This summer I had the oppertunity to walk the Camino Frances with my Dad. From the 4th of May to the 6th of June, we walked from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela, covering 808km across the north of Spain.
This wasn’t my first camino - ten years ago, Carl and I walked the Camino Del Norte, starting in Bayonne on the French coast and walking between the sea and the mountains all the way to Finisterre, the end of the world. In those ten years Carl and I have become avid walkers, created Tough Soles, and a rode the cascade of other events and opportunities have come from that one walk. So I was excited to head back to Spain, walk a very different walk, and come back with a whole new set of experiences.
However, first things first - we needed to pack and actually walk the Camino Frances.
Pre-Camino Gear Check
One of my main goals for this trip was to avoid buying new gear. Like many outdoor enthusiasts, I am a certified Gear Head™️. I can walk around an outdoor shop for hours, gush over the new version of my favourite camping stove, and let my heart run away with every map I lay eyes on. Through this I’ve collected my fair share of equipment, and while I’ve sold or given away most of the things that haven’t worked for us, I still like to remind myself that sometimes I just need to be content with making things work, instead of making them perfect.
For this trip I went on a walk down memory lane, reusing both the backpack and sleeping bag I first bought ten years ago for the Camino Del Norte. Something I did have to buy was a new pair of shoes, and I went for the Hoka Speedgoats, a trail runner I’ve worn through at least 8 pairs of at this point.
I also bought more camera batteries, and a new battery bank. The amount of tech / photography related items I bring on adventures is definitely more than average, and an easy place to save weight for anyone comparing my gear weight breakdown to their own piles.
CLOTHES:
Sweaty Betty 6inch running shorts x 2
Sweaty Betty full length leggings x 1
Synthetic t-shirt x 2
Long sleeve Rab sun hoodie x 1
1000 mile socks x 3
Patagonia R1 fleece x 1
Patagonia down jacket x 1
Patagonia storm 10 rain jacket x 1
TECH:
Sony A7S Mk1 camera
GoPro Hero 10
Battery bank
Shokz mini bone-conducting headphones
Kodak half frame film camera
Capture Clip for camera
Charging cables for everything
plug adaptor
Kindle
Watch: Garmin Fenix 6S
Enough notebooks, pens, and postcards to sustain a small village
GENERAL GEAR:
Shoes: Hoka Speedgoats
Backpack: Lowe Alpine 33-40L
Head Torch: Petzl Iko Core
Sleeping Bag: Snugpak Traveller (Synthetic - comfort 7*C)
Nalgene water bottle
Generic sports sun glasses
Light Teva sandals
TOILETRIES:
P20 Sunscreen (Factor 50)
Anti-chaffing stick
Antiseptic cream
Toothbrush & Toothpaste
Shampoo, Conditioner, Soap
Ear plugs
Eye mask
Microfibre towel
Tick card & tick tweezers
Cat hole supplies
Small first aid kit
Overall, the gear I left with and the gear I came home with were very much the same. I bought new socks, and everything else pretty much managed!
While it was nice to have the reminiscence of using the same backpack as my first trip, I actually have better bags that I left at home (namely the Osprey Aura) that can deal with a heavier pack better than the frame of this bag could. But it served its purpose and made it another month of travelling with me (although only just, with some of the materials starting to perish).
I rolled a risky dice in not buying a new pair of shoes towards the end of the trip. Somewhere not long after the 600km mark, I could feel that my trail runners were worn out and not supporting me the way that they should’ve been. Thankfully, it’s all worked out, but that’s not a risk I recommend taking!
It’s interesting that the pieces of gear that I did upgrade ahead of this trip (camera batteries and battery bank), were probably not needed! My memory of walking 10 years prior featured far fewer plugs/outlets for charging. However, this time around it was usual and became expected for each bunk bed to have its own socket. I didn’t need 8 camera batteries (yes, I know) but I’m glad to have them for future camping adventures.
Post Camino Q&A
And now that we know how well my gear worked, it was time to talk through some of your general questions of the experience of walking for 34 days in a row. I asked for questions on YouTube and Instagram, and most of them boiled down into the 11 questions I answered in my most recent video on the trip.
Below, I’ve answered some of those questions in text form too.
Q1: Getting to the start and end?
We flew into Biarritz and took the train up to Saint-Jean. The train ride is pretty as it climbs up into the mountains. We gave ourselves a full travel day just to get to Saint-Jean, register at the camino office, and then start early the following morning to climb up into the mountains.
Luckily, leaving Santiago is easy if you're Irish, as there are direct flights back to Dublin. A lot of other nationalities had to take a bus or train to Madrid and fly from there. Taking the bus out to Santiago airport, we were driving back out along the route we had walked in just a few days before. The final unexpected camino moment was sitting there, watching friends and strangers walk into the city, knowing that they were mere hours from finishing, after the weeks or months they’d spent walking.
Q2: Booking Accommodation?
There is a lot of stress about booking ahead along the Camino Frances. I heard many refer to it as the big bed race in the mornings. Half of this stress is just made from everyone around you also getting stressed over booking. I think you can walk the camino with or without pre-booking your accommodation, depending on your own constraints.
The municipal albergues do not take bookings. These beds are given out on a first come, first served basis. These are often very basic hostels, but once you have a bed and a shower, there is very little that these spaces really need to provide for you, and there was always a great sense of community in the municipal albergues.
However, there are many reasons why booking the trip might be necessary for you. For some, you can’t choose to go further if there’s no room at the inn. If you’re someone who knows that they cannot walk more than 15km a day; needs a private room for medical devices; have travelled half way around the world for this trip; or find it incredibly stressful not knowing for sure where your day is ending, then booking ahead becomes more necessary. And the stress of the unknown should not be overlooked - I’ve experienced this in the past walking in Ireland and abroad, and it can take a long time to “relax” into the unknown.
Q3: Did you get bedbugs?
Thankfully, no. Bedbugs can feel like one of those taboo phrases on the camino. It’s a horrible experience to get them, and an ordeal to try and wash yourself and all your belongings hot enough to kill them off. But it’s rarely the fault of the accommodation - when you’ve anything from hundreds to thousands of people passing through a village every night, they can come in unbidden on someones sleeping bag or clothing. I can understand why hostels and hotels were incredibly touchy at someone mentioning bugs - it can cause a huge panic. Most hostels provide or have for sale a disposable sheet and pillow case. I’d recommend always using them.
Q4: Is the trail mainly on-road or off-road walking?
I found this an interesting question, as it was something that I had begun to notice in my notes before even finished the camino myself. This is very much an off-road walking route, and it’s incredible the infrastructure that has been developed to allow for so many people to walk across a country. However, I don’t know if I would call this a “trail”, specifically in comparison to what I call a “trail” in Ireland. It is a wide gravel track that is primarily for the use of walkers (and access lanes for the local farmers). It isn’t tarmac, but it is hard underfoot. The couple of days that it was particularly “trail-y” were distinctly written about as the harder than the usual walking days.
Q5: How much did it cost?
For 2025, I think a rough budget looks something like:
Breakfast and lunch: €10 - 20
Pilgrim dinner: €15
Bunkbed: €15
I think €1500 per person for the full walk is a pretty basic ballpark that you can estimate, if you’re happy to stay in the cheapest accommodation options.
Q6: Are the nights noisy?
As a light sleeper in the dormitories - yes. I wore earplugs and an eye-mask the whole trip, and didn’t sleep through a single night. This is just part of the parcel of this kind of trip, and I try and accept it and roll with the lumpy mattresses.
Q7: Which camino route would you do again?
Specifically thinking about the again in this phrase, right now I would love to see how the Del Norte compares to my memories from 10 years ago. But overall, I would also love to walk the Camino Primitivo and the Camino Portugués.
Q8: Best unexpected experience?
The people. I’m usually quite an introvert, and go hiking for the solitude and connection to the outdoors. So it was a real surprise to realise that it was the people who made this adventure special. I really loved the wide mix of people we met. Without them, it would have just been a long gravel walk. Which ties in nicely to the final question of -
Q11: Was this just a long walk, or were you able to connect to some pilgrimage aspect?
It was seeing people who are not “walkers” band together and help one another that really gave this is a feeling of communal pilgrimage, instead of just a nice wander. At one point my dad asked me why was everyone we met on the camino so nice? Was it that the camino attracts nice people, or does the camino provide a space for people to connect and bring the best out of each other?
I think it’s probably a little of both, which works as a constantly reoccurring cycle. There is something in walking that is different to everyday life - you can experience it on a day-hike, or a thru-hike. People that were strangers become confidants. It’s easier to share what is mentally weighing on you, while you literally struggle together under the weight of things you’ve chosen to carry.
This all leads me to say thank you to everyone I met on the walk - it was an incredible experience, and I hope our paths cross again on future wanders.
Buen Camino