Letter Eight · Preparing for the Camino

What I Wish I Knew Before Booking Hotels on the Camino de Santiago

A practical hotel booking guide from someone who planned 23 stays across Spain, made a few mistakes, and would absolutely do it again.

Hey you, Buen Camino. 🐚

If you are reading this, there is a pretty good chance you are planning your own Camino, so welcome, fellow pilgrim. I hope this letter saves you money, stress, a few unnecessary hills, and at least one questionable lodging decision. 😂

I wish someone had handed me this list before I started booking.

When I planned our Camino, my first priority was finding places with good reviews, good ratings, pretty pictures, and a price that did not make me immediately close the tab. I thought if hundreds of people said a hotel was wonderful, surely it would be wonderful for us too.

What I did not understand yet was that a great hotel is not automatically a great Camino hotel.

I was booking like a traveler. I needed to be booking like a pilgrim.

Those are two very different things.

I am also making this list because I am in midlife and starting over in a lot of ways. Twenty years ago, I was not the woman who would have booked 23 different stays across Spain, arranged luggage transfers, planned biking stages and walking stages, figured out rest days, and trusted herself enough to actually get on the plane and go.

I did use AI to help me plan, and I would absolutely use it again. I would just ask better questions.

A friend once told me, "AI is only as smart as the questions you ask it." That stayed with me because I learned exactly how true that is on the Camino.

I am hoping that documenting my mistakes, the things I wish I had known, and what I would do differently next time can save you some of the cost of professional planning assistance. For a trip this complex, planning help can run into the hundreds of dollars and sometimes more than $1,000, depending on how much support is included. I booked ours from start to finish myself.

Did I make mistakes? Absolutely. Would I change a few things next time? One hundred percent. But overall, I could not have asked for it to go better.

Every accommodation was expecting us. Every day, our suitcases made it from Point A to Point B. We always had somewhere to sleep. Somehow this enormous puzzle I built from my couch actually worked, and I am proud of that.

So this is not a story about doing it perfectly. This is me saying: here is what worked, here is where I messed up, and here is what I would ask before I ever click BOOK again.

Planning the Camino in 2027? Start Early

2027 is a Compostela Holy Year, also called Xacobeo 2027. The Holy Door at the Cathedral of Santiago opens on December 31, 2026 and remains open throughout 2027. Santiago currently recommends booking private accommodations several months ahead for June through September, and even earlier if you plan to be there around the week of July 25.

I would also personally start watching May availability early. May was one of the busiest months for Compostelas in 2025, and the normal Camino high season stretches across late spring and summer. There is not yet an official total pilgrim forecast for 2027, so I would not tell you that every single day will be packed. I would tell you that affordable, well-located rooms are the ones I would expect to disappear first.

And when you see rooms disappearing while you are trying to make a decision, panic-booking becomes very real. Been there. 😂

1. Book Against the Actual Camino Route, Not the City Name

If you remember only one thing from this letter, make it this one.

Just because your stage ends in a certain city does not mean every hotel listed near that city makes sense for the route you are actually walking or biking. The Camino may enter town from one direction and leave from another. A hotel can technically be "near" your destination and still pull you way off the Way.

This is also where AI got me into trouble.

We were trying to stay near Infiesto. AI helped me find El Peñayu in Cadanes, and on paper it looked close enough. In reality, we ended up at a house in the middle of nowhere. The ride there was much more remote than I expected, there was no easy food option, no grocery store around the corner, no simple taxi situation, weak WiFi, spotty cell service, and communication with the property was limited because the hosts only spoke Spanish.

Once we got there, we were basically there.

And when the roosters are your closest neighbors, you start thinking, I have watched way too many Lifetime movies. This is exactly how every scary cabin-in-the-middle-of-nowhere movie begins. 😂

Then the next morning, we rode out while hunters were preparing to go out for the day. We could hear gunshots in the distance. I am not saying we were in immediate danger, but I can tell you it added another layer of anxiety I had never considered while looking at a booking screen back home.

That stay taught me that "two or three miles away" means absolutely nothing without context.

Two miles flat through town is one thing. Two miles uphill on a remote road with no food, no taxi, weak cell service, and no easy Plan B is a completely different experience.

Use AI to narrow the choices. Then pull up the actual Camino map and verify the hotel pin yourself. The Camino map gets the final vote.

2. Check the Elevation, Not Just the Distance

Distance gets very creative after a full Camino day. 😂

A hotel can be only half a mile away and still feel like it has been placed somewhere near the Lord if that half mile goes straight uphill.

I cannot tell you how many times we were exhausted, wet, sore, or mentally already in the shower, only to look up and realize the last stretch to the hotel was a climb.

So yes, check the mileage. Then check the elevation profile and the final approach to the property.

After enough Camino miles, "only one more mile" can feel deeply personal.

3. Check What Is Around the Hotel Once You Arrive

This became one of my biggest questions after Cadanes: what happens if I need something once I get there?

Is there food nearby? A grocery store? A pharmacy? A taxi? Reliable WiFi? Cell service? Can I communicate with the host? If something goes wrong, can I actually leave?

A peaceful, secluded property can be wonderful for someone arriving by car. The same property can feel very different when you arrive on foot or by bike, hungry, tired, without transportation, and with a dying phone.

Do not just book the room. Book the reality of arriving there tired, without a car, in a foreign country.

4. "Breakfast Included" Is Not Enough Information

I thought breakfast would be simple. Nope.

Some of our nicest hotels did not necessarily have the most useful breakfast situation for a pilgrim. Some smaller private stays were actually better for what we needed.

The real question is not, "Does the hotel serve breakfast?" The real question is, "Will breakfast be available when I need to leave?"

If you want to start walking at 6:30 or 7:00 and breakfast does not begin until 8:00 or 8:30, that beautiful buffet is not helping you much.

Check the start time. Ask whether they can prepare something early or to go. Also check whether there is a cafe or market nearby if you leave before breakfast.

On the Camino, coffee and food stop feeling like hotel amenities. They become logistics.

5. Confirm That Your Luggage Can Be Delivered

If you are using luggage transfer, do not assume every property can receive your suitcase.

Pilgrim-oriented hotels and albergues often understand the system immediately. Private rentals, cabins, apartments, and smaller properties may require more coordination, especially if there is no staffed reception during the day.

Before booking, ask whether the property accepts Camino luggage transfers, whether someone will be there to receive the bag, where it will be stored, and whether your specific transfer company delivers there.

Also keep your passport, medications, money, important documents, and anything you cannot easily replace with you rather than inside the transported suitcase.

More on bags and what to carry in Letter Two: Packing Your Way.

6. Do Not Assume Every Hotel Has a Camino Stamp

This one surprised me because I thought: I am on the Camino, surely every hotel has a sello for my pilgrim credential.

Nope. Some did. Some absolutely did not.

The official Pilgrim's Reception Office requires at least two stamps per day during the qualifying distance for the Compostela: at least the final 100 km if walking, or the final 200 km if cycling.

The last 100 km on foot felt easy for stamps. They were everywhere. Biking the Camino del Norte felt different. We were moving faster, stops were more spread out, and some of the hotels I chose were not traditional pilgrim hotels.

The last thing you want after a long day is to discover that you still need a stamp and now you are looking for a tourist office or hiking back up a hill to a church that may or may not be open or staffed.

Ask one simple question before you book: "Do you have a Camino sello for the pilgrim credential?"

7. Check the Laundry Situation

You are going to want to wash clothes fairly regularly on the Camino.

A lot of pilgrim albergues make that easy with washers, dryers, or a simple laundry setup. Hotels can be very different. Some offer laundry service, some do not, and some have a turnaround time that does not work if you are leaving first thing the next morning.

Check whether there is a washer and dryer, same-day laundry service, or a laundromat nearby.

And look at the map. A laundromat that is "only half a mile away" sounds perfectly reasonable from your couch. After walking all day, that half mile may suddenly feel deeply offensive. 😂

This also connects directly to packing. I overpacked partly because I was afraid laundry would be harder to find than it was. If I had checked the laundry situation at each stop while booking, I probably would have brought much less.

8. Check-In, Checkout, Luggage Storage and Elevators Matter

I noticed a real difference between some pilgrim-oriented accommodations and hotels that were geared more toward traditional or luxury travel.

Some pilgrim properties understood early arrivals because they understood Camino stages. Other hotels operated on a more traditional vacation schedule with later check-in times.

That matters when you arrive sweaty, tired, carrying a daypack, and all you want is a shower.

I also stayed in places with early checkout times. On the Camino, that can work perfectly because you are often leaving early anyway, but it is still something you need to know before booking.

Check what time you can actually access the room, whether they can hold luggage if you arrive early, what time you must leave, and whether the schedule fits your stage.

And yes, check for an elevator. I forgot to do that more than once. Your legs may have already done enough climbing for the day. They do not need a surprise fourth-floor bonus stage.

The Exhausted Pilgrim Test

Before I book any Camino accommodation now, I would ask one question:

That one question changes everything.

Because after spending weeks on the Camino, my definition of five-star lodging changed.

Five stars became: my suitcase is waiting for me, there is no surprise mountain between me and my bed, someone can feed me, I can wash my clothes, breakfast starts before I leave, there is a Camino stamp at the desk, and I can get back to the Way without adding two extra miles to tomorrow.

THAT is luxury on the Camino. 😂

How I Would Use AI to Book Camino Hotels Next Time

I still would. I would just ask much better questions.

Instead of asking, "Find me a great hotel in Infiesto," I would ask something like:

Then I would still verify every recommendation on the map myself.

AI can help you narrow the choices. The Camino map gets the final vote.

If this letter saves you from one surprise mountain, one missed breakfast, one stamp hunt, or one accidental Lifetime-movie cabin, then my work here is done. 😂

Planning your Camino? If these Camino Chronicles are helping you, leave your email below so the next letter finds you before your next booking mistake does. 🤎