2023-07-25 | Blog 019

My partner and I recently got our compostelas for walking the last 100km of the Camino de Santiago. To be specific, this was from Vigo to Santiago along the Portuguese coastal route.

Whilst we did the trip for touristic reasons, I’d still like to gather my thoughts on the experience at some point. For now, here are some comments on what we got right and wrong in terms of our packing.

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The TLDR is that we packed far too much and we were instantly recognised as “newbies”. In retrospect, we packed somewhere between vacation-in-Spain and walk-in-the-Scottish-mountains. Our route turned out to have plenty of cities, large towns, and villages all along it, so there wasn’t the “self-sufficiency” element that you might get from other walks (such as The Great Glen Way). The other major difference from Scotland is that Spain is very hot (headline: Man Realises Scotland is Cold and Spain is Hot). By this, I mean you can easily wash and hang out your clothes at 4pm and they’ll be dry by 8pm. No need to pack loads of clothes!

Below, I have broken down everything I brought into categories as well as what I should have brought. See the picture below.

For information, we flew from Scotland to Spain. The breakdown of days was: half day travel there, 1 day tourism in Vigo, 5 days walking, ¾ day for Santiago de Compostela tourism and travel back. I travelled out in normal, non-walking clothes/trainers (not pictured).

Kit that was fine

• 3 pairs of socks, 3 pairs underwear, 2 walking t-shirts, 2 pairs sports shorts, walking trousers (zip off to shorts), walking fleece, cotton t-shirt.
• Walking shoes (not boots).
• Travel towel
• Passport
• Swimming trunks (possibly the sports shorts would do the job).
• Garmin/cable
• Sunglasses
• Combination lock
• Headphones
• Camino credential (bought in Spain)
• Pen
• Jacket – pack away
• Hostel sheet
• Water bladder – mine was 2L.
• Clothes washing hand soap – bought in Spain. Massively reduces how much clothes you need to pack.
• Inhaler, tissues, antihistamine, paracetamol, soap, moisturiser, toothbrush, toothpaste.
• Penknife – came in handy for lunch – may be an issue for carry on luggage.

Kit that would be modified in future

• Deodorant – half size (though I much prefer spray-on to roll-on)
• Wash bag – too bulky.
• Battery bank – probably 3x too big, enough for 1 extra phone charge would have been fine.
• Chargers and European adapter. I’d recommend buying a euro plug with multiple USB ports.
• Second pair of shoes – I brought some standard trainers but would change these for sandals for hostel/beach next time.
• Suncream – could have used a smaller bottle but this is debatable.
• Skin creams – could have been transferred to a little screw top tub.
• Wallet – very bulky – but definitely keep room for Euros cash/coins.
• Blister patch – decant into wash/medicine bag.
• Rucksack – I took a 65 litre bag, could do with half that provided these modifications are made.

Kit that should be discarded

• 3 extra pairs of socks and pants, non-walking extra cotton top, non-walking trousers and jumper I flew out in. All dead weight! I would fly out in walking kit next time.
• Carabiner and elastic band thing I took “just in case”. You’re not miles away from civilisation, so if anything goes a little wrong/broken, you can hold on until you get to the next town.
• Book – unread (sorry, Callum).
• Notebook – not really needed. Maybe take a few sheets of paper, just in case.
• Playing cards – debatable, we did use them and it was fun!
• Mosquito spray – not needed.
• Bottle – Got by perfectly fine for the full days walk with just the 2L bladder. There are plenty of points to fill up on our route. The extra weight of the spare bottle was pointless. In the hostels/walking around town/airport, the bottle was handy, so maybe a smaller or collapsible bottle would be fine to take. Otherwise, just buy a plastic bottle there. Could maybe pack things inside the empty bottle during the day.
• Tote bag – handy for when we weren’t walking, but, if we’d brought smaller rucksacks, these could have been used instead after discarding stuff in the hostels.

Kit I didn’t have but would take next time

• Ear plugs and eye mask – essential for a good nights sleep. I can’t believe I forgot the ear plugs…
• Hat – again, essential for the Spanish sun. D’oh!
• First-aid kit – Really should have remembered this.
• Potentially a few pegs and string to hang damp clothes on the outside of your bag. Quite a common sight.

Some further changes to the kit list could be made. Common items could be shared between members of a walking party, e.g., pen, notebook, mosquito spray, pen knife, first aid kit, playing cards, toothpaste. Walking sticks are another possible addition. Long sleeve tops to protect from the sun were a common sight as well, although we got by using lots of suncream and trying to finish our walks before 1pm-ish.

Buen Camino,

Rory