Camino de Santiago packing list

The only rule that matters

Every Camino de Santiago packing list is really an argument about weight. Target ten percent of your body weight including water and food. For most people that means somewhere between seven and nine kilograms, and if you weigh 70 kilograms you are aiming for about seven.

I have watched more Caminos ruined by a heavy pack than by bad weather, bad shoes or bad luck. The weight does not announce itself on day one. It arrives on day four as a shoulder that will not settle, and on day nine as a knee.

The method that works is not a list. It is packing what you think you need, walking 15 kilometres with it, and taking out whatever you did not touch. Do that twice before you fly. What survives is your actual packing list, and it will be shorter than anything you read online, including this page.

The core Camino de Santiago packing list

This is what I carry regardless of route or season. Everything else is a modification on top of it.

Carried on your back

• A 30 to 40 litre backpack, fitted to your torso length rather than bought on looks. There are lightweight options under a kilogram if you want to save weight before you pack anything at all.
• A pack liner or heavy duty bin bag, which is more reliable than a rain cover
• Two litres of water capacity, whether bottles or a bladder

Clothing, three of what touches your skin

• Two walking shirts, synthetic or merino, never cotton
• Two pairs of walking shorts or trousers, one of which can be worn in the evening
• Three pairs of merino socks, rotated and washed nightly
• Three sets of underwear on the same principle
• One warm layer, a light fleece or down pullover
• One waterproof jacket that actually breathes
• One set of sleep and evening clothes, which double as your emergency warm layer

On your feet

• Trail runners, sized up a full size. This is the single most consequential item and it has a page of its own.
• Lightweight sandals for the evenings, which also work as shower shoes

The foot kit, which weighs almost nothing and saves Caminos

• Leukotape P for pre-taping the places you know rub
• Compeed or equivalent for blisters that have already formed
• An anti-friction balm such as Trail Toes
• A needle, alcohol wipes, small scissors and a few non-stick gauze pads
• Ibuprofen and any personal medication, in original packaging

Everything else

• Pilgrim credential, passport, one card plus a backup card kept separately, and some cash
• Phone, charger, a European plug adapter and a small power bank
• A quick-dry travel towel
• Toiletries decanted into small bottles, including a bar of soap that washes both you and your clothes
• A sleeping bag liner in summer, or a light sleeping bag from October to April
• Earplugs and an eye mask, which are not optional in a dormitory
• A headlamp for early starts and for finding your bunk without waking the room
• Two metres of cord and a few safety pins, for drying laundry

How the list changes by season

The core list stays. What changes is the warm layer, the rain strategy and how much you care about drying time.

How the list changes by route

The differences here are smaller than people expect, but they are real.

Camino Frances

The baseline. Infrastructure is good enough that you can buy almost anything you forgot within a day, which is an argument for packing lighter rather than heavier.

Camino Portugues

Warmer for more of the year, so lighter layers. The inland route is long stretches of Roman cobble, which argues for more cushioning underfoot than you would otherwise choose. On the coastal route, wind off the Atlantic makes a windproof layer more useful than an extra fleece.

Camino del Norte

Take rain seriously. It rains on the north coast in every month, and a jacket that is merely water resistant will be a disappointment. This is also the route where I would carry slightly more food, since the gaps between towns are less predictable.

Via Podiensis and the French routes

Gites often include dinner and breakfast, so you can carry less food. Bedding is usually provided, which means a liner rather than a bag for most of the year.

Fitting the pack matters more than choosing it

People spend weeks comparing backpacks and about ten minutes on whether the one they bought fits them. That is backwards. A well-fitted average pack beats a badly fitted excellent one every day of a five week walk.

Packs are sized by torso length, not by height. Measure from the bony bump at the base of your neck down to the level of the top of your hip bones, and buy the size that matches. Two people the same height can need different sizes, and the difference shows up as shoulder pain somewhere around day four.

Loading it in the right order

Weight should sit high and close to your spine. Heavy items go against your back at roughly shoulder blade height, medium weight above and around them, and the light bulky things like your sleeping bag at the bottom. Get this wrong and the pack pulls you backwards, which you compensate for by leaning forward, which your lower back pays for.

Anything you need during the day should be reachable without taking the pack off. Water, snacks, rain jacket, sunscreen, and your foot kit. Every time you have to unpack to reach something you will decide not to bother, which is how people end up not taping a hot spot until it is a blister.

Adjusting it while you walk

The hip belt carries the weight, not the shoulders. Roughly eighty percent of the load should sit on your hips, with the shoulder straps stabilising rather than bearing. If your shoulders ache at the end of a day, the belt is too loose or the pack is too long for your torso.

Shift the load slightly through the day. Loosening the shoulder straps for a while and then tightening them again moves the pressure points around, which is the difference between an ache and a raw patch. I adjust mine several times a day without really thinking about it now, usually after each coffee stop.

What to leave at home

This is the more useful half of any packing list, and it is drawn from what I have watched people post home from Burgos and Leon.

• A second pair of shoes, unless you have a specific reason. Sandals count as your second pair.
• More than three of anything
• Cotton, in any form, including that one favourite t-shirt
• A full first aid kit. Take the foot kit and buy anything else at a farmacia.
• Books. Your phone holds them and they are surprisingly heavy.
• Jeans, a hairdryer, a travel pillow, a full sized towel
• Trekking poles, if you have never used them. They help some people and annoy others, and the Camino is not where you find out.
• Anything bought specifically because it appeared on a packing list, including this one, that you have not tested on a real walk

There is a post on the packing mistakes that slow people down if you want the longer version of this argument, and a more reflective one on what pack weight ends up meaning after a few weeks.

Common questions about packing for the Camino