5 Lessons from Biking the Camino De Santiago

1- Renting might be best:

 Logistically speaking, bringing your bike from home can be a hassle, albeit sometimes preferable. Getting everything packaged and protected for flights along with the baggage charges they like to tack on can add an expensive headache to your trip. While I love riding in my bike setup, I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. We rented our bikes from a company that shipped them to our starting point in boxes, including all of the necessary baggage, tools and repair kits. Additionally, they had return labels pre-printed for when we arrived in Santiago.

After our Camino, we continued traveling without the bikes and enjoyed having complete flexibility. Not having to worry about the capability of the buses, trains, or planes to carry bikes made things way cheaper and easier. Lastly, the rental cost was likely less than we would have spent on luggage fees + the wear and tear on our bike tires, chains etc to bring our bikes.

2- Any style of bike will work: 

When it comes to choosing a bike style the options are many. The reality is that any style will work, so choose one that fits your preferred riding style and tailor your route choice to match. You can stay on gravel paths, do a mix of paths and roads, or do all pavement. 

If you are newer to bike touring it may be best to choose something that is more comfortable, like a hybrid bike that has front suspension and a more upright body position. If you want to go fast, a gravel bike or road bike will be much more efficient. We opted for hard-tail mountain bikes because that is what we ride at home and are most comfortable on. It also made some of the paths a lot of fun! 

3- Resources are abundant:

 I always find myself overpacking and wishing I had left things behind. While I went quite light on this trip, I still found a few unused things in my pack at the end of the Camino. Along the routes, there are many big cities and small towns that have as much food and gear as you need. If you forget or break something there will be many opportunities to purchase a new one. 

4 things I’m glad I had:

1-Phone Mount: because we rented, we brought our own phone mounts that made putting our phones in view on our handlebars easy. Navigation and capturing photo/video was so convenient. This is the mount I’ve used for 4,000+ miles now and love it. 

2-Rain Jacket: this should be a given. Even if the weather forecast looks sunny and clear, bring a jacket. We had 8 days of great weather and two days with soaking rain. The jacket was a must. 

3-Chamois butter: if you chafe, things get less fun. This stuff helps a ton and doesn’t feel horribly greasy like some other products. 

4-Paracord + Carabiner: extremely useful for a wide variety of things from a clothesline, to shoe laces, gear lashing, or even as thread to sewing. 15’ was sufficient for me. 

 1 thing I should have ditched at home:

-Sleeping bag: we stayed in cheap hostels and hotels along the way (averaging $48ish per night). Sleeping bags aren’t necessary and are quite bulky. 

4: Google Translate is Awesome: 

If you haven’t used this app before, it’s a must-have when traveling internationally. While many businesses have multi-lingual people, it is still inevitable that you will encounter situations where translation is necessary. Before leaving, download your primary language and any that you anticipate encountering. You can speak or type into the app and it can do either in response. It’s fast, too. 

5: Pack a backup set of Identification:

Though we didn’t have any challenges with theft, we hear it’s not uncommon. I don’t like to travel in a constant state of “fear” but I do think it’s smart to consider the worst-case scenario. Sadie and I each keep a hidden bag with a copy of our IDs, a copy of our passports, cash, and a spare credit + debit card. We keep our passport + wallet in a slim fanny pack under our shirts at all times and if those get stolen somehow, we each have a backup set to get us by (or at least to an embassy). Double redundant. Also, use a credit card that doesn’t have foreign transaction fees and does have good fraud protection. We love our current Capital One card, and it’s not only because of the sweet airport lounges it gets you into.