12 Hiking Alternatives to the Camino de Santiago

People who have walked the Camino de Santiago often come home asking the same quiet question. What next? The rhythm of waking before light, walking through villages, eating a small dinner, sleeping in a bunk room with five strangers; it gets into you. A two-week holiday by a pool feels insufficient afterwards. You want another route, another long walk, another country to put under your boots.

This guide pulls together twelve hiking alternatives to the Camino de Santiago, drawn from reader suggestions and weighted toward routes that are popular with a North American audience. Most of them are in the United States. A couple are in Europe, because no honest list of pilgrimage-style walks would leave out the Via Francigena. Distances range from a long weekend on Catalina Island to a full season on the Pacific Crest Trail. Difficulty varies in the same way.

The aim is not to replace the Camino. It is to find another good long walk while the legs are still asking for one. If you would rather walk the Camino again, that is also a perfectly good answer, and most people who have walked one route eventually walk a second.

What gives the Camino de Santiago its hold on people who walk it?

Before the alternatives, a quick word on what we are actually looking for. The Camino de Santiago is shorthand for a network of pilgrimage routes that converge on the city of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, where the bones of Saint James are believed to lie. The most walked route, the Camino Francés (also written Camino Frances in English), crosses the Pyrenees from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France and runs west for roughly 780 km, striking inland through Burgos and León. The Camino del Norte hugs the northern Spanish coast. The Camino Portugués, often called the Portuguese way, enters Galicia from Portugal. The Vía de la Plata, sometimes written Via de la Plata, starts in Seville and climbs north. Many other variants spread out across the medieval Christian world. On the Camino Frances itself, the iron cross at the Cruz de Ferro marks the highest point of the route at around 1,500 metres, a small ritual stone-laying spot that still draws every pilgrim who passes.

What people fall in love with is rarely the cathedral at the end. It is the rhythm. The yellow arrows. The bunk-bed hostels (albergues). The cheap pilgrim menus. The way a route shaped in the Middle Ages still holds together centuries later, because human feet keep walking it. Most alternative hiking trails offer some but not all of these elements. Choosing a good Camino alternative is mostly a matter of knowing which parts you can live without.

How to choose a Camino-style hiking trail that suits you

Before you pick a route, work out what you want more of and what you can give up. The Camino combines several things that almost no other walk has all at once: cheap lodging in villages, daily company, easy resupply, gentle (mostly) terrain, low planning overhead, and a strong shared culture. You can find each of those somewhere else. You rarely find them all in one walk.

The honest questions to ask yourself before booking flights:

• How much time do you have, in days rather than weeks? A long weekend, two weeks, a month, a season?
• Do you want to sleep in a bed every night, in a hostel-style dormitory, or in a tent?
• How much do you want to carry? A pilgrimage on flat ground with daily lodging is very different from a thru-hike with a full backpacking kit.
• Do you want company on the trail, or solitude, or both at different times of day?
• Does the spiritual or historical layer matter, or is it the walking itself you came for?

The twelve routes below are organised loosely by distance, picked from the long-distance walking trails most often recommended by readers who have already finished a Camino. There is also a reliable European pilgrimage alternative at the end, because some readers would rather walk a Camino than walk something pretending to be one.

The twelve alternatives at a glance

This table is meant for the back of the envelope. Use it to shortlist, then read the sections below for detail.

Route	Distance	Where	Best suited to
Pacific Crest Trail	~4,265 km	California to Washington	A full season thru-hike with strong trail culture
Appalachian Trail	~3,524 km	Georgia to Maine	Long-distance walkers who want a social trail
Arizona Trail	~1,287 km	Mexico border to Utah	Desert solitude and reflective long-distance hiking
Colorado Trail	~780 km	Denver to Durango	High-altitude mountain rhythm
Oregon Coast Trail	~580 km	Oregon coast	Coastal walking with frequent villages
Superior Hiking Trail	~500 km	Minnesota, Lake Superior ridgeline	Autumn foliage and a manageable end-to-end
Long Trail	~438 km	Vermont	A historic American thru-hike, well shelter-ed
John Muir Trail	~340 km	California Sierra Nevada	One focused mountain pilgrimage
Tahoe Rim Trail	~275 km	California and Nevada	A flexible loop with easy bail-out points
Wonderland Trail	~150 km	Mount Rainier, Washington	Big mountain scenery in a compact circle
Foothills Trail	~124 km	South Carolina and North Carolina	A southern multi-day for a first long walk
Trans-Catalina Trail	~60 km	Catalina Island, California	A long-weekend taste of thru-hiking

1. Pacific Crest Trail: the American thru-hike that feels closest to a season-long pilgrimage

The PCT runs around 4,265 km from the Mexican border in California through the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades to the Canadian border in Washington. Most thru-hikers walk it northbound between April and September. It is the longest hiking trail on this list and the one with the strongest thru-hiker culture.

What makes it Camino-like is the daily rhythm and the trail community. Word-of-mouth news, shared resupply boxes, trail names, a slow social network that re-forms in every campsite. What is different is the lodging. You camp most nights. Towns are rarer. Permits are competitive. A through-walk is a five to six month commitment of time, money, and grit. Most people walk a section of a few hundred km rather than the full route.

2. Appalachian Trail: shelters, trail towns, and the closest thing to an American Camino Francés

The Appalachian Trail (AT) runs roughly 3,524 km from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. Wooden shelters appear every 13 km or so, and a string of small trail towns provide places to stop, eat, and sleep in something firmer than a tent. The thru-hiking community is even larger than on the PCT.

The terrain is harder than people expect. Roots, rocks, persistent humidity in summer. But the social fabric is the part that pulls Camino veterans in. A first-timer can hike the southern 800 km in the spring and get most of the long-walk effect in a couple of months. The Smoky Mountains section, Shenandoah National Park, and the Whites in New Hampshire are common shorter goals.

3. Arizona Trail: desert solitude with a strong long-distance identity

The Arizona Trail runs around 1,287 km from the Mexican border to the Utah border, crossing the Sonoran Desert, the Mogollon Rim and the Grand Canyon. The full route takes around two months and is best walked in the cooler shoulder months: March and April or October and November.

The headline challenge is water. Carries of 30 km or more are common in places. The reward is silence. If the Camino del Norte gave you ocean and the Camino Francés gave you company, the Arizona Trail gives you space. A section through Saguaro National Park or the Grand Canyon itself is often the first taste people take.

4. Colorado Trail: a high-altitude pilgrimage between Denver and Durango

The Colorado Trail covers roughly 780 km between Denver and Durango, almost exactly the length of the Camino Francés. The similarities stop there. Average elevation hovers around 3,000 metres. Afternoon thunderstorms are routine in July and August. Most of the walking is above the treeline.

What makes it work as a long walk is the structure. It segments naturally into 28 sections, each connecting to a road, which means hikers can walk a piece in one summer and come back for more. It is also one of the more sociable mountain trails in North America, with a small but committed thru-hiker community and a good network of resupply towns.

5. Oregon Coast Trail: a coastal walking route with villages along the way

The Oregon Coast Trail runs roughly 580 km along the coast from the Washington border to California. It is the closest thing in the United States to the seaside stretches of the Camino del Norte, with beach walking, headland trails, small towns, and reliable cafés and pubs. Some sections still use the road or the beach itself rather than a dedicated path, which is part of the route’s charm and part of its frustration.

What it does best is feel like a walking trip rather than a backcountry expedition. You can finish most days in a fishing village, a craft brewery, or a B&B. Tides matter: a few headland crossings are only safe at low tide. June through September is the practical season. October through May, the Pacific decides the weather.

6. Superior Hiking Trail: a 500 km end-to-end along Lake Superior’s ridgeline

The Superior Hiking Trail, in northern Minnesota, runs along the ridgeline above Lake Superior. The full route is roughly 500 km and most end-to-end hikers take three to four weeks. The best window is late August through September, when the maple and birch turn red and gold and the bugs finally relent.

It is a quieter trail than the AT or PCT. Free backcountry campsites at regular intervals, frequent road crossings, and the closeness of the lake make it feel approachable. The ridgeline views over Superior at sunrise are the kind of moment that stays with you, the way a foggy morning in Galicia stays with you.

7. Long Trail: Vermont’s spine, and America’s oldest long-distance hiking trail

The Long Trail is the senior of American long-distance trails, completed in 1930 and running 438 km along the Green Mountains from the Massachusetts border to Canada. The first 170 km share the path with the Appalachian Trail, which means a stretch of the social trail town culture before the path strikes out alone northbound.

It has shelters every 8 to 16 km, similar in spirit to a Camino albergue, though more rustic. The terrain is wetter than people expect; mud season runs from snowmelt through early summer. July through September is the comfortable window. Most end-to-enders take three to four weeks.

8. John Muir Trail: a focused 340 km mountain pilgrimage in the Sierra Nevada

The John Muir Trail runs 340 km from Yosemite Valley to the summit of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States. It is high, exposed, and ridiculously beautiful: a route through the highest of the High Sierra, much of it above 3,000 metres. Most hikers take three weeks.

The permit is competitive and the planning long. But for one focused, finite, mountain journey, the JMT is hard to beat. It does not have the village rhythm of the Camino. It has something else: a stretched, slow, granite-and-pine experience that quietens the head in the same way a long pilgrimage route does.

9. Tahoe Rim Trail: a flexible loop with bail-out points

The Tahoe Rim Trail circles Lake Tahoe for roughly 275 km on the California and Nevada border. The loop format makes logistics easy. The crossings of state highways at intervals let you bail out, resupply, or hike it in sections. Most thru-hikers walk it in two weeks; section hikers spread it across summers.

It is high enough to feel mountainous, low enough to be hospitable. Snow lingers into June at the higher passes; July through September is the reliable season. The lake views from the eastern shore are the obvious highlight, but the western, more wooded sections give the trail its quieter heart.

10. Wonderland Trail: a 150 km loop around Mount Rainier

The Wonderland Trail circles Mount Rainier National Park in Washington for around 150 km, with about 6,700 metres of cumulative elevation gain. It is short on paper and brutal in practice. Most hikers take 10 to 14 days.

Why include it on a Camino-style list when there is no village rhythm and no shared bunkroom culture? Because the immersion is total. You spend two weeks walking in a circle around a single 4,392 metre volcano, watching it from every angle, and the daily routine becomes a kind of meditation. The permit lottery opens in early spring; book early.

11. Foothills Trail: a 124 km southern route for a first long walk

The Foothills Trail runs 124 km along the South Carolina and North Carolina border, between Table Rock and Oconee state parks. It is one of the most welcoming options for a first multi-day hike: well marked, with reliable water, frequent campsites, and a manageable elevation profile.

Most hikers take six to nine days. Spring and autumn are the easiest seasons. The trail crosses several waterfalls and ridges and finishes with a strong sense of having walked something whole. It is the right scale for a Camino veteran’s first proper backcountry walk if they want a step up from village-to-village hiking without diving straight into a thru-hike.

12. Trans-Catalina Trail: a 60 km long-weekend taste of thru-hiking

The Trans-Catalina Trail crosses Catalina Island off the southern Californian coast, 60 km from end to end. Most hikers take three to four days. Permits are required and bison roam the route, which is a sentence rarely written about California. Water is available at a handful of campgrounds along the way.

It is the smallest commitment on this list and a fine way to test the long-walk mindset without committing to a thru-hike. A long weekend, two campsite stops, ocean on both sides for most of the day, and the satisfying clarity of a beginning and an end you can see from the boat.

One European honourable mention: the Via Francigena

No list of pilgrimage alternatives is honest without the Via Francigena. The medieval pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome runs roughly 1,900 km through England, France, Switzerland and Italy. It is the closest thing to a true Camino alternative in Europe: a long pilgrimage route, way-marked, with hostels (most call them ostelli or pilgrim accommodations), and a recognised pilgrim culture, though smaller and quieter than the Camino’s.

Most pilgrims walk the Italian section, from the Great St Bernard Pass to Rome, in around 50 days. Shorter segments such as Lucca to Rome (roughly 380 km) are popular for those with less time. The infrastructure is improving year on year. If the Camino del Norte’s smaller crowds and slightly tougher logistics appeal to you, the Via Francigena will feel like home.

Planning a Camino-style hike in the United States: permits, timing, lodging

The single largest gap between the Camino and most American long walks is lodging. On the Camino you sleep in a bed every night, in a hostel, a small guesthouse, or a parish albergue, for between 10 and 30 euros. On most US trails you sleep in a tent, in a shelter, or in a town once a week or so. Plan accordingly.

Practical things to factor in before booking:

• Permits. Wonderland, the JMT, the PCT and several others require permits, sometimes booked months ahead. The Long Trail, Foothills Trail and Superior Hiking Trail do not.
• Season. Mountain trails (PCT, JMT, Colorado, Tahoe Rim, Wonderland) typically open from late June; the Arizona Trail is shoulder-season; the Superior Hiking Trail peaks in autumn.
• Resupply. Town-frequent trails (AT, Long Trail, Oregon Coast) let you eat at a café most days. Trails like the JMT, Wonderland and parts of the PCT require resupply boxes mailed to ranger stations.
• Transport. Point-to-point trails need a shuttle. Loops (Wonderland, Tahoe Rim, Trans-Catalina) make logistics easier.
• Lodging style. If you want a bed each night, the Oregon Coast Trail and selected sections of the AT come closest to the Camino model.

Gear and training: what to bring when there is no albergue at the end of the day

A Camino pack is small. A US backpacking pack is not. Tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, stove, water treatment, food for the longest carry. For most of the trails above, a 12 to 16 kg loaded pack is realistic.

Training, especially for the mountain trails, is a quiet investment that pays back later. The Camino teaches you that the body adapts within a week. American backcountry trails are less forgiving in the first week, partly because the daily mileage is comparable to the Camino but the elevation gain is often three or four times higher. A few months of weekend hikes with a loaded pack will save the early days from being miserable.

The good news is that the head game is the same. Wake early. Walk at your own pace. Eat enough. Sleep well. Repeat. The trail tends to do the rest.

Frequently asked questions about Camino alternatives

Which US hiking trail feels most like the Camino de Santiago for community and camaraderie?

The Appalachian Trail comes closest. Wooden shelters every few hours, a string of small trail towns, and a self-organising community of thru-hikers and section hikers create a similar social rhythm to a Camino albergue evening. The Long Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail have similar cultures, smaller in scale.

What is the best Camino alternative if I only have seven to ten days?

The Wonderland Trail in Washington, the Foothills Trail in the Carolinas, the Trans-Catalina Trail in California, and selected sections of the Superior Hiking Trail or the Tahoe Rim Trail all fit into a one or two week window. If you would rather stay in Europe, walking the last 115 km of the Camino Francés from Sarria to Santiago de Compostela, or the final 100 km of the Via Francigena from Lucca to Rome, also works in that time.

Which alternative is best for autumn scenery like a shoulder-season Camino?

The Superior Hiking Trail from late August through September is hard to beat for colour. The Long Trail in Vermont peaks in late September and early October. The Foothills Trail and sections of the Appalachian Trail in Tennessee, Virginia and New Hampshire also reward autumn walkers.

Can I do these hikes without camping every night?

The Oregon Coast Trail and the Appalachian Trail offer the most lodging-friendly itineraries, with B&Bs, hostels and small inns scattered along the route. The Long Trail has shelters rather than beds but a few road crossings allow nights in town. Most of the western mountain trails (JMT, Wonderland, large stretches of the PCT) require camping; there is no hostel network equivalent to the Camino.

How do I decide between a thru-hike and a section hike for a Camino-style experience?

Walk a section first. Pick a long route you might want to thru-hike one day, walk a 150 to 300 km section, and see how the body and the head feel. Most people who attempt a full PCT or AT thru-hike have already walked a section. The Camino is unusual in that a relatively short walk gives you a complete experience; American long-distance trails generally reward longer commitments, but they do not demand them.