In the winter and spring of 2024, we walked through thousands of years of history. We started our walk in February in Pontremoli and finished in Rome. We took a train to Aosta and hiked some of the Via Francigena back to Pontremoli in late April. We walked about 1000 km in Italy between mid-February and mid-April 2024.

The Voie Nive Bidassoa is a hiking route that connects Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Irún, Spain. It is primarily known as a way to connect the Via Podiensis to the Camino Norte. The Voie Nive Bidassoa also connects Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to the San Sebastián Airport (EAS) in Irún, Spain.

Here’s my Via Podiensis pack list for this fall’s trek. I’m a female hiker in my late 40s and carry my own 9 kg pack, meaning I don’t have it forwarded by a luggage transfer service.

Preparing for the Camino de Santiago, a famous pilgrimage route in Spain, requires careful planning and physical readiness. Based on our experiences, we’re sharing 110 things you should consider doing to prepare for the Camino.

We’re adding this camino to the end of the Via Podiensis. After completing the Via Podiensis in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, we walked to Irun, Spain on the Voie Nive Bidassoa (which loosely follows the GR 8).

After walking the Camino Portugues, we started thinking about which long thru-hike would be next. Several fellow hikers on the Camino Portugues and hikers we met on our 800 mile trek from Holland to Aosta, Italy mentioned the Via Podiensis as one of their favorite thru-hikes.

The Via Podiensis has many other names, including the GR®65, Chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, the Camino de Santiago, the Le Puy Route, or the Way of Le Puy.

We’ve a lot of experience opting out of life scripts. We don’t have kids, we downsized in our 40s from a large coastal suburban home to a tiny house in the Great Plains. And we retired from W2 work in our late 40s. When it comes to backpacking and thru-hiking, we’re here to give you permission to spend as little or as much as you like, as well as plan as much or little as you like. It’s your life - and trip.

Camino is the Spanish word for the way, the path, or the road. Humans have been walking on these paths for centuries. The Camino routes we will be discussing in this blog are those that end in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy are the most heavily traveled Camino routes.

One of the most frequent questions that comes up from new hikers is “where do you go to the bathroom?” This is a very legitimate question! In this blog, we do our best to answer it.

In late August 2022, Darren and I will walk the Camino Portugues from Lisbon taking the coastal route and the Variante Esperitual. We will also walk the Camino Finisterre after a day’s rest in Santiago de Compostela.

In September 2021, we hiked the Camino de Santiago Frances Way from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. From late August to early October 2022, we will walk the Camino Portugues from Lisbon, Portugal, to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and then finish in Cape Finisterre, Spain.