Don’t Make These 12 Mistakes on the Camino de Santiago

It can be easy to make some mistakes on the Camino de Santiago. (Trust me, I did!) After all, most of us have never hiked for several days straight, let alone for weeks or an entire month. Here are some mistakes on the Camino to keep in mind:

1. Booking all of your albergues ahead of time.

This is one of the biggest mistakes on the Camino that I’ve seen. You absolutely do not need to book all of your albergues before you start the Camino. It’s important to stay flexible, and most of the time, it’s not necessary to book ahead of time at all. You never know if you’re going to need to take an extra rest day, or you might just make friends with people staying at a really cool albergue and you want to join in.

The main area I recommend booking ahead of time is from Sarria onwards as it can get quite busy. Otherwise, it’s not typically necessary to book ahead. If you want to book places a few days in advance for extra peace of mind, you definitely can. I would just advise against booking your entire journey ahead of time.

2. Not testing out your shoes adequately beforehand.

Of course this is another one of the biggest mistakes on the Camino. They say you need to hike for around 30-50 miles to break in a pair of hiking boots. Since you’re going to be hiking 12+ mile days for as long as a month on the Camino, it’s very important to have properly broken in shoes that you’re comfortable in.

I’m definitely guilty of this… I had hiked 30 miles in my new boots and realized they weren’t going to be a good fit. Unfortunately, while I wanted to find a new pair, I ran out of time to test another. I brought the shoes with me anyways, and, guess what, my feet were absolutely miserable at the beginning because of it. I had to buy new shoes along the route and ship my crappy boots back to the U.S.

3. Not bringing a backup pair of shoes you can hike in.

Your feet change when you’re hiking that much. My feet personally got so swollen that when I bought new shoes, I got them a half size larger. It’s so nice to have a backup pair of shoes on hand so you can give your feet a break if needed.

I recommend hiking sandals like Chacos. When my feet were dying from my boots, I spent several days hiking in Chacos, and they absolutely saved me. Shoes like these are also great for wearing around town after hiking as they provide much more support than, say, a flip flop.

4. Having too heavy of a pack.

Some people say another one of the big mistakes on the Camino is having a pack that’s more than 10% of your bodyweight. I call BS on that for a variety of reasons, but first and foremost because that’s practically impossible for a short gal like me.

That being said, you want your pack to be as light as possible. You really only want to carry the bare bones essentials with you. Maybe bring one small extra thing–for me that was a Kindle. In the end, my pack was around 18 pounds or so with water included. There wasn’t much else I could remove from the pack to make it lighter.

Related: Get my recommended Camino packing list.

5. Not training beforehand.

Nothing will truly prepare your body for hiking 12+ miles every day, but it’s a good idea to get as much walking in each day as you can. For a couple months before my Camino, I tried to walk at least 1-2 hours every day, and I tried practicing a bit with my pack too.

6. Hiking too many miles each day.

It’s tough because you will make friends along the route and will eventually be faced with a decision where you may have to leave them. Many folks often go too fast on the Camino because they’re trying to stick with their friends. If you have the time to take things slower if you need to, definitely listen to your body and do what you need to do.

7. Not taking enough breaks during the day.

The Camino de Santiago is definitely a marathon and not a sprint! It’s a long journey, and you really need to do everything you can to take care of your body so you can keep going day after day. This is one of the mistakes on the Camino that could potentially jeopardize your chance of finishing.

I barely took any breaks my first few days on the Camino. I would try to finish my hike as fast as I could so I could have it over with and rest sooner. But I quickly learned that was NOT going to work.

Soon, I started taking more breaks, which my body really needed, but those breaks also helped me to better enjoy the journey rather than racing to the next destination each day. I usually took a break for breakfast, lunch, and at least one or two breaks for the sports drink Aquarius. Sometimes we would take drinking breaks, but I felt like my body would revolt if I did that too much.

8. Not having a loose tentative itinerary in place.

Per my first point, you want to stay flexible, but it’s also smart to have a tentative plan in place that you can tweak as you go. That way you can make sure you have enough time to get to the end, and you can have at least some basic knowledge on the route.

9. Not seeing a healthcare professional when needed.

Physical ailments are definitely common on the Camino de Santiago. Honestly, if anyone has made it out without a single blister, then I want in on your secret! Lol.

My friends and I all experienced blisters. One of my friend’s blisters got infected, so she had to take a break for a few days and take buses from town to town to stay with the group. If you’re worried about your blisters or any other ailments, I recommend going to a pharmacy. The Spanish pharmacies are wonderful. They can give you prescriptions and help with minor ailments instead of having to visit a doctor.

10. Staying in albergues with a curfew in the bigger cities.

Most municipal albergues have curfews around 10:30 p.m. or so. That’s often when you should be going to bed anyways before an early morning wake up the next day (I usually got up around 6ish but sometimes earlier or later). But in the bigger cities, you’ll want to go out to dinner, and eating out in the big cities sometimes means eating at 9 p.m. Plus, whenever you take a rest day, you’ll want to enjoy being out if you can.

This is one of the mistakes on the Camino that I made when in Burgos. While at dinner waiting on the check, I realized I needed to get back to my albergue within the next 15 minutes for curfew. I ditched my friends and had to speed walk back to the albergue in fear of getting locked out for the night.

11. Not learning some basic Spanish phrases.

Certainly you can get by on the Camino without knowing any Spanish, but you’ll be much more reliant on language translation apps or friends that know Spanish. Plenty of people in towns along the Camino only speak Spanish. People are typically very friendly and helpful regardless, but knowing some basic words will make things easier for you.

12. Not downloading a Camino app or carrying a guidebook.

Don’t be that person relying on everyone else for 100% of your needs on the Camino. While everyone is happy to help each other out, everyone also expects a certain level of independence. You also might be interested in certain things along the route more so than other hikers. It’s a good idea to have something on hand to reference that you can check out each day to know what’s coming up in the days to follow.

There you have it! Those are some mistakes on the Camino de Santiago that I’ve seen (and some I’ve made myself).