Pilgrimage: Do you do it alone or together? I often get the question: walking the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela alone? Yes, actually you’re supposed to walk a pilgrimage alone. You’re a pilgrim together with all your fellow pilgrims on the Santiago de Compostela… The Camino Frances, Camino Del Norte or any other pilgrimage route.
When I first went to walk the Camino de Santiago alone, I found it super exciting. I hadn’t booked anything other than the outbound journey to Saint Jean Pied de Port. I walked into the local tourist office there just before closing time and bought my pilgrim’s passport and received the Jacob’s shell to hang on my backpack for a small donation.
What do you actually take with you on such a Camino de Santiago? Check out this packing list for the Camino de Santiago.
Pilgrimage: Do you do it alone or together?
It was busy that day and they gave me a list of hostels along the way and the first tip to go to Refuge Le Chemin vers L’Etoile. There was still a spot for me there. And there I stood, as a brand new pilgrim, completely ready to go. Although I had intended at home to take a rest day in Saint Jean Pied de Port, I left the next morning with many other pilgrims. Because… as a pilgrim you’re never alone!
Now of course you’re wondering, don’t you offer a trip to walk the pilgrimage to Santiago ‘together’? Yes, that’s correct. I heard so often that people who wanted to walk the Camino de Santiago had not done it for years. The aspect of walking the Santiago de Compostela alone held them back, they didn’t dare. To get these potential pilgrims over that threshold anyway… because let’s face it, you must embark on this great hiking adventure! I offer the pilgrimage trip for the last 200 km to Santiago de Compostela.
If you don’t want to walk the Santiago de Compostela alone and the consequence of that is that you don’t do it at all? Then I’d still very much like to introduce you to a pilgrimage and life on the camino. You must experience that once, especially if you really want to but the idea of potential doom scenarios puts you off.
Somewhere I hope of course that the pilgrim virus catches them and the next time they walk from, for example, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela and who knows, then alone! Or maybe even on the trip I offer that you still walk a few days alone (with all those other pilgrims) on that ancient road to Santiago de Compostela.
Advantages of walking the Santiago de Compostela alone
I can really think of many reasons but these are the main reasons why I think everyone, young and old, should walk a pilgrimage alone.
Go alone but realize immediately that you’re never alone
Especially when you go alone, you have more contact with the people around you. If you go in a group or together with one other person, you’re often very focused on each other. Another solo traveler won’t easily come sit with you then. It also doesn’t invite another group to include you. Of all the trips I’ve taken in recent years, what has stuck with me most is that you have such easy contact with others, especially while walking. You immediately have a topic of conversation and this easily and happily expands to more.
The feeling that you’re really doing it together
The sense of solidarity has never come to me as strongly as it did on that pilgrimage. You’re walking there with complete strangers but the conversations are so valuable. Often going deep immediately and very genuine and honest. Why are you walking here? What does it do for you? Does it bring you what you hoped for?
Many people quickly share deep feelings with you. At home you’re careful about whether you share that so readily, but on the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage it doesn’t matter. In fact, it adds value that you do it and that you hear from someone else that it’s okay. That they might feel the same or share more about how that other person is doing.
For me, this brought that I’ve started to feel less alone with my ‘pains’… my insecurities and my place in the world. How nice is it just to realize that? To get that valuable insight.
And sometimes it’s just… How are your feet doing? Because yes, they have to do it all too, right?
Sleeping in the hostels for pilgrims
So you’re together in the pilgrim world day and night. You get up together and go to sleep together. It really creates a unique bond that makes boundaries disappear. The boundaries that we maintain in the ‘normal’ world and sometimes make someone else feel so lonely. You don’t always ask deeper questions, or about something that seems personal. While plenty of people do need this.
Don’t you have something with you or have you forgotten something? Care for a blister? A fellow pilgrim probably has something for you or maybe it’s in the lost & found at the hostel. Tomorrow you can help someone else again so just say thank you. That’s more than enough!
How nice is it to just be grateful and accept that someone else helps you without expecting something in return. In ‘normal’ life, something is often expected back… or at least you feel that you should do something back. On the Camino de Santiago that’s often not possible because you don’t know if you’ll see each other again and besides? The other person is often just happy that someone has been helped and the backpack has become a bit lighter.
Eating the pilgrim meal together
Many hostels offer a pilgrim meal. You eat this around 8 in the evening together with quite a few other pilgrims. The pilgrim meal always costs around 10 to 17.50 euros and has 3 courses including water and wine. A good meal!
And I found it very pleasant to sit at the table with so many people and different nationalities. I did it often on my 35-day pilgrimage in 2016. On the pilgrimages I now do in a small group this happens less often. This is because you’ve already formed a group and speak Dutch with each other.
Are you wondering what the costs for the Camino de Santiago are? Check out this Camino Budget blog
Everyone has the same goal – Santiago de Compostela
You have this in almost no other hike in this way. You then meet many people who only walk part of the route or many people who walk it in the opposite direction.
But on the Camino de Santiago everyone walks to the same endpoint. People walk with that same goal, one day they will arrive at that cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. That you have the same goal already creates a bond, however you look at it. You know that you’ll see each other again the next day or a week later. It’s almost never a one-time encounter with someone. You can assume that you’ll see each other again!
It sounds contradictory… Combat loneliness
Walk the Santiago de Compostela alone!
Alone often sounds so pitiful but know that it’s actually very good to go out alone. It really has super many advantages. Now that I’ve made this list, I realize that you actually combat loneliness on the Camino de Santiago. It brings you so many wonderful insights!
Combat loneliness on the Santiago de Compostela?
Did you know that loneliness is really becoming a thing in our busy society?
Loneliness is very present in Western society. To banish loneliness from your life, I would actually recommend walking the Santiago de Compostela alone. By definition, you lose the feeling of being alone. Maybe not on day 1… or day 2… but on day 3 or maybe 4, something really starts to happen. You strike up conversations, people talk to you…
Banish loneliness and walk the Santiago de Compostela alone.
Loneliness among the elderly but also loneliness among young people grows by the day. And yes, that’s also partly because we have our heads so much in our phones. Due to corona, the feeling of loneliness among people has only grown and you don’t just reverse that.
Social media of course plays no positive role in this phenomenon. There everything is nice, everything is perfect and beautiful… while in reality that’s not the case, of course. But we, and especially youth, still like to believe that everything is good or better for the other person. The grass is always greener…
If you walk the Santiago de Compostela alone, you will certainly not be lonely as a pilgrim. It could happen but then you would have to try very hard for that. Contacts are so easily made either walking along the way or during the pilgrim meal. The sense of solidarity will really be increased and this doesn’t just disappear when you’re home.
During your pilgrimage it will become clear that we all have somewhat the same kinds of worries and problems, you’re not the only one with **-problem or **-problem. Fill in as you like. And, perhaps even more importantly, people are happy to think along with you towards a solution. In other words: You don’t stand alone.
This sense of solidarity stays with you!
As I’ve said before: You have a life before the camino and one after.
You will be permanently changed, for the better!
What does the camino do to you?
Before I started my first camino, I was told that you have a life before your pilgrimage and a life after. So after you’ve experienced what it’s like to be a pilgrim, to walk together towards 1 goal for several days. I can tell you that it’s really true. I’ve really changed since that camino experience. My life has essentially changed, I’ve become a more satisfied person from it.
And of course I wish that for everyone!
Walking the Camino de Santiago organized
So do you really not want to go alone and first experience the safety of a small group? Then book your first pilgrimage with me. I’ll help you through those first days and before you know it you’ll be happily pilgrimaging with all those other pilgrims who are on their way to Santiago de Compostela.
Or maybe save that pilgrimage to go alone and then do another hike together with me? Join me walking the Fishermen’s Trail in Portugal.
Want to read more about walking the Camino de Santiago?
- Camino de Santiago costs – What budget should you think about?
- Sleeping on the camino – Guide for the Albergue
- 8 days of pilgrimage – From Pamplona to Burgos – Camino Frances
- Benefits of walking in warm / cold weather on the Camino Frances