Walking Spain’s Camino de Santiago with Kids
The Camino de Santiago is one of the world’s most renowned pilgrimage routes in the world, and this family braved 500 miles of it, bringing a lifetime of memories— and blisters— back home with them.
All photos courtesy of Louise Stevenson and Everyday Journeys.
When we think about traveling responsibly, especially with a family in tow, one of our action points often centers around ways to reduce our footprint; less movement means fewer emissions.
But one of the exceptions to this rule is walking. When done respectfully, walking tours cause little to no damage on the environment and reap massive rewards for those who take part. In fact, the longer the better! Providing both a healthy form of exercise and a unique mode of connection with the world, walking can be a low-impact conduit for high-impact transformation.
According to Erin Vivid Riley and the New York Times, 2023 is the year of the long walk: “After the pandemic years, embarking on a pilgrimage has new meaning, whether you’re seeking discovery, a sense of purpose or to learn what you’re capable of.” Whatever the motivation, it makes sense that after being locked down for the better part of three years, people would want to head outdoors to get reacquainted with the world. These days we have more and more routes to choose from, a few of which appear in Riley’s article above.
But one of the best-known and most-walked pilgrimages in the western hemisphere remains El Camino de Santiago, aka the Way of St. James. We recently met one family who chose to take on the Camino in 2022 and fell in love with walking adventures. For Louise and Mark, there was an added urgency to tick this pilgrimage off their bucket list. Not only were they emerging from a global lockdown like the rest of us, but Mark had recently been diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer. With the future suddenly a big unknown, all they had was the present. They decided to walk.
Not only did they complete the 500-mile, 40-day route they set out for themselves, but they also documented the trip day by day on their generously informative, upbeat vlog. Once they got home, Louise took to Substack to share even more, from practical tips on how to prepare for the Camino to its lasting positive effects on her and her family. Of course, the journey didn’t come without challenges – and what sounds like the worst batch of blisters ever – but those moments of adversity seem to have made the good times even sweeter. Louise’s descriptions of walking through the early morning stillness alone make us want to take the plunge for ourselves.
What strikes us most when we read through Louise’s memories is how she, her husband, and two of their children set out to achieve this goal together, but each of them seems to have come back transformed in their own individual way. For example, in a post from earlier this year, Louise writes, “My 11-year-old daughter left St. Jean Pied de Port still a child and returned to the UK a few weeks later a teenager in maturity and outlook.” Her Substack is full of incisive reflections like this, but we were lucky enough to get to talk directly with Louise this summer about their Camino experience and get into the nitty gritty of it all.
With her customary unpretentious grace, she opened up about what it really looks like to tackle a walking tour of this magnitude, for adults and kids alike.
HT: Just to confirm, your walk took 40 days and 500 miles. Wow! Can you share your route as well?
Yes! It would have been shorter but Mark developed plantar fasciitis walking into Leon which meant we ended up resting there for 3-4 days instead of one. It also meant we ended up walking into Santiago on our wedding anniversary though so it worked out nicely really. Our route: we started in St Jean Pied de Port in France, crossed the Pyrenees on the first two days, and then walked across Northern Spain to Santiago - taking in the big cities/towns of Pamplona, Logrono, Burgos, Leon, Sarria.
HT: How did you come up with the inspiration to walk the Camino with your family?
It was a couple of things - we watched a series on the BBC called The Pilgrimage which was about a group of celebrities walking the last 100km of the Camino and both agreed (mainly Mark in fairness!) that it would be a fun thing to do ‘one day’. During the pandemic we also started watching more YouTube and came across a family who walked it together. At the same time Mark was diagnosed with Stage 3 prostate cancer, completely unexpectedly and very young. It was a really frightening time— Stage 3 means it had burst out of the prostate area, which means the likelihood of spreading is much higher. He had urgent surgery, then follow up radiotherapy. We went from let’s do this one day to f*ck it, let’s do it now and see if the kids want to come. Two did, three chose not to.
Can you give us an idea what a day in the life on the Camino is?
Ah, if only I could go back today! We were walking in the summer, and during a big heatwave in Spain, often getting up towards the mid-30 degrees C. We agreed as a family that we’d get up early and walk early, arriving in our destinations before the worst of the heat. That usually meant up around 5:30am or 6, pull on our clothes, haul the rucksacks over our backs and walk, often in the halflight as the sun came up. It was glorious. Everyone would still be waking up, so we’d walk in silence and we’d see some other pilgrims but not that many.
We’d walk for an hour (or two on a difficult day— never a good idea) and then stop for Breakfast Number One. Coffee, tortilla in the early days and then toast when we got to Galicia and the regional foods changed. We’d walk some more and then stop again for Breakfast Number 2. Coffee again and Henry and Megan would often have more toast or a pastry. Then we’d walk, stop somewhere for lunch if we could and we’d usually arrive at our next destination between 1pm and 3pm depending on the length of the day.
On Lodging
We mixed up our accommodation with the full hostel experience (large rooms of bunk beds) and private rooms in hostels, and then for a rest day we’d book an Airbnb so that the kids could get some space and privacy. We’d arrive at the accommodation, take our boots off (the feeling of taking those off at the end of the day - pure bliss!), rest for half an hour and then the kids would chill out on their phones and we’d catch up work emails and editing our vlogs (we did daily vlogs the whole way for our family). Early dinner, get showered, bed by 9 and then start all over again! On Camino you eat a lot of Mars Bars and KitKats, and then pilgrim menus where you get three courses for around 10 to 12 euros. Usually vegetable soup or pasta, chicken and chips and a dessert. Great value and very welcome!
On Walking
Most days we walked between 20 and 25km. A very short day might be 15km, the longest day we walked was 35km, we hadn’t planned it and I have to say full respect to the kids for that one! They were offered a taxi for the last 15km and they didn’t take it.
HT: How did the kids handle it— ups and downs?
They were amazing, I am so proud of them both! Henry was a balm for the soul, his humor and the random conversations we would have kept us all going. He found some of the longer days challenging, especially some of the boring sections on the Meseta (the high plains where there’s no shade and the path just goes on and on and on) but I know that he would do it again.
Megan was 11 at the time and I think the hardest times for her (and Henry probably too) were when we were hungry and didn’t quite know where the next shop/cafe/meal was going to be. Hunger was our biggest enemy so we tried to make sure we always had snacks but sometimes there just wouldn’t be an open shop for miles. That said, Megan didn’t complain once about the walking and never decided to have her bag sent on via the baggage services you can book for a few euros. She popped on her headphones and an audiobook and just walked. Other pilgrims would make a fuss of them both, high fiving them when we passed as there weren’t many families on trail.
Did you have walking experience beforehand?
None! And we really didn’t train anywhere near as much as we should have so I wouldn’t recommend this. But it does go to show, anyone can do this. There was a couple with a baby in a pushchair on the trail and we met a great guy in his mid-70s walking, too.
One or two best memories from the walk?
So many! One that sticks for me was walking into the city of Logrono with Megan. The boys were a little way ahead of us and as we walked in we saw a big group of pilgrims sitting having a drink, some of whom we’d come across on previous days. When they saw Megan they all clapped and cheered, it was such a lovely moment. (Lump in my throat as I write that one!)
Louise’s tips for a family wanting to embark on their own Camino
Just do it!
Carry plenty of snacks and sweets for the hangry moments.
Headphones are key: audiobooks for the kids + decompressing at night in the dormitories.
Some hostels will technically only take over 18s, but many will also host families and give you their most private room or area.
Book your accommodation 1 to 2 days in advance, especially in the busy season.
Any other walking trips you’d like to do in the future, either around Europe or beyond?
Oh yes definitely. We actually went back later last year to ‘complete’ the trip with a four day walk from Santiago to Finisterre (the end of the world). It was beautiful and I’d recommend anyone planning their Camino de Santiago to not skip this bit like we did the first time. Take a rest day in Santiago to soak your achievement in and watch other pilgrims arriving and then walk on to the coast. We’re hoping to go back later this year and walk another Camino, this time from Porto in Portugal to Santiago, and we’d really like to walk the ‘Way of the Gods’ which is from Bologna to Florence in Italy. Then the US…. who knows! The bug is caught.
