Category: Camino de Santiago Blog

You arrive in Rabanal del Camino the way you arrive at most small places on the Camino Frances:…

Belorado sneaks up on you. After a long morning out of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, with the…

You arrive with wet boots, a heavy pack, and a strange reluctance for the walking to end. The…

What's It Really Like to Walk the Camino as a Vegan (and Gluten-Free) in Spain? Here's the honest…

The first time I noticed it, I was standing in a side chapel with wet socks and a…

I have been writing about the Camino de Santiago since 2006. That is enough time to have read…

I remember asking a hospitalero in a draughty albergue kitchen, somewhere around Sarria, where the Camino actually ended.…

There is a moment, usually somewhere in the first week, when somebody asks you the question. You are…

The first thing I noticed, stepping out of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on a grey September morning, was the silence. Not…

You smell Puente la Reina before you see the bridge. Frying garlic from a bar on the main…

I came down off the high ground above O Cebreiro with wet socks and an opinion about Galicia…

The morning I reached the Cruz de Ferro, I couldn't feel my fingers. It was late September, the…

The first thing I noticed leaving Vigo was the salt. Not metaphorical salt, not some poetic stand-in for…

Astorga is the kind of town the Camino Francés trains you to appreciate. By the time you walk…

The first time I arrived in Santiago in late July, I thought the bells were for me. They…

You smell Sahagún before you see much of it. Bread from a bakery somewhere off the main street,…

The first morning out of Porto, you'll probably get lost. Not dramatically, heroically lost. More the kind where…

There’s a moment, usually about three weeks before you leave, when the Camino de Santiago stops being an…

Why Do Assisi's Churches Matter More Than You Might Think? I'll be honest. The first time I walked…

I came to the Rota Vicentina the way a lot of people do after the Camino de Santiago:…

The strange thing about arriving in Santiago de Compostela is that it doesn't always feel like an ending.…

The thing nobody tells you about arriving in Santiago de Compostela is that it can feel oddly unfinished.…

There is no best Camino de Santiago route. I know that’s not what you came here to read,…

It usually starts the same way. Someone tells you they walked five hundred miles across the top of…

What Should You Consider Before Choosing to Walk the Camino Solo or With a Group? I spent the…

The second morning starts before light. You wake in the long monastic dormitory at Roncesvalles to the sound…

I almost walked through Navarrete without stopping. It was mid-morning, the red earth of La Rioja already warming…

The first morning, I could not have told you why I was there. I was somewhere above Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port,…

I walked the Camino Portugues from Porto to Santiago de Compostela in 2016, and I set out alone.…

The first time someone said it to me, I had no idea what it meant. I was halfway…

The first thing I noticed about Vilalba was the quiet. Not silence exactly, but the unhurried hum of…

What is Hontanas on the Camino Francés, and why do pilgrims stop here? I nearly walked past it.…

You have walked for weeks. Maybe five, maybe six. Your boots smell like something that should be sealed…

I have read a fair stack of Camino books over the years, and most of them blur into…

The Camino Aragones is one of those routes you walk and then quietly recommend to friends, in the…

You've walked for weeks. Your boots are wrecked. Your legs have that particular ache that lives somewhere between…

I arrived in Villafranca del Bierzo with wet socks and a head full of the climb still to…

You arrive at San Juan de Ortega and, for a moment, you wonder if you have walked past…