Costs
The cost was $4,938 or $77/day in my 64 days of travel. Food costs were $2,460 or $38 per day. Lodging cost were $1,826 for 62 nights or $29 per night. Travel/Tour expenses were $1,003. I used 69,970 Capital One credit card points for my round trip airfare on Turkish Air from Seattle to Madrid—a ticket would have cost $700.
These food and lodging costs were much more than I usually experienced in my frequent travels to South and Central America and Asia where food cost averaged $24/day and lodging $22/night—including hotels.
The cost of my 29 day hike of the 484 mile Camino de Santiago was considerable less for lodging than my travels to other parts of Spain and Portugal at $19/night vs $37/night.
The cost of the Camino was $1,578 or $54/day.
Camino food costs were $1,056 or $36/day—about the same as in the rest of Spain and Portugal.
Camino lodging costs were $522 or $19/night which included 3 hotel nights. The cost of lodging in hostels for the rest of Spain was $39/night and $23/night in Portugal .
Along the Camino, I stayed at 24 albergues with costs ranging from $7.50 to $16/night, and 3 hotels with an average cost of $61/night.
The albergues are reserved exclusively for hikers who present their pilgrim credentials. I obtained mine at the pilgrim office when I arrived at St. Jean Pied de Port, France which was the start of the French route over the Pyrenees Mountain Range to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The nightly cost ranges from donations to about €15.
Ownership of the albergues ranges from monasteries, convents, parishes municipalities, associations, and private parties. I stayed at all of the ownership varieties. The quality of the albergue did not have much relationship to the nature of the ownership in the places I stayed.
In addition to the credential requirement, pilgrims can stay only one night unless injured, opening hours are after 1 PM, departures are required by 8 AM, lights out at 10 PM and sometimes earlier, hiking shoes are not allowed in the sleeping areas, bunk beds were the norm, and sleep sacks or sleeping bags were required—I only carried a silk sleep sack.
All albergues, but three, provided blankets and two of those were heated. Most places I stayed at were not heated which made for a very chilly experience since the outside temperatures dropped to freezing and it was rarely above 60 degrees during my travels on the Camino.
My $1,003 expenses for travel and tours was primarily for train, buses, metros, museums and other entertainment attractions. Train costs were $304, bus and metro costs were $178. In Spain, I had a Tarjeta Dorada discount for up to a 40% discount on train travel and in Portugal I got a 50% senior discount on my train rides to Lisbon and to Faro. I really enjoyed riding the trains, trams, and metros in Spain and Portugal.
The remainder of travel/tour expenses of $403 was for tours, entertainment, and admission fees for museum and historical attractions.
Travel Insurance
My Travelguard insurance for this 64 day trip was just $10.58 since my reservation and upfront costs were just $85.84—2 nights reserved lodging at the Safestay Hostel in Madrid. I used frequent flyer points to pay for my air flights.
My Travelguard insurance covered $1 mil for emergency evacuation, $100,000 medical expenses, $2,500 baggage loss, $100,000 security evacuation, etc. They offer worldwide travel assistance which I have used for lost baggage claims, medical claims, and trip interruptions.
For successful claims, you need to have police or airline documents, sales receipts on items claimed. Their online claims applications process was easy to use and allowed me to track the progress of my claims.
Paying for Goods and Services
I carried $300 in USD in my security money pouch which I ended up not using. I also carried in this security pouch a second ATM and second credit card, copy of my passport data page, Global Pass card, and passport photos.
When I arrived at the Madrid Airport, I used an ATM machine to get €300 using my Schwab ATM/Debit card that reimbursed me for all foreign exchange fees and charges. During this trip, I made three €300 ATM withdrawals (exchanged €250 for USD when I left Madrid), and Schwab credited me back $16.07 worth of bank fees.
I made almost all of my purchases using my Barclay arrival + Mastercard on this trip and earned 2 points for every $1 spent. Some places had a €5 threshold, but many times I made purchases as small as €1 using the credit card.
Walking About
For years I have tried to walk at least 3 miles per day for my health and enjoyment. The 484 mile Camino de Santiago hike from St. Jean Peid de Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain took me 29 days for an average of 17 miles/day. I did not do any practice hikes to prepare for this hike.
While touring the rest of Spain I averaged 8 miles/day and in Portugal 6 miles/day.
Throughout my two months travels I carried my Gossamer Gear Utility pack that weighed just 9 1/2 lbs. I follow their motto posted on their trekking poles: “Take less, travel more”.
You can see my detailed pack list at my blog entry dated Sunday, April 14, 2024: Plans for my Epic Camino Santiago Trek and Travel through Spain and Portugal--4/17--6/20/2024
When I started walking the Camino, I made a mistake by wearing just one pair of socks and ended up with two small blisters on each of my little toes on the first day. After popping them, wearing two socks and lubricating them with Body Glide, the pain abated, and they became calluses.
I weighed 204 lbs when I left Seattle on April 17th and now I weigh 189. I think a combination of walking more, portion control, avoiding eating many pastries—except for those custard tarts in Portugal, and no longer drinking alcohol helped me in losing 15 lbs.
However, I got addicted to drinking at least a liter of fresh orange juice daily. I especially liked getting fresh OJ from the self-service machines at supermarkets that I could watch the oranges being sliced and squeezed as my bottle filled up. Now back home, I am tapering off on drinking OJ since my A1C spiked to 6.8 upon my return.
I grew a beard during this hike. The last time I grew one was back in 2008 when I completed hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, some 2,660 miles long running from the Mexico to Canada borders. My beard began to feel like ants were crawling over my face, but I promised my daughter that I would keep it on until I returned.
Here is my Mani-Pedi repair work after the Camino de Santiago hike while I was in Lisbon, Portugal.
Weather
If I had known how cold it would have been throughout my entire hike, I would have added one of my 12 oz down parkas to my pack.
On the second day as I was leaving Roncesvalles, it was snowing and continued all day until I arrived in Zubiri. There were a couple of other days when I encountered frost on the ground in the morning and fog.
Most mornings started out at 39° F and warmed up to 50° to 60° F.
Of the 29 days of hiking the Camino, I had 14 days of rain. Usually it was a light rain and drizzle, but there were a couple of days that soaked my shoes and pants below my poncho protection. On those days some of the trail became a mud-hole, and in some places a muddy creek which I and others just slogged through.
The trail became a series of creeks from the heavy downpours.
As several weather systems moved through, I experienced about 6 very windy days with some reaching gusts of up to 37 mph.
I enjoyed about seven days of glorious sunny and partly sunny weather, mostly during my hiking through the farm fields of wheat, rapeseed, and vineyards.
The pilgrim on the far right was from Colorado and was hiking the Camino with a sturdy walker.
The locals indicated that these temperatures were lower than normal.
Food Choices
Although I enjoyed some delicious and well plated meals, most of the time it was just normal fare.
I am not a big fan of sandwiches or continental breakfasts consisting of coffee, OJ, and pastries or bocadillos—sandwiches filled with meats and/or cheeses, or what they call omelets which are really just sliced potato pies.
With persistence, I found bars/cafes that cooked eggs and bacon, my favorite breakfasts. At some of the hostels that offered breakfasts, I settled for having granola instead of pan cooked eggs. Many hostels offered hard boiled eggs, but I don’t like them.
At the La Casa del Peregrino in Acebo, I had a fabulous pilgrim set meal which consist of French onion soup, fillet of cod, smothered with pesto and an array of steamed vegetables—bottles of red wine were included for those that wanted it. Finally, to top it off, was Creme Brûlée, all for €15.
With few exceptions, the meats were very thinly sliced and overcooked, the chicken and seafood meals were served with skin and bones that I had to operate on to separate out the meat.
Tapa bars allowed me to look before I bought, so I found those more enjoyable eating experiences.
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