, it's not the westernmost part of Europe. That point is hundreds of kilometers further south near Lisbon, Portugal. What's even more galling is that Fisterra is not even the westernmost point in Spain! The actual westernmost point is a few kilometers to the north.
Once you get there, however, you can see why the Romans thought this was the ultimate land's end. It really feels like you're standing on the edge of the planet.
As I stood at Fisterra, I thought about a man who also stood there, and would later become the President of the United States. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean, this man was desperate: Fisterra was the first piece of ground available to him, so he landed there. However, his desperation didn't stop. The future of the United States depended on him. If he failed on his mission, the United States might collapse. With no ship, he did something incredible: He hurried as fast as he could, eager to cover as much ground as possible.
He was in such a hurry that he didn't even have time to see Santiago de Compostela, something he would later deeply regret. But at that moment, it didn't matter — he had to save his nation, and time was running out. All of it over land and at a ferocious pace. Once in Paris, he hurried straight to the highest office in the land.
He begged the French for money and weapons to kill the British. Nevertheless, the French agreed to help this rebellious America terrorist. It was June , three years into the American Revolutionary War. Without French assistance, America may not have turned into the nation it is today. This partly explains why Americans returned the favor when they helped to liberate France from the Nazis years later.
El Camino de Santiago, The Way of St James
This man, who traveled much of El Camino de Santiago in reverse, from Fisterra to Paris, to save our nation, returned a hero and became America's first Vice President, serving under George Washington. Later, American elected this man to become the second President of the United States. His name was John Adams. The trip from Santiago to Fisterra takes three days, so you should have three stamps.
You only have one stamp.
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So you can't stay. It doesn't have to take three days. I took just 48 hours to do that distance. Besides, I never stay in albergues , I sleep outside. Do you want me to bring all the pilgrims here who saw me walking as witnesses that I really walked here?
Or do you want me to show you the photos of the last 88 km? You should have gotten your stamps even if you don't stay at the albergue s.