The Camino Santiago de Compostela or “The way of Saint James” is a pilgrimage in the northern part of Spain to the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela.
You can choose between a set of different routes, some of them about 800 km long, and even stretching back into French and the rest of Europe.
There is, in my opinion, no “right” way of walking the Camino Santiago de Compostela.
Your Camino is your adventure; you can decide to walk a part of it, you can go slow, you can go fast, do it in one stretch or do it over several years.
I have personally enjoyed doing it in long stretched, over several weeks. I feel that I get into a kind of meditational state after a couple of weeks, and I love that feeling!
I enjoy the routine and the simplicity of life on the Camino.
Do you need to be religious to walk the Camino?
No!
I am not a religious person, and I have enjoyed walking the Camino several times.
For me, the Camino has been a social experience, as much as a personal adventure.
I have found that, on the Camino, there is a lot of respect for the differences in religious beliefs and worldviews. This respect has always been an essential part of my Camino experience.
Ways to do the Camino
There are several ways to to the Camino, the recognized ways are:
- Walking, this is the most common one
- Biking, you see a lot of biking pilgrims on the Camino
- Horseback riding, this is getting increasingly rare.
On top of that you have the option to do the Camino as a prepackaged holiday, where you will get your luggage transported from stop to stop. Here you will often stay in hotels, bed & Breakfast in your own room. This kind of Camino, means that you will have to cover a predetermined destination each day, and even though you get the comfort of private accommodation, you will miss out on the more social part of live, with communal diners and Albergue life in the evening.
I prefer to take it one day at a time, and find accommodation when I arrive at my preferred destination. I have almost never experienced that tkind he albergue was full, and I have always got a place for the night.
Some albergues are more “rough” than others, but must private albergues are quite nice, and the municipal albergues is something I enjoy from time to time.
For me the social aspect of the Camino is the must important one, and you experience this more if you go from albergue to albergue along with your fellow pilgrims.
You can find more on the different kinds of accommodation here.
How Safe is the Camino?
The Camino Santiago de Compostelais probably one of the safest kind of vacation you can go on!
The Camino is a community that moves along the route to Santiago. You will get to know a lot of your fellow pilgrims, and you will experience the “Camino-culture” where everybody looks out for everybody else.
If you choose to walk the French way, you will almost never be alone, so if you are a single woman, considering to do the Camino, then don’t worry – you will feel quite safe.
But of course, accidents can happen anywhere, so don’t act stupid.