Camino de Santiago: tips to do it in winter
Useful tips and trivia to take on the Camino de Santiago walk between December, January and February.
The Camino de Santiago in recent years is attracting more and more travelers who want to test themselves with the distances and difficulties of living a journey on foot. The late spring period is undoubtedly the most requested for the favorable climate, but there is the risk of being in many, perhaps too many, living this experience of strength and spirituality.
In addition to the half seasons and summer, there are pilgrims who venture along the path even in winter. Weather conditions are less easy to deal with backpack-in-shoulder. It is necessary to bring a heavier clothing and to preserve the change of clothes in the dry. Even the shoes must be adequate to walk with cold and mud.
December, January and February are the most difficult and least frequented months, but there are also some advantages: there is no anxiety to find a place to sleep and there is no mass of pilgrims along the way, who meets on the road follows a stronger and mystical motivation than those who follow the path more for vacation than for the spirit of sacrifice. In the small villages they offer more hospitality towards the pilgrims.
The Camino de Santiago in winter is characterized by opposite elements. Some rooms are equipped with a dryer that could save the way in case of bad weather, on the contrary, other hostels do not even have heating. The trip on the whole is often solitary, even if the meetings that are made in this period are the most significant and there is much more mutual solidarity.
