Pilgrims have trudged the Camino de Santiago in northwest Spain since the ninth century, says Jeff Prestridge in The Mail on Sunday. If you like a walk, and your knees are up to it, it could be “up your street”. Think of it as like “gentle fell walking in the Lake District – but instead of the rain, there is glorious Spanish sunshine on your back”.
The more practical option is to do the Camino’s last leg, which winds from Sarria to Santiago. At 71 miles long, it’s still a “fulfilling” walk and, most importantly, it still qualifies you for “a well-earned certificate at the end”. Besides, if you really love it, you can always come back and try the whole thing.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Many young people do the Camino by staying at hostels along the way, but if you use the travel firm Macs Adventure, it will book your accommodation for you and arrange luggage transfers, so you can walk unencumbered. Once you set off, it’s just a matter of following the yellow arrows and stamping your Camino “passport” at cafés and churches along the way.
You may get lost (I did), but it’s hard to go completely off track, as there are normally other “Camino pilgrims” doing the route too. They come from all over the world, and meeting them is what makes the journey so special. The food is pleasingly rustic (“if you like chorizo, this is the place to come”), and the scenery is “beautiful”, with eucalyptus trees that soar “to the heavens”.
To add to all those delights, you can expect to “lose a pound or three in weight” and “learn more about yourself (good and bad)”. The route ends at “the awe-inspiring” Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. When I finally made it, “I shed a tear”.
An eight-day itinerary starts at £625pp on a b&b basis. Flights and transfers extra (macsadventure.com).
-
One great cookbook: Joshua McFadden’s ‘Six Seasons of Pasta’the week recommends The pasta you know and love. But ever so much better.
-
Scientists are worried about amoebasUnder the radar Small and very mighty
-
Buddhist monks’ US walk for peaceUnder the Radar Crowds have turned out on the roads from California to Washington and ‘millions are finding hope in their journey’
-
Catherine O'Hara: The madcap actress who sparkled on ‘SCTV’ and ‘Schitt’s Creek’Feature O'Hara cracked up audiences for more than 50 years
-
6 gorgeous homes in warm climesFeature Featuring a Spanish Revival in Tucson and Richard Neutra-designed modernist home in Los Angeles
-
Touring the vineyards of southern BoliviaThe Week Recommends Strongly reminiscent of Andalusia, these vineyards cut deep into the country’s southwest
-
Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
-
American Psycho: a ‘hypnotic’ adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classicThe Week Recommends Rupert Goold’s musical has ‘demonic razzle dazzle’ in spades
-
Properties of the week: houses near spectacular coastal walksThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, Devon and Northumberland
-
Melania: an ‘ice-cold’ documentaryTalking Point The film has played to largely empty cinemas, but it does have one fan
-
Nouvelle Vague: ‘a film of great passion’The Week Recommends Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave
