While I don’t intend to reduce our incredible experience walking the Camino de Santiago to a bunch of numbers, I expect there are people out there who are wondering just how much it costs. And, I couldn’t resist jotting down a few extra stats along the way.
The Budget
Total Spent on the Camino (for 2 people): $1548.44 CAD or about 1200 Euros
Total Spending per Day (for 2 people): $40.75 CAD or about 32 Euros
These budget numbers include: food, drinks, accommodations, cost of admission to a few churches, postage from the starting point in France to Santiago for 9 kg of stuff we didn’t want to carry on our backs, storage fees for said stuff, and all the other miscellaneous expenses that arose (like gauze and bandages for blisters, a knee brace for me, and even the little things that needed replacing like laundry soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and contact lens solution).
In reality, you can spend as much or as little walking the Camino as you want. So these numbers don’t mean much without a few qualifiers. Here’s what our Camino looked like… We spent each night in albergues, usually the cheaper municipal albergues that come equipped with kitchens. These cost between 4 and 15 Euros per bed (5-6 Euros was probably the norm). It meant a lot of dorm rooms, but also helped keep our budget down and allowed us to hang out with our fellow pilgrims.
Dorm beds
Roughly 99% of our meals came from the grocery store, but we definitely didn’t scrimp on food. In fact, we kind of went all out… loading up on whole grains, fresh veggies, fruits, lentils or beans, cheeses, nuts, dried fruit, and a little chocolate. If we wanted it, we bought it.
A typical Camino supper for us
We never went out to drink at bars, though we bought ourselves a bottle of wine or cider every second day or so.
Attempting to fill up on red wine at the FREE WINE FOUNTAIN at Irache monastery… unfortunately, the taps were dry early this Sunday morning
Your budget depends on your preferences. A lot of the pilgrims we were walking with easily spent double what we did each day (usually by going out for meals and splurging on the odd hotel room). We also met a few spending less… some carried a tent, camped on the side of the road and bought the cheapest groceries they could find.
The Stats
Total Distance Walked: 897 km
Total Walking Days: 37
Total Non-Walking Days: 1 (in Santiago)
Rainy Days: 11
Blister Count: 14 (7 for each of us)
My bandaged up feet
Church Masses Attended: 3
Hours Spent Walking (not including rests): approximately 180
Hours Spent Listening to iPods: approximately 45
Steps Taken:
1, 126, 632 for Ashley
1, 010, 919 for Mike
(Yep, that’s right… Ashley had to walk 115,713 extra steps just to keep up with Mike’s long legs)
Number of Toe Stubs:
39 or so for Ashley
5 for Mike
(One was a simultaneous toe stub where we each kicked a bit of protruding rock at the exact same time. We thought it was pretty crazy. Especially after we looked around and saw that we had kicked the only two rocks in eyesight)
Our Longest Day of Walking: 40 km in 9 hours, 10 minutes
Our Shortest Day of Walking: 7.2 km in 1 hour, 51 minutes
Our Average Day of Walking: 24.2 km in 5 hours, 38 minutes
A little demoralizing to see…
Average Walking Speed including all breaks: 4.26 km/h
Average Walking Speed without breaks: 5 km/h (uphill, downhill, or on the plains… after the first few days, we were usually bang on this number)
Average Number of Breaks Taken Each Day: 1.4
Average Time Spent on Breaks in a Day: 24 minutes
Number of Days We Took No Breaks: 9
Most Breaks Taken in a Day: 8
Number of Coffee Stops at Cafes: 4 (once to get out of the rain, twice to answer the call of nature in the comfort of the indoors, and once just because)
Taking a break? on some public exercise equipment
Bottles of Wine Consumed: 16 (plus 2 bottles of cider and a beer)
Number of Nights with Kitchens: 29
Number of Nights without Kitchens: 8 (to the author of our guidebook… despite what you may think, a microwave ≠ a kitchen)
Meals Out: 1 (Santiago celebration pizza!)
Tapas/Snacks Out: 3
Victory pizza
Not related to the stats, but just had to share this butt grab with the world!
Want to read more about our Camino? Check it out…
Our Camino, Your Camino… Our Challenge to You
Camino de Santiago Week 1 – Beautiful Landscapes & Unexpected Challenges
Camino de Santiago Week 2 – Getting Past the Pain
Camino de Santiago Week 3 – Feels a Lot Like Home
Camino de Santiago Week 4 – Easy Walking
Camino de Santiago – We Made It to Santiago, But We’re Not Finished Yet!
Camino de Santiago by the Numbers – Our Budget and Stats
Guide to the Camino de Santiago
Epic. A long way from Chinese food in Honduras, haha. Good job guys!
Thanks guys!
Have no clue what I would have expected you to spend, but I would have thought it lower than that. But then my travels are in Belize and Mexico. I guess Spain is pricey. RL
We actually found our daily Camino spending comparable to our spending in both Belize and Mexico. Half of our daily spending was on food. Even though we didn’t eat out much, we splurged on a few regular treats like chocolate and wine. Because of all the walking, we were eating a lot more than we normally do and we couldn’t buy anything in bulk (or we’d have to carry it on our backs to our next destination). We also found the grocery prices to be jacked up in some of the smaller towns, where the only tiendas catered exclusively to pilgrims and thus charged a small fortune for a few tomatoes and some pasta.
It’s so awesome that you guys were able to collect so much information regarding your trip! Seeing those numbers really puts into perspective just how much of a sacrifice pilgrimage really is! Thanks again for sharing all of your awesome pictures and stories over the course of you travels. I look forward to reading more from traveledearth.com! 🙂
What can I say… I’m a numbers nerd! I always find stats give you an interesting look at anyone’s trip… you see another side to things that you just don’t get from stories and pictures.
Thank you for the compliments… we’re blushing! Hope you keep enjoying the blog!
Just found your site via Talon of 1Dad. I’ve lived in Spain for over five years and am finally doing the Camino del Norte this summer – love that you kept track of all of the numbers!!
Looking forward to making my own trip!
5 years in Spain. Sounds lovely. We are actually looking at places to teach English ourselves. Not sure if we are going to make a career of it, or if it’ll just be one of those things we try, but it sounds a lot better than going home to work right now. Would you recommend Spain for the un-certified/un-experienced first time English teacher types?
Congrats on your decision to walk the Camino, it really is something special.
Hi Mike, I did the non-teacher, unexperienced route six years ago and have made a career out of it. If you’re a grammar nerd and love kids, it’s a fun way to earn some money while traveling. The pay isn’t great, but cost of living in most places outside of Madrid and Barcelona are low.
Drop me an email and we can talk more, or check out the tags “auxiliar program” “language assistants” or “teach abroad” on my page.
Love that you took all these stats down!! I’m gonna do the same, it must be really impressive to see those numbers and feel accomplished! Also really helpful for newbies like me to get a feel for what it’s going to be like (although of course no amount of reading will actually prepare you). I’ve been living in Madrid for the past year and am heading out to do the Camino del Norte in a couple weeks! For now, on to reading the rest of your camino posts!
P.S. Love the butt grab photo.
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