Solo Travellers: Spain's Camino de Santiago

This particular departure is designed with solo travellers at its heart. It remains a self-guided trip but with others travelling at the same time, you will tend to find that you can choose the degree of sociability that suits you best on any given day. What's nice is that you have the chance to dine with others and chat through your day's walk whilst always being able to retreat to the comfort of your own room.

As with all of our self-guided trips, you have someone locally you can contact in case of need while you are travelling. But there is not a full-time tour leader, no. This is a self-guided trip using routes on our navigation app and local tips and information we provide. You may have guided visits of specific sites during this trip but these are local guides for a few hours in a particular place.

Since you are travelling essentially the width of northern Spain over the course of this trip, the weather will change from day to day. Typically in June, you can expect the weather to be mainly dry until you get into Galicia where rain is much more common. Daytime temperatures should be in the teens so comfortable. Night time temperatures will be cool as you are fairly high up in the mountains.

Yes, if we break up the return journey from Santiago with a relaxing stop or two along the lovely north coast, this is a great option for a No Fly Holiday.

Travelling by sea with Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth or Plymouth would cut the carbon footprint for this trip by around 50%.

Because you wouldn't be paying for flights, luggage or seat selection, the cost is comparable with flying back from Santiago. That includes your own sleeping cabin and usually breakfasts and dinner. Do keep in mind though that you'll likely want two or three extra nights to take advantage of the 'return' journey and go the scenic route. Cost-wise, this works out best if we give you a hire car in Santiago to hand in at Santander or Bilbao, as opposed to private transfers.

There are regular sailings between Portsmouth and Santander/Bilbao, and between Plymouth and Santander, and we will happily advise on your options. Note that you can't travel as a foot passenger to/from Bilbao until 2022.

Timed right, in 2021 you will spend one night aboard the ferry in each direction. As of 2022, outbound sailings from Portsmouth will take around 30 hours and require two nights on board. The pay off for this is that the new ferries will cut carbon emissions by a further 25% compared to the current boats. The return journeys are usually then just one night. There are no planned changes for the Plymouth route, so it's one night both ways.

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You walk seven stages of the camino over the course of this trip. Each varies somewhat in length, but on average you will be walking around 13km a day which will equate to around no more than about four hours on any given day, plus additional time for stops, lunch.

The nature of the walking depends on the region you are passing through, but generally, no there aren't any steep sections. On one of the days the walk is almost entirely uphill as you cross into Galicia but the gradient is steady and slow, rather than steep.

The easiest thing is simply to follow the Camino markers/shells. We also provide GPS routes which you can follow on your smart phone and which will soon beep at you if you stray off course! Ultimately it would be very difficult to get lost, but even if you do manage it, help is always at the end of the phone.

Your main luggage is transferred ahead for you each day you move on. This is the case with all our inn to inn trips. You just carry a day pack with what you need for the day. The hotels are very familiar with this system.

Yes, it's usually possible to skip a walk on any given day if you are tired, the weather is being unkind or you want to give your knees a rest.

You can hop in with the luggage transfer and travel to your next hotel by vehicle. It's best to let us know the night before if you can so we can let everyone know.

You can of course use the circular routes as rest days and opt out of the walk that day and explore the local area instead. Your guide will be able to talk you through the different options during the briefing.

The accommodation on this journey is very comfortable, always en-suite, and always with lots of personality. Although star ratings are not particularly helpful when it comes to small hotels in rural Spain, you should expect good 3- 4-star standard.

We have selected our highlights of the Camino partly on the basis of the physical transitions from region to region but also very much on the basis that each day should reflect a cultural transition too as you move from region to region of Spain.

One advantage of the slow pace of an inn to inn walk is that it allows you to enjoy not only nature but the rich rural culture of the area. Although the way of life has been changing quickly in the last 50 years, a lot of people still live from the land and traditions are alive and well.

The little-known town of Astorga. It's a remarkable town with extensive Roman remains, a striking medieval cathedral and the bishop's palace designed by Gaudí. It is also the home of chocolate, said to be the first place in the world where cocoa was processed into chocolate - the tradition remains strong to this day.