The best end of school “holiday”
Adventure. Challenge. Inexpensive. If these words appeal to you the Camino is for you. Hear me out.

1.) The Camino is one of the cheapest ways of seeing Europe.
Many of the blog posts that I read and YouTube videos that I watched before going recommended budgeting €25 a day for the Camino. I however averaged under 15 on walking days and only slightly over on our days in Santiago de Compostela. This is how;
- Travel with others.
This means you will be splitting costs, leading to food and many other things being cheaper. - Choose your albergues (pilgrim hostels) well.
We aimed for the albergues with kitchens, these were generally the less modern ones. The more modern ones often offered a peregrino meal for about €6 or €7 (which we did avail of a few times). The less modern these albergues would generally be cheaper, about €5 for a bed, this did however mean that we were quite often thrown in a large bedroom with many other peregrinos, meaning that earplugs were a must! - By cooking.
Cooking our own dinners in albergues with kitchens saved us big time. This way dinner could cost less than €3 for a large plate of pasta in tomato sauce. Groceries in Spain are cheap, and prep of this meal was easy. - Be nice to people!
Many times being nice worked out for us. By starting a conversation with a stranger or complementing them not only do you and the other person feel good but more often than not they will offer you something. Seems far fetched? On our final night on the Camino we stayed in a town called o pedruzo and we went to the kitchen to cook. There was an American couple in the kitchen cooking so I said, "that smells good" and the reply I received was, "we have loads if you guys want some!". So not only did we not have to cook bit we also got an incredible conversation with amazing people for free also!
2.) The people.
Without a doubt the Camino is made a grade A experience by the people you meet along the way. It will be different for everyone, but I made more than just new Facebook friends along the Camino. Everyone doing the Camino is, in some way, a good person. You would struggle to find a bad peregrino. On our Camino we found some colourful characters but nothing more sinister than that.
Language is no barrier with quite a lot of these people who will do their best to understand and be understood and with today's world of google translate you can find yourself having a rather deep conversation with people with whom you share no common language.
3.) Alcohol.
It's cheap. And in some cases more so than water! It is not rare to find a bottle of wine for under a euro or a can of beer for under 30 cent. So if you are struggling with blisters, you can always numb the pain with booze! Seriously however, alcohol is a great way of making friends and enjoying your rest days in the sun that bit more!
4.) Time.
After 2 years of intense study, morning classes and late nights, I felt like I needed time to reevaluate my life! (As hippie as that sounds) the Camino gave me this. Not only the 5-7 hours of walking every day but the rest time in the albergues have me time to; think, write, google, research, and think again. This to me was much more valuable than a 6 day package holiday to some island somewhere to drink away the fact that the wrong poet came up in your final English exam!
5.) Reset button.
It is said that your Camino begins when you arrive in Santiago. The Camino offers you a change of perspective and living out of a backpack for a prolonged period of time helps you eradicate those materialistic thoughts that we are all guilty of.

If you are lucky enough to be able to I would highly recommend you to do a Camino or at least a section of one as you can spend your time in much worse ways.
Book a flight, find a yellow arrow and walk!

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