Here is my Osprey Farpoint 55 knapsack that I carried for 779 km on the Camino Frances. It is a fantastic bag which I highly recommend. Take the time to read the post below to get tips on how to pack for the Camino. Unfortunately, I took too much stuff and the bag weighed close to 22 pounds. If you are going to carry your bag ... TAKE LESS STUFF!
Teresa and I just returned from trekking across Spain on what is known as the Camino de Santiago Frances (the French route). This epic pilgrimage starts in St Jean Pied de Port, France and ends in Santiago de Compostela covering a distance of 779 km. It is an incredible experience like nothing we have ever done (and we have done a lot over the years).
The Camino is not only a physical challenge but a mental one as well. It is a relatively complicated undertaking managing the distance you aim to walk, the destination you want to reach, reserving accommodation, arranging bag transport (if you chose this option), buying food to carry and planning meals on the trail.
What you pack and don't pack is critical to your Camino experience. If you are carrying your knapsack this preparation takes on increased importance as whatever you take translates into the weight of the bag on your back. I can tell you from personal experience that every extra pound makes it more difficult to carry and likewise, every pound you avoid will make the experience more enjoyable. I carried my knapsack for the whole distance and it was much tougher than I anticipated. Walking 20-25 km per day for 35-40 days is hard enough without lugging around unnecessary items in your knapsack.
I should say at this point, I strongly recommend you consider transporting your bag or suitcase rather than carrying it, and using a day pack for daily essentials. Packing is still important so keep reading, but I firmly believe that the average person, even if you are in good physical shape, will enjoy the Camino more when using bag transport. You will read some blogs and certainly meet some people on the Camino who believe that if you do not carry your own knapsack you are not getting the "authentic" Camino experience. Some even believe bag transport is "cheating". That is baloney. You don't have to use it every day, but the bag service is just one of the many tools available to pilgrims wanting to complete their journey. Many people using bag transport correctly and legitimately say they walked & finished the Camino The cost is approximately 280-350 EUR about 420-520 CAD. So unless you are a purist and feel you must carry your bag or you don't want to spend the money, I strongly suggest bag transport.
With that said, let's get on to packing. For the rest of this post let's assume you are going to carry your bag. Even if you choose bag transport, I would still suggest taking the minimum you can get away with. What you pack also will depend on the time of year you are walking. If you were to trek the Camino in the summer, (I strongly recommend against this as it is very hot) you obviously could avoid items like a sweater, toque, neck warmer and gloves. However, assuming you are travelling in either the spring or the fall, you will probably experience a full range of weather - hot, sunny dry, wet, windy and cold - which means you will need a variety of clothing.
Most articles you read suggest that your knapsack should weigh 10% of your body weight. In my case, that meant my bag should have weighed 16-16.5 pounds. The bag I ended up carrying, which included a full water bottle and some snacks, was roughly 22 pounds. Far too heavy. There are two reasons for this. First, I took too much stuff. Second, I viewed the "10% of my body weight" as a guideline. That was a mistake. I should have viewed it as a hard cap and forced myself to take items out of my bag until it got to 16 pounds. No doubt, losing 6 pounds would have made a HUGE difference.
The chart below shows what I packed and carried, comments about those items, and what I should have packed. You will also see a few items that I bought in Spain and ended up carrying. I have colour-coded the chart
Green - mandatory and I would take the same thing if I walked the Camino again
Yellow - necessary but I could have taken less or something different instead
Red - I should not have taken this
You will see there is a lot of yellow and red on the chart which means there were definitely opportunities for me to take less stuff. Here are some explanations of why I would do things differently.
When packing for the Camino, in addition to viewing the 10% body weight as a hard cap and not a guideline, I would follow another rule that says "I will not bring more than 2 of anything".
Another packing principle that several pilgrims we met used was "pack the absolute minimum and if you need something, buy it". This worked well. Often they could not find what they thought they needed, so just did without it.
4 pairs of socks - definitely could have taken two short pairs of socks. You can wear things for more than one day. Most albergues have a spot for doing hand washing and some have laundry services (either self-serve or they do it for you), so you can bring fewer clothes.
3 pairs of underwear - definitely could have taken two pairs of underwear (see above).
1 pair of shorts - a must for the hot weather. Plus you can also wear them under your rainpants if you think you may be putting your rain gear on and off.
2 pairs of pants - 1 hiking and 1 track pants - in retrospect I should have purchased a pair of pants that can zip off into shorts. It would have been nice to have two pairs of shorts when it was really hot. If they had gotten wet or dirty I could have worn my rainpants as a backup. One less pair of pants was doable.
2 long-sleeve shirts - largely I think this was ok but if I was still over the 10% weight, I would have eliminated one of these
1 sweater - because of the time of year we went, by the end of October/early November it was getting cool and I needed a sweater.
1 baseball cap - mandatory for the sun and beneficial in the rain. You might even consider wearing a wide-brim hat (that is what Teresa wore) or one of those hats that have ear and neck drape/protection (although they look goofy). The sun is very hot and protecting yourself from sunburn is critical.
1 toque - I wore this on cooler days, but if I was over the 10% rule I could have used my baseball cap and the hood of my rain jacket.
1 dry-fit neck warmer - similar to a toque. I wore it but probably could have done without it. If choosing between the neck warmer and the toque I would take the neck warmer as it is more versatile.
1 gortex rain jacket - mandatory. You are in Northern Spain for 35-40 days, so it will probably rain. Make sure you purchase a high-quality waterproof (not water-resistant) rain jacket.
1 pair of gortex rain pants - see above, absolute must-have.
2 extra pairs orthotics/insoles - I have a lot of problems with my feet when walking distances and although I went through the process of getting new orthotics I was concerned that my feet would still hurt. I thought bringing an extra pair of orthotics/insoles would allow me to wear something different and potentially alleviate any problems. As it turned out, the new orthotics combined with the new shoes were very comfortable. I violated the principles above by bringing these.
1 global power adapter - mandatory to charge phones and watches. As an aside, the adapter we have is amazing. Four USB slots as well as a plug spot - lots of places for both of us. Here is the one I highly recommend - https://www.amazon.com/EPICKA-Universal-Travel-Adapter-Power/dp/B078S3M2NX?th=1
Charging cables and high-speed charger - I tend to bring too many of these items as I am afraid if I misplace something, I will need a backup. Again, this violates the "don't bring more than two" and "don't bring something you can buy if you need it" rule. I could have eliminated a couple of cables and the high-speed charger.
Phone battery charger - like the cables, I want to protect against my phone running out of power. The fact is, I have an iPhone 14 proMax and never got close to a low battery. It would have been highly unlikely that both our phones would die at the same time. This is something I could have left at home. If you are paranoid about this I would recommend the thinnest, lightest battery pack as you probably wouldn't need more than one charge.
1 lock - unnecessary. While I am sure there is some theft on the Camino, we did not experience any nor did we hear about any from other pilgrims. Teresa and I would shower at alternate times to watch our stuff, but when we went out, left our knapsacks at the end of our bunkbed fully packed. If you were going to steal something you would have to rummage through our bags. Many places had lockers to rent for 1 euro. We always took our wallet, passport, cash and phones with us.
1 quick dry towel - mandatory - most albergues do not supply towels. As an aside, it's a good idea to take quick drying t-shirts, pants, underwear etc. You want your stuff to dry as quickly as possible.
1 wash cloth - again something not supplied at any accommodations.
toiletries - obviously necessary but try and take the minimum. If you are travelling with someone you can share some of these items. I used the same soap for both showering and shaving. Carry small bottles of whatever you need and replenish as required.
flip flops - mandatory. You will need a change of shoes as you cannot wear your hiking shoes inside most albergues. Plus flip flops are good in the communal showers.
stretch ties - I brought these in case something broke on my knapsack. In retrospect, if something broke, I could have waited until we arrived somewhere to buy a replacement. I would not bring these next time.
water bottle - mandatory. There are some long stretches on the Camino where water and food are not available. Most towns have public water fountains to fill up your bottles.
Cross body wallet - it was the first time I ever used this but it was ideal to keep my wallet, cash, passport and pilgrim credentials safe. It was comfortable across my body, I could keep it under my jacket when it was raining and it easily fit under my pillow or by my side at night. Here is the one we purchased - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09RGJQGJB?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share&th=1&psc=1
Passport, wallet, cash, pilgrim credentials - obviously all mandatory.
Sleeping bag - Most albergues offer sheets (some disposable paperlike ones, some cloth) but not all. Again most offer blankets or duvets although I am assuming these are not laundered every day (the sheets definitely are). This means that with some planning and luck you could probably get away without a sleeping bag. I would recommend you bring one in late October/early November as it gets cold at night. Many places have ancient radiator heating systems that don't turn on until 7:00 pm.
1 sleeping bag silk liner - if you've read about the Camino you will have seen articles about the risk of bedbugs. Bedbugs are a global problem. They are in Las Vegas, New York, and Paris (apparently all over France). From what I read, one of the best ways to protect against bedbugs is a silk liner inside your sleeping bag. The bugs don't like/can't penetrate the dense texture of silk. I would highly recommend this. In some cases when it was very hot, I slept with the silk liner and no sleeping bag. You could also do this and then use a blanket/duvet when it gets colder. Depending on the time of year you could bring the silk liner and not a sleeping bag.
1 inflatable pillow - every place gives you a pillow with a clean pillowcase - definitely don't need this.
A couple of things we bought in Spain
waterproof gloves - when it started to get cold and was raining very hard, these made walking more bearable.
poncho - For a couple of days it was raining so hard that we were drenched as well as everything in our knapsack. Believe me, you don't want to walk soaking wet or arrive to find everything in your knapsack soggy. The poncho was a popular solution for pilgrims. Although not waterproof, the poncho seems to deflect enough rain that your gortex rain gear could do its job and keep you dry. We bought two with the Camino logo on them, which will be fun to wear here at home.
snacks - you are going to be hungry and in the middle of nowhere so you will want to carry some snacks with you. Remember, you don't want too much as it can get heavy. Also, you will not have a cooler or ice so what you take needs to be transportable in your knapsack. In addition to our water bottle, we carried two oranges, 1-2 packages of Laughing Cow processed cheese, 1-2 small packages of crackers and trail mix. This was enough for almost any situation without being a burden.
Two other quick comments:
Knapsack - Both Teresa and I used an Osprey Farpoint 55 travel pack. It was large enough to carry everything you need (maybe too large as I brought too much stuff). It is adjustable, with lots of different straps to make carrying it as comfortable as possible. I strongly recommend you wear it multiple times fully loaded before leaving, to ensure the bag is set up for maximum comfort. One of the best features of this bag is that it opens like a suitcase with a full-length zipper. Because it is not top-loading, you don't have to take everything out to get to the bottom. It is a nice feature and given the number of comments I got from other pilgrims, not common in knapsack design. It also has a detachable daypack. This is nice if you decide to transport your main bag and just want a day pack when walking. Remember this bag is NOT waterproof (or even very water resistant) so you will need to get the Osprey rain cover. There is one that fits the large bag and one just for the day pack. This is a must for the Camino because it will rain.
You can read my post 10 tips to make your Camino more enjoyable to find out what we chose for shoes - read here
My strong recommendation is to think through what is necessary for your Camino trip. I would stick to these two principles: 1-Don't take more than two of anything. If you are unsure about an item, don't take it - you can buy once in Spain. 2-Stick to the 10% body weight rule especially if you will carry your bag. Remember, there is nothing wrong with transporting your bag. If sending your bag ahead will make the experience more enjoyable, why wouldn't you do it?
If I can answer any questions or help in any way you can contact me at thethirdperiod.ca@gmail.com.
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