Letter Five · Preparing for the Camino

Camino de Santiago FAQ: Best Time, How Long, Blisters and Trail Kit

The Camino questions I am asked most, honestly answered in one place.

Hey you, it's me.

This letter is part of the Camino Chronicles, where I'm sharing everything I learn, live, and walk, from preparing for the Camino to the trail itself and eventually coming home.

Some questions come up again and again. When should I go? How long does it take? What do I do about blisters? What actually goes in my first-aid kit? So instead of a letter for each, I gathered the most-asked ones right here, with honest answers. And where it helps, I'll point you to the letter that goes deeper.

Let's get into it.

When is the best time of year to walk the Camino?

Short answer: spring, roughly late April through June, and early autumn, September into October, give you the best mix of mild weather and manageable crowds. June and September are the two sweet spots. But the real answer depends on your route.

• Spring: green, mild, and quieter, with services opening back up after winter. A lovely, gentle time to walk.
• Summer (June through early September): the longest days and the most company, but it gets hot inland in July and August, and crowded. The coast stays cooler, which is one reason I chose it.
• Autumn: the other sweet spot. Warm days, calmer trails, and that golden light. Many walkers' favorite.
• Winter: quiet and contemplative, but cold, with short days, many albergues closed, and mountain sections that can be snowed in. For the hardy and the seeking.

Here's the honest part about crowds. The most popular season runs May through September, and the busiest months are July and August, with August the peak, when Spain and much of Europe take their holidays and flood the trail on top of pilgrims. Beds fill by mid-afternoon, prices climb, and the final 100 km into Santiago gets especially crowded, because that stretch is the minimum for the Compostela, so everyone funnels onto it.

But busy does not mean off-limits. I'm walking the coast in late August into the final 100 km in early September, right in the thick of it, and I planned around it. Book ahead. Start early each morning. Lean toward the cooler coast. Busy season is walkable if you prepare for it.

How long does the Camino take?

Short answer: most pilgrims walk the last 100 km into Santiago, the minimum for the Compostela, in 5 to 7 days. The full Camino Francés, all 800 km, takes most people 30 to 35 days. Most walkers cover about 20 to 25 km, roughly 12 to 15 miles, a day.

Where does that average come from? The last 100 km at around 20 km a day is 5 to 7 walking days. The full Francés at about 24 km a day over 800 km is roughly 33 days, plus a rest day most weeks. You can see the stage breakdowns at caminoways.com.

For me, the walking is 6 days. I walk the final 100 km from Sarria into Santiago at a gentle 9 to 15 miles a day, which I kept short on purpose so my body could keep going. Before that, I spend about two and a half weeks riding the Camino del Norte coast by e-bike. My whole journey, coast to cathedral to the end of the earth at Fisterra, is 32 nights.

So how long yours takes really comes down to two things. Your route sets the length, a short coastal 100 km is a week, the full Francés is over a month, so see the route letter to choose yours. And your pace and your days shape your budget, because more days means more nights and more cost, which I break down in the cost letter.

There is no right length. There is the one that fits your route, your body, your time, and your budget.

What do I do about blisters?

Short answer: the moment you feel a hot spot, stop and treat it. Do not wait. Air the foot, find what is rubbing, tape or cover it, and re-lace. If a real blister forms, keep it clean and covered, and let a pharmacy help if it needs draining.

A hot spot is a blister that hasn't happened yet. Within a couple of hours of rubbing you can feel it, and a few hours after that, walking is misery. So the second something feels off, even a grain of sand in your shoe, stop and deal with it. Thirty seconds now can save you days of pain.

What to do at a hot spot: shoe and sock off. Let the foot air and dry. Find the cause, a wrinkle in the sock, a bit of grit, a damp sock, laces too tight or loose. Fix it. Then tape or cover the spot, and re-lace.

In my own kit I carry two things that do two different jobs. Hydrocolloid bandages seal over a blister like a second skin and let it heal while I keep walking, even in the shower. And lidocaine blister patches numb a sore spot when I just need to keep going. One to heal, one to quiet the pain.

If a blister has already formed, the safest thing is to leave the skin intact, keep it clean, and cover it to take the pressure off. If it truly needs draining, the pharmacies along the Camino, the ones with the green cross, see pilgrim feet every single day. Let them help. That is what they are there for.

Every evening, wash and dry your feet, check them over, air them out, and put on dry socks. Prevention and healing meet in that nightly ten minutes.

This is general foot care, not medical advice. If you live with diabetes, circulation issues, or a chronic condition, be extra careful with your feet and check with a professional. Watch for signs of infection, spreading redness, heat, or pus, and get help if you see them.

Everything here is treatment, what to do when a blister shows up. The prevention, the shoes and socks and tape to pack, lives in the packing letter, and training your feet before you go is in the training letter.

What should be in my trail kit?

Here's the honest truth. In midlife, our bodies ask a little more of us, so our kits carry a little more too. That is not being high-maintenance. That is paying attention. Here is how I built mine.

Short answer: start with a ready-made travel first-aid kit for the basics, then add what your body and the Camino actually ask for.

Start with a base: a ready-made travel first-aid kit covers your everyday basics, an assortment of bandages, gauze, and antiseptic wipes, in one compact case. Start there.

Then add the things a midlife body walking day after day tends to need:

• Hydrocolloid bandages: to seal and heal a real blister while you keep walking.
• Lidocaine blister patches: to numb a sore spot when you need to keep going.
• Extra-large flexible bandages: gentle to peel off tender skin, for the bigger scrapes.
• Acetaminophen: for everyday aches and headaches, taken to the label, not past it.
• A lidocaine spray: for tired muscles and joints at the end of a long day.
• Your personal medications: whatever you take daily, packed where you can reach it.

The one piece of gear I would not skip: trekking poles

Mine saved my balance and my back. They give you two more points of contact, so you are steadier on uneven ground and going downhill, where most falls and ankle rolls happen. And they shift some of your weight off your legs and onto your arms, which takes the load off your knees and hips and keeps you upright instead of hunching under your pack. Studies show they can take up to 25 percent of the impact off your knees. For a body that already aches, that is not a small thing.

Two quick notes. Trekking poles are generally safest packed in checked luggage, so check your airline and airport security rules before you fly. And keep your pack light and riding on your hips, not your shoulders, because a heavy pack goes straight to your back. Stretch at the end of the day.

And here is the relief. Take what you need, and leave what you don't. This is my kit, built for my body, not a list you have to copy. You do not have to carry a pharmacy on your back. Spain's pharmacies are all along the Camino, they are used to pilgrims, and they carry most of what you might need. So pack light, bring what matters to you, and trust that help is never far.

I bought all of this myself. Nothing here is sponsored.

Is it safe to walk alone, especially as a woman?

This one comes up more than almost any other, and it deserves more than a paragraph. So it is getting its own letter.

The short version: yes, the Camino is one of the more welcoming places in the world to walk solo, and there is real wisdom to walking it wisely. I go deep on that in the next letter, the solo traveling letter, the trail community, trusting your gut, staying connected, and what it actually feels like to walk alone in midlife.

So tell me, which of these questions has been keeping you up at night? Ask me anything. These letters exist because you asked.