I hiked the Camino from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela Spain in June of 2026. I went about 150 miles over 16 days of hiking. Here are a few practical tips for hiking the Camino based on my experience.
A little about me: I am in my late fifties. I am diabetic and I have chronic heart disease. I am not an athlete or an accomplished hiker. I wanted to hike the Camino as a spiritual experience. I was not sure how far I would feel comfortable hiking each day, so I went by myself so that I could adjust my schedule as needed without holding anyone back.
Tip #1: Do It Your Way
There are a million ways to do the Camino. The best one is the one that works for you.
One couple I met had been walking the Camino for thirty years. They walked for about a week each year, then the next year they went back and continued from where they had left off the previous year.
My friend Karen Oliveto and her partner used a different approach. They walked as far as they wanted each day. When they had walked enough, they would call a taxi to take them to their hotel. The next morning they would call another taxi to take them back to where they had stopped walking the previous day. I think this is a brilliant way to do the Camino.
Tip #2: Give Yourself Permission to Fail
In any endeavor, I think it’s helpful to think about how things might go wrong and what you will do if things don’t go how you’d planned at first.
For my Camino, I explicitly gave myself permission to fail from the moment I first started training. I wanted to walk the whole way on my own, but I promised myself that I could drop out and only do part of the route if that was what I needed to take care of myself.
As it turned out, I was able to walk the whole way despite a heat wave while I was on my route. I didn’t have to take any taxis, but on a particularly hot day I was prepared to do so if I got to a point where I felt that hiking wasn’t healthy for me.
Paradoxically, giving myself permission to fail may have been part of what made the Camino a success for me. It eliminated what might have been a source of stress for me and let me know that I would be OK whether or not I made any particular goal.
Tip #3: Good Shoes and Good Socks
A lot of people suffer from blisters on the Camino. I did not. I had good hiking shoes (Merrell Crosslander 3) and good socks (Thorlos 12-Hour Shift Work Crew). During my training hikes I tried out three different kinds of socks to find the ones that were most comfortable for me.
A surprise for me was that the socks that worked best for me changed depending on which shoes I was wearing. The 12-Hour Shift socks were awesome with my Merrell’s. But if I switched to my backup shoes (Brooks Cascadia 19), then a thinner sock worked better.
Take some time to try different combinations to see what works best for you.
Tip #4: Do Training Hikes Before You Go
I did a three-month training routine recommended by Follow the Camino. It asks people to do two hikes per week: a one-to-two hour hike and a longer hike. The longer hikes get longer and more difficult as you continue the program. The training plan also has strength and stability exercises which I found helpful.
One thing I liked about this training program was that it specified hikes in terms of time, not distance. So by the end of three months I had a good sense of how far I could comfortably walk in one day going at my own pace.
One nice feature of my training hikes: before I started on the Camino, I’d done a training hike that was longer than I’d planned for any day on the Camino and another training hike that had twice as much elevation gain as any day I’d planned for the Camino. It was nice to be able to say to myself, “Today’s climb isn’t so bad, it’s only half of what I did when I climbed Nibb’s Knob.”
Tip #5: Plan Your Route
I didn’t book lodgings in advance since I wasn’t sure how far I’d be able to go on a day-after-day program of hiking. But I did plan out all of my daily hikes before I started based on my experiences with my training hikes. To help my planning, I looked at various suggested routes that I found on the Internet, but I deviated from them when the amount that they wanted me to walk in one day seemed too much.
I was prepared to change things as I went, but as it turned out, my eventual hike was extremely close to what I’d initially planned.
One surprise for me: I walked significantly farther every day than I’d planned. This was because my planning was based on the distance from city to city, but my actual hikes were longer than that.
One thing I’d do differently next time: For the first part of my route, I didn’t book my lodgings ahead of time since I wasn’t sure how far I’d really be able to go each day of a multi-day hike. I think that was a good choice for my first Camino. But by the end of my route I did book ahead since I had a better sense of what was realistic for me. If I walk the Camino again, I would probably book ahead from the start since I now have a better idea of what I can do.
Tip #6: Use a Luggage Service
The Camino offers various luggage services that will pick up your bag from one hostel / hotel in the morning and deliver it to your next hostel / hotel by mid-afternoon. I used TopSantiago and they were great.
I carried a backpack with me on my daily hikes, but TopSantiago made sure that my larger bag got where it needed to go.
One surprise for me: TopSantiago requires that you have a small lock to secure the main zipper your bag before they pick it up. I think this is a great security measure. It might not stop a serious thief, but it will keep curious fingers out of your bag.
Tip #7: Install WhatsApp Before You Go
Hostels, luggage services, and other organizations on the Camino use WhatsApp as their primary way to communicate with their customers. I didn’t want to have another app on my phone, but I found that WhatsApp was absolutely necessary for traveling on the Camino.
One surprise for me: When I activated WhatsApp in Portugal using a United States phone number I got a security restriction for the first few days that didn’t allow me to start any new conversations. It would have been better for me to have installed the app and activated it at home a couple of weeks before I really needed it.
Tip #8: Do a Practice Hike With Your Camino Clothes and Gear
I brought a couple of pairs of my favorite shorts to wear on the Camino. But I hadn’t worn them in a while and apparently I had lost some weight during my training hikes. My shorts were not staying up on their own and they didn’t have belt loops. I worked around this by buying some clip-on suspenders in Porto, but I wished I had worn my Camino shorts on a training hike before I went so that I wasn’t surprised when I got there.
Recommendation: go on a training hike with the clothes you plan to wear on the Camino while carrying the gear that you plan to have with you.
Tip #9: Take Some Euros With You
There are many places on the Camino that only take cash. You’ll want to have some with you. With an American bank account, you can get cash from many ATMs in Europe, but not all of them. My bank charges a substantial fee for overseas ATM withdrawals. Make sure you know your bank’s policies.
One surprise for me: It has been a while since I’d been to Europe. While in America, I was expecting that I could go to a branch of a major bank to get some Euros without needing to make any arrangements in advance. At least for the banks I tried, they no longer work that way. Instead, you need to order foreign currency in advance, then go pick it up at your bank a few days later when your currency arrives. It may be different for you based on your bank, but you probably shouldn’t wait until the last minute to find out.
Tip #10: Pay in Euros
When paying with a United States credit card in Portugal, you will often be given the opportunity to pay in Euros or pay in US dollars. My credit card has a good exchange rate, so it was always much better to pay in Euros. If you pay in US dollars, there is often a hefty mark-up added onto your charge.
In Portugal there is sometimes a confusingly worded message that comes up if you choose Euros. This message makes it sound as if choosing Euros is going to cancel your entire transaction. Stick with Euros. The transaction will go through and you will pay less.
Recommendation: find out what your credit card’s policy is about foreign transactions. In my case, my credit card handles them well. But if your credit card charges you excessive fees for foreign transactions, you may want to consider a different approach.
Tip #11: Use an App
I used the Buen Camino app and I found it invaluable. It has great resources for identifying hostels and hotels along the route with their characteristics and contact info. It’s also great for answering the question: Am I still on the Camino or have I wandered off onto the wrong path?
One thing I’d do differently next time: Buen Camino has a lot of features that I didn’t pick up on at first, like seeing the elevation changes on your route. I wished I’d spent some time learning the app ahead of time
Tip #12: Take Time to Recover from Jet Lag
I arrived in Porto on June 1 and didn’t begin my hike until June 4. Jet lag hit me hard the first couple of days that I was in Porto, so I was glad that I gave myself a couple of recovery days before I started walking.
Tip #13: Get an AirTag
Particularly if you’re using a luggage service, get an AirTag for your bag. That will reassure you that your bag is where it’s supposed to be.
If a bag does get delivered to the wrong place, it might also make it much easier for you to recover it.
Tip #14: Get Advice
Talk to your friends who have been on the Camino. There are also various online and in-person groups for people preparing to hike the Camino. The more information you get, the better.
A visit to the Porto Pilgrim’s Office was particularly helpful for me. Jean-Pierre did a great job of advising me. His recommendations were invaluable.