Travel Ideas

The Camino de Santiago (the way of Santiago) or, the way of St. James in English, is one of the core Christian pilgrimages to the remains of a saint famous for slaughtering Turks – guaranteed sanctity back in the old days.

The route stretches from the French Pyrenees to the town of Santiago in Galicia, Western-most Spain and draws plenty of Christians, pagans who reckon that it’s an ancient fertility rite (certainly the Romans also walked the route) and your average roadjunky with no better idea of how to spend a few weeks or months.

You head to the tourist office where you start off and get a compostela, your pilgrim’s passport and that gets you entrance to all the monastery dormitories where you can stay for just a few euros each night along the way. Food’s cheap, too and walking the Camino de Santiago is probably one of the cheapest ways you could pass a month or two in Europe – provided you don’t get too loaded at the bars on route (although in Spain you get free tapas with each beer).

The route is partly spectacular, partly tedious beyond belief with endless wheat fields or accompanying highways but it’s still walked by thousands and thousands each year – just ask around and maybe take the bus for the boring bits. They’re not sticklers for the route and you’ll still get your name announced in the mass when you reach the cathedral in Santiago – and have all your sins wiped clean as a result.

Check out a travel guide to the Santiago Pilgrimage

Back to Top - Print this page