Letter Six · Preparing for the Camino

Is the Camino de Santiago Safe for Solo Female Travelers? Traveling Alone with Anxiety

What I am doing to feel safer, calmer, and brave enough to go anyway.

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.

Not long after I moved, I made a new friend. When I told her what I was about to do, walk across Spain, mostly on my own, she looked at me and said, "How brave. I've never been anywhere alone."

And I told her the truth. I started small.

Because here is what I've learned. Brave is not something you are born with. Brave is something you practice. It starts small, and it grows.

For me, starting small looked like eating at a restaurant by myself. Sitting at a table alone, ordering my own lunch, letting myself take up space in a room. That was the first small, brave thing. The Camino is just the biggest one so far.

So, if you are someone who carries anxiety, especially about doing things alone, I want to say this to you first, before anything else. Anxiety is not a character flaw. It is something worth understanding because understanding what is happening gives you somewhere to begin.

So is the Camino safe for a woman walking alone?

Let me answer the question in the title honestly, because you deserve the truth, not just comfort. No long-distance route is risk-free, and the Camino is generally experienced as a safe journey.

A 2025 study of 1,084 pilgrims found low fear levels overall, although women reported feeling more vulnerable when walking alone. Women are not a minority on the Camino either: 53.4 percent of the pilgrims who received Compostela certificates in 2025 were women. The route also has dedicated safety measures, including special police surveillance along the Camino. And even when you begin alone, the Camino can feel surprisingly communal. You see familiar faces at cafes and albergues, people share information, and support tends to appear in ordinary ways along the road.

That does not mean you switch your good sense off. I will do the same things I would do anywhere. Tell someone back home my route and where I am sleeping. Walk in daylight. Choose my lodging with care. Keep my phone charged, and trust my gut, because that quiet inner voice is wisdom, not weakness.

I also carry a small safety whistle. For me it is both an anxiety tool and a safety tool. Not because I am afraid, but because having it helps me feel steady enough to walk lighter. Preparation is not fear. It is what frees me to go.

And I did not just book Spain. I tested myself first. A trip last January, another this June, each one stretching my limits a little more before the big one. That is how you build brave. Not in one leap, but in steps you can actually take.

Safe and smart are not opposites. They walk together.

Understanding the kind of anxiety you are facing

Here is something it took me a long time to learn. Understanding your anxiety is the first step, because there is not just one kind. There is the everyday anxiety that lives in your body. There is the anxiety that travel stirs up. And there is the anxiety that shows up around other people. They come from different places, and they show up in different ways, so each one needs a slightly different response. Knowing which one you are facing is how you know what will actually help.

For me, anxiety calmed for many years. And then, through stress and a move and a whole season of life at once, it got loud again in midlife. When I finally paused long enough to notice, I named it out loud. I started taking notes on when it got loud, and what seemed to set it off. And I wrote down where I could start. That noticing was the beginning of everything.

When the anxiety is everyday

These are the tools I reach for when the worry is just there, sitting in my body.

• Name what you're feeling instead of fighting it.
• Slow your breathing, especially the exhale.
• Ask, what is actually true right now?
• Reduce stimulation when your nervous system feels overloaded.
• Eat, hydrate, sleep, and move your body before assuming everything is emotional.
• Break the next step down until it feels manageable.
• Stop trying to solve tomorrow while living today.
• Write the racing thoughts down so your brain does not have to keep holding them.
• Give yourself permission to change plans.
• Remember that anxiety can be information without becoming instruction.

When it is travel

Here is the honest truth about my travel anxiety. It was never really about airports, or getting lost, or the logistics. It was about wanting to go somewhere and not having anyone to go with. And for years, I let that stop me.

The Camino is me deciding not to let it stop me anymore. I am a woman who has never traveled out of the country alone. I have never planned and arranged 31 days by myself. And I am doing it anyway.

You do not have to wait for someone to go with you. You are allowed to go alone.

Here is how I make going alone feel possible:

• Create a simple plan for arrival day: transportation, hotel, food, and sleep.
• Keep medications, identification, chargers, and one change of clothes in your personal bag.
• Screenshot reservations, addresses, tickets, and important numbers.
• Arrive early enough that rushing is removed from the equation.
• Build margin into the itinerary instead of scheduling every hour.
• Learn the next step only: airport, gate, plane, luggage, driver, hotel.
• Bring familiar comforts: headphones, snacks, water bottle, sweater, book, prayer journal.
• Know your backup plan before you need it.
• Allow recovery time after long travel days.
• Remind yourself, I do not have to feel calm to keep moving.

When it is social anxiety

This is the one that had me sitting alone at that restaurant table, learning to be okay being seen on my own. Social anxiety is real, and for someone traveling solo it is often the biggest hurdle of all, bigger than any airport.

• Decide ahead of time how long you want to stay.
• Give yourself permission to leave without inventing an excuse.
• Prepare two or three easy questions you can ask people.
• Focus on being curious instead of trying to be impressive.
• Find one safe person or familiar face when entering a room.
• Stop replaying every conversation afterward.
• Take bathroom, outside, or quiet breaks when you need to reset.
• Remember that silence does not automatically mean awkwardness.
• You do not need everyone to like you.
• Your job is to show up as yourself, not manage everyone else's opinion of you.

The words I say to myself

The tools are what I do. These are what I tell myself while I do them. I don't always believe them at first. I say them until they get a little truer.

You are allowed to take up space.
I don't have to wait for someone to go with me.
You are enough.
It's okay to make mistakes.

On asking for help

I need to say something, and I'm not quite sure how to say it. For a long time, I thought asking for help was a sign of weakness. So I stayed quiet. And staying quiet cost me more than asking ever would have. In midlife, I have learned the truth. It takes more strength to ask for help than to keep pretending you are fine.

So take what stirs in you from this letter back to your counselor, your coach, or your therapist. I am a wellness companion, not your doctor, and the deepest work is done with someone who can walk closely beside you. Reaching out is not the weak thing. It might be the bravest small step you take.

And if you are wondering whether what you feel is just stress or something more, there are real, free screening tools, not internet pop quizzes, that can help you see it more clearly. Mental Health America offers a free, private anxiety screening, and a separate one for social anxiety. They are not a diagnosis. Think of them as a mirror, a place to start, and then take what you find to a professional who can walk with you.

• The anxiety screening: screening.mhanational.org/screening-tools/anxiety
• The social anxiety screening: screening.mhanational.org/screening-tools/social-anxiety

And if the anxiety ever feels bigger than you can carry, please do not carry it alone. Reaching for help then is not a last resort. It is a brave first step.

So here I am

A woman who has never traveled abroad alone, who has never planned a month away by herself, packing her bag for the Camino. I am not going because I stopped being afraid. I am going because I stopped waiting. Because I have practiced starting small enough times to trust that I can take one more step.

Brave is a restaurant table. Brave is one small step. Brave is going anyway.

So tell me, what is the one small, brave thing you could do this week? I would love to know where you are starting.