The Camino de Santiago or the Way of St. James is a network of pilgrimage to the tomb of Apotles St. James in Santiago de Compostela. Walking the Camino is a lifetime experience. One of the best things about it is that anybody can do it. You don’t have to be an experienced hiker or super athlete to walk it. Camino de Santiago has many different route options from a short 120 km walk to the long and challenging 800 km and even 1000 km routes. Depending on how much time you have, what you want to see, and how far you can walk you can choose any of the existing routes. I must warn you the Camino might be addictive, many people come back again and again after completing their first route. Stingy Nomads walking the Northern Way of the Camino de Santiago
We have the Camino de Santiago resource page where you can find all our posts dedicated to the pilgrimage. It’s easy to navigate as all the posts are grouped based on their topic. As of March 2024, we’ve completed 9 different Camino routes and several connecting and alternative routes. You can find many detailed Camino posts on our Camino de Santiago page. We tried to create the best resource that pilgrims can use to plan their journey. The Camino de Santiago that we’ve completed:
We couldn’t do any Camino in 2020 due to the pandemic. In 2021 our daughter was born we didn’t get a chance to walk. In 2022 we restarted our Camino journey. As of March 2024, we’ve completed some parts of the Portuguese Camino including the Spiritual Variant, and a couple of connecting routes between the Coatal and the Central routes. We’re planning to walk more in the coming months. Watch our YouTube video about things to know before walking the Camino de Santiago
What is the Camino de Santiago? The Camino de Santiago or the Way of Saint James is a pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, a city in Galicia (Spain). It’s believed that in the cathedral of Santiago, the body of the apostle Saint James was buried. The history of the Camino de Santiago goes back to the 9th century when Spanish King Alfonso II completed the first-ever pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela from Oviedo. Nowadays this route is known as the Camino Primitivo. The Camino de Santiago is not a single route but a network of routes that start in different cities, mainly in Spain (some in Portugal and France), and finish in Santiago.
Why is the Way of St. James so important? The Camino de Santiago is one of the oldest pilgrimage routes in Europe that has been walked by millions of pilgrims over centuries. The final point of the pilgrimage the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is one of the three Christian temples built over the tomb of the twelve Apostles. People who walk the Way for religious reasons see it as the way to seek penance and forgiveness. In the old times, it was the main reason for walking the Camino. Nowadays everybody has different reasons and motivations for completing the pilgrimage. If you get overwhelmed at the beginning of your Camino planning and have many questions that need to be answered we created a dedicated post answering many FAQs about the Camino de Santiago.
