There are three reasons that motivated us to do Camino de Santiago walk year after year, not only for religious reasons, also there are connexions for the soul, the person and the nature. “I wandered lovely as a cloud…”

1. Because you clear your mind, and you are able to connect with nature and revitalise your mind and body… You discover the simple things are important like the water directly from the fountain, the happiness of eating a sandwich when you are hungry and the simple enjoyment of a nap or a shower.
2. Because the people connect with each other automatically, when you stop the daily rhythm of live and in this exact moments you connect with people around you. I have never received so many smiles in a minute like in the Camino the Santiago.
3. Because you have a simple aim to walk from A to B but every stop along the way brings new satisfaction.

From where you start is not so important, however the most fortunate who have time can start in Jean de Pie o Roncesvalles (Pyrenees) but you weed o we mouth to walk to Santiago.

May be sometime in the future we do this but in at this moment we only ha done week, for this reason we walked 100km

This is minium requeriment to get “the Compostela” if your’re walking, but please be advised that you need 200km if your cycle.

Do you now what’s “the Compostela”?

Well, “the Compostela” is a certificate that you recibe when you finish the “Camino the Santiago”.

Frist you need “the credencial” is like a pasport that you collect stamps in during the walk (you need a minum of 3 stamps per day).

And when you arrive to Santiago, you must go to the “Pilgrims ofice” and when you show the passport (credencial) they give you the certificate.

We walked the 100 km using different starting points;

1. French way. From O’Cebreiro (110km).
2. Sanabres way. From Ousrense (119km).
3. Portuguese way. From Tui (119km).

This are the ways we have walked only three but there are wore, and we must say each one is beautiful for a different reason.

The French way.

Is the most popular where you can meet a lot of people because it’s the busiest with the most services on offer.

The Sanabres way.

Is the opposite to French way, it’s a little crowded.

We went in June and in the were the only guest staying in the hotel.

Of course it’s very spiritual as the is generally no one to speak to and you can connect directly with the nature.

The hotels can be found in smalls towns or in the middle of nowhere, however they are pretty and well organised and safe.

The Portuguese way.

We particularly loved, the way is easy, green and fun because very day you arrive at interesting place (Pontevedra, Caldas, Padron…).

If you are thinking to do the “Camino de Santiago”, may be you need to ask about the thing you need to take or what difficulties you may face.

We must say that you want have any difficulties right across the age group.

For example, we found a woman of 42 who was walking whit her baby (six months old) in a wrap and she walked 20km per day to Santiago.

Then we think that the walk that life is only a question of attitude.

You found a lot of day tippers who left their backpacks in taxis to be transported to the hotel or private hostel while they continued walk. But the majority of walkers are pilgrims who for reasons of their own decided to do the full way whit theirs backpacks implanted on the back.

We recommended that your backpack should be no more than 10% of your body weight, this should allow you to pack: 2 pair of shorts, 2 tee shirt, underwear, fleece, anorak, a light towel, a flip flops (for the shower), wash pack (with small bottles of shampoo, etc.), water bottle, a penknife and the sleeping bag.

The main thing is to arrive with the attitude of emptying, relaxing and sharing. The rest you can find, if you have a blister, for example, there are chemist and hospitals, if you rip your trousers you can find needles and thread… you can find a solution as there are many towns close by.

A bar of soap, clothes pegs and safety pins are always useful. Galicia is very wet and sometimes it’s difficult to dry clothes then you can attack wet clothes to your backpack with the safety pin to dry while continues your walk.

About the money, we worked out that we spent more or less 25€ per person per day:

• 6€ for the accommodation in the official hotels (they provide matrass and pillow protectors, a beds and bunk beds and use of the bathrooms, showers, hot water and kitchen).
• 20€ for food (maybe less if you buy in the supermarket and cook it yourself in the hostels).

Another thing we recommended is to look at the online guide (see link) for information about towns, restaurants, hospitals also you can see where the steps parts and the hostels, etc.  We recommended the consumer guide has been update and is very detailed, well organised and has information about all the ways to Santiago: French, Portuguese…

It is worth nothing; the Galicia council has a website with all the official hostels if you want to see the although the consumer guide is just as good.

All the Galicia council hostels have the same rules and the same price  the price is 6€ per person per night and the timetable is: They open the doors at 13:00pm and close the doors and the lights at 22:00 pm and at 8:00 am all people must be outside become the need clean for the news pilgrims.

If you have any questions, we’ll be glad to answer and tell you our experience, our recommendation is not to think too much about and do it … The St. James way is liked by everybody.