How to Plan Your Camino (FREE Pre-Camino Checklist)
So you’ve decided to walk the Camino de Santiago. Congratulations!
Now it’s time to make it a reality.
To help you out, we’ve made this FREE Pre-Camino Checklist with all the things you need to do before you go — everything from booking a place to stay, getting to your starting point, navigating ATM fees, travel medical insurance and cell phone plans, and packing and testing your Camino gear — so you can have a “Buen Camino” no matter which route you’re walking or how long you’ll be on the Way.
The Camino is all about serendipity, but a little pre-planning can help make the experience a lot more memorable.
How to Plan Your Camino
#1 Choose Your Camino Route
While the Camino Frances is by far the most popular option for pilgrims — especially on their first Camino — there are literally dozens of options to choose from if you want to walk to Santiago. We even made a video about our 5 Favorite Alternative Caminos if you want a deep dive into specific options.
The point is, there’s no one right way to walk a Camino and no correct route to Santiago. You can check out some of our videos on potential routes:
Via Podiensis (aka “Chemin Le Puy”)
Our favorite Camino resources include:
Gronze.com (Spanish)
Gronze Maps (app)
The Camino Podcast w/ Dave Whitson (here’s our recent episode about the Camino Primitivo!)
#2 Decide When to Walk Your Camino
After choosing your route, the next most important decision is when you’ll hike the Camino. Because the season — and weather — will determine almost all of your Camino planning, from how far ahead you need to book accommodation, to your budget, and of course what kind of clothing and gear you’ll need to pack for the Camino.
We made another video that takes a deep dive into the pros and cons of walking the Camino in every season so you can know which time of year sounds best for you.
#3 Book Your Flight to Spain (or France)
It might seem stressful to book your flight so early in the planning process, but it’s an important first step toward walking the Camino. Buying a ticket early not only saves you a lot of money, it also sets your intentions and can often make your dream start to feel like a reality.
There’s nothing like setting a date on the calendar and realizing that you’ll be on your way to Spain soon!
More importantly, once you buy your flight to Spain (or France!) you can start making concrete plans and reservations for how many days you want to walk, where you’d like to stay, and what you want your Camino to be like.
Booking a flight is a big deal, and one of the most expensive parts of the Camino for many pilgrims, but buying the ticket ahead of time is a great way to give yourself time to prepare for the Camino with a tangible deadline. That being said, leave yourself ample time to get to Santiago for your return flight if you can.
Understandably, many people have tight timelines and only so much time away from work or other obligations, but the Camino has a way of messing up our well-laid plans.
Along the way, you will almost certainly face new challenges and setbacks that might upset a tight timeline. But you’ll also probably meet some fantastic new friends and fellow pilgrims who you’ll want to spend time with. You might regret having to stick to a rigid hiking schedule to catch your return flight.
Try to build in as much flexibility as possible. You won’t regret it.
#4 Book Local Transit
We also recommend buying a train, bus, or connecting flight to wherever your starting point is. For many people, that means St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, but we’ve walked from Leon, San Vicente de la Barquera, Oviedo, Le Puy, and even Ourense.
We often use Rome2Rio as a planning tool since it’s great for finding cheap bus tickets and direct train lines. But once it’s time to actually book something, we often book directly through Renfe to access Spain’s extensive high-speed train network or SNCF if you want to get from Paris to SJPP.
Alsa Bus & MonBus are also affordable (and surprisingly comfortable) bus options if you want to connect with harder to reach places like the northern coast of Spain or San Sebastian.
And remember that most trains in Spain transit through Madrid, so it’s a great place to start your Camino if you find a cheap flight.
#5 Book Your First Night (or first few nights)
We highly recommend booking at least your first night before you start walking the Camino as soon as possible — especially if you plan to start in SJPP.
The Camino Frances has gotten extremely popular over the past decade, and there are certain times of year — typically late August to late September — when every single bed in town is booked weeks or even months in advance.
If you want to walk during the high season, secure your first night (and preferably your first few nights) with reservations ahead of time to ensure that you start the Camino off on the right foot.
But you absolutely don’t need to book every single night of your Camino ahead of time. In fact, that’s often a bad idea. Remember, things happen on the Camino. Sometimes the weather is terrible and it slows you down. You might get blisters or an injury and need to take it easy or even rest for a day or two. You might love a town and want to take a zero day. And you might meet some new pilgrim friends who change your plans entirely.
That’s what the Camino is all about. If you book too far in advance, you can complicate your trip or worse waste your money or the beds of an albergue that might have gone to a pilgrim who needed it. If you’re nervous about accommodation, we recommend booking 2-3 days ahead of time as you hike to make sure that you have a place to stay, but anything past that is overkill (except for the very high season or the last 100 km from Sarria).
We recommend using your favorite Camino apps — like Buen Camino, Wise Pilgrim, or Gronze — or using Booking.com to search for albergues and casa rurals. And once you’re ready to make a booking, you can either call with the number provided, or use WhatsApp to text the hospitaleros.
Most albergues in Spain use WhatsApp to manage bookings, so get setup with that before you go, and you’ll be able to text albergues directly with messages that you translate in Google Translate, which is great if your Spanish isn’t strong enough to make a phone call.
Speaking of texting and making phone calls in Spain…
#6 Best Camino Cell Phone Plans for Spain
It’s gotten a lot easier to stay connected on the Camino than even just a few years ago. Which is a good thing and a bad thing!
Some (but not all) albergues have wifi, and many US cell phone plans now include free roaming and international data that just work when you land in Europe. It’s awesome.
We’ve hiked with T-Mobile before and it worked great, but check with your provider to make sure that your phone will work when you land without any additional fees or limits. Overages can be a bummer if you’re not aware of any data caps while traveling internationally.
If you want a local SIM card or prepaid plan for longer Caminos, there are some solid options like Lobster.es. But getting the physical SIM card in Spain can be a hassle, and you’ll be using a new local number (not your normal US or UK number) so you won’t have any of your contacts or other features out of the box. We both used Lobster’s prepaid plan during our first few months in Spain and we really liked it, but it’s probably more hassle than it’s worth if your existing phone already works in Europe — even with limited data or less-than-ideal signal.
Pro Tip: Turn off background app refresh to avoid going over your data limits while roaming
#7 Best Camino Travel Insurance Plans
We always purchase travel medical insurance to cover us on our adventures in case something goes wrong, but travel medical coverage is especially important when you’re doing something like walking across an entire country.
You might twist your ankle, get bad blisters, get sick, get bitten by a dog, or any number of other disasters, and traveling without medical insurance can be a headache in a foreign country.
One of our favorite options for affordable, comprehensive travel medical coverage for your next Camino is Nomad Insurance from SafetyWing.
Customizable plans start at just a few dollars a day, and provide:
Full medical coverage with $0 deductible — which means you’re covered for hospital visits, ambulance rides, prescriptions, and a lot more
Coverage for any lost checked baggage on your way to Spain
Reimbursement for Food & Accommodation for trip delays over 12 hours
And even emergency flights if something happens back home
You can customize your coverage and choose specific days for coverage and you can extend your coverage if you decide to walk a different Camino or travel before or after your Camino
Pay-as-you-go subscription (even while you’re on your trip), cancel anytime, and rely on 24/7 online support and simple claims process.
#8 Cash or Credit: ATM Fees & Credit Cards on the Camino
Like international cell phone plans, it’s gotten a lot easier to get cash and use your credit or debit card on the Camino in Spain.
We have a Schwab checking account which comes with worldwide ATM reimbursement up to a certain number (I think it’s $300 a month, but we’ve never come anywhere near the limit). That means we can use any ATM with no fees. We highly recommend it.
If that’s not an option for you, you can always use a credit or debit card with no foreign transaction fees. You will still need to travel with at least some cash — many albergues are still cash only — but a surprising number of places accept cards, meaning you can travel with less cash than ever before.
Another great option is setting up a WISE account to use local currencies so there’s no hassle or exchange rate to worry about. We’ve been using our WISE account for a few years now to transfer money to our Spanish bank account and travel around Europe, and it’s super easy.
You can sign up here and get started for free.
#9 Test Your Camino Gear
You should always break-in or at least test your gear before you start walking the Camino. We’ve seen some poor pilgrims struggling with shoes that didn’t fit right, bags that aren’t comfortable, and rain gear that isn’t cutting it, and while you can get replacement gear at many places along the Camino Frances, it’s a bummer to have to waste time and money looking for gear replacements instead of walking comfortably in gear that you love.
Take a day hike wearing all your Camino gear. You need to work up a sweat to see how your clothing, shoes, and bag feel when you’re actually on the trail. And don’t be afraid to just walk from your house. You don’t need to go to the woods to test your Camino gear. In fact, a significant portion of every Camino involves walking on concrete, asphalt, and roads, so you need to know if your gear can handle the real world conditions you’re going to experience on the Camino.
Above all else, make sure to break in your shoes (we both love the Altra Lone Peak series) and check that your bag fits correctly. If those two things are solid, you’re 99% of the way there.
And while we have some favorite gear in our packing lists, you don’t need to spend any money on clothing or gear to hike the Camino. Use what you have or borrow something you need from a friend.
Check out our full packing list and packing videos here if you want to see what we bring when we walk the Camino.
#10 Pack Your Camino Bag
It’s finally time to test pack your bag or backpack.
We like to lay everything out (and maybe take a picture!) to see everything that you’re going to carry all in one place. It will probably seem like a lot. And that’s a good thing. If you see a huge pile of stuff — with redundant items — now is a great time to trim your packing list down to the essentials.
We also recommend packing everything into your bag and weighing it without food and water. Because this is the lightest your bag is ever going to be. If it feels too heavy now, just wait till you add that water weight, a bunch of snacks, and some wet clothes.
If you’re extending your trip in Europe beyond the Camino and you want to bring more than just your hiking clothes — which is a great idea — you can always send the bulk of your clothing or luggage ahead to Santiago using Paq Peregrino or Casa Ivar.
Both of these luggage storage services will both hold your luggage for a small fee. Paq Peregrino (from the Spanish Post Office) offers:
15kgs for €20.95 with 15 day storage
25kgs for €31.40 with 15 day storage (you can check all of the rates here). Prices go up with more storage
And remember that many airlines won’t let you take hiking poles and pocket knives in your carry on.
#11 Clear Your Plate
The final step in your Pre-Camino Checklist is to clear your plate.
The Camino is a time to hit the reset button and get away from some of the stresses and hassles of daily life. Don’t waste it.
We always like to limit our time online while we hike by doing a few simple things to disconnect and manage expectations with people back home, including:
Set up an email autoresponder to keep your inbox clean and clear
Share your plans with family/friends so they know where you’ll be and when you’ll be available
Clear space off your phone for all those awesome photos and videos!
How to Plan for Your Camino: Pre-Camino Checklist
For us, the planning stage is one of the best parts of the Camino. It’s a time to get excited about the route and the things you’ll see and people you’ll meet along the way.
We hope this list helps you get ready for your next Camino, no matter where or when it is. And if you want more advice and resources like this, sign up for our newsletter and subscribe to our YouTube channel for weekly videos about walking the Camino, living in Spain, and spending your days in exciting new ways.
Buen Camino peregrinos, and thanks for spending your day with us!
