So you want to become a peregrino? If you haven't yet had any experience on the Road, it is the intention of this page to present information about the most basic questions that are probably bouncing around in your head. When should I go? Where should I start and how do I get there? Just what is this passport or credential that I've reading about? What should I carry? We will here attempt to cover some of these basic issues. This is a subset of the material available on the American Pilgrims' FAQ page, which you are encouraged to visit.

	Packing lists: What should I take?
	When to go: What are the considerations about when to go?
	Which route to take : Which route? There are more than one?
	How long will it take : How much time should I allocate?
	Credential or passport: What is the pilgrim's credential or passport? Where can I obtain one?
	Have further questions? Have a look at our FAQs page which duplicates this information but which has much more in addition.

• What should I take? Obviously there will be numerous personal variables here. Such considerations as:
How much weight am I capable of carrying or comfortable carrying for an extended period? How much experience do I have camping or backpacking? Just how clean to I really have to be? Do I have special needs or requirements, for example, serious, meaning "heavy", photographic equipment? We offer here one sample packing list. An additional suggestion: Take along at least a partial roll of toilet paper–and a plastic bag to carry the used paper until you can properly dispose of it! At some point along the way, you'll probably wish you had it.

•  When should I go? There are a number of considerations as to when during the year one should walk. The most obvious consideration is Spain's climate. Summer in Spain is normally HOT, HOT, HOT! Generally these are the months of July and August. This means that the shoulder periods of late April into June and September into early November may offer the best weather. Still, you may be out for weeks or even months and the probability of encountering the full range of what Mother Nature can come up with is essentially 100%. Visit our weather links for detailed information. Another consideration is timing your Camino to intentionally miss or to coincide with particular local festivals. Perhaps the mayhem generally associated with San Fermín in Pamplona is not a peregrino event, but perhaps arriving in Santiago de Compostela for Santiago's feast day, July 25th, is. You might even want to also consider which year you walk. See the entry concerning Holy Years.

•  Which route should I take? Which route? There are more than one? Yes, although the most popular route, the one most people mean when talking about "the Camino" is the Camino francés or the French Route which traverses Pamplona, Burgos and León, there are numerous others. Not considering starting points outside Spain - and there are many - within Spain some other possibilities are the Vía de la Plata (the Silver Way) from Sevilla through Salamanca, the Camino del Norte (the Northern Camino) that begins in Hendaya near the western end of the French-Spanish border and generally follows the northern Spanish coastline and the Camino portugués that travels northward from Portugal. Again, the Camino francés is the most popular, but that also means that it is the most peopled. You'll have to decide if that is a positive or a negative. Mundicamino.com has a comprehensive list and description of all of the routes within the Iberian Peninsula (click on the British flag symbol for English).

•  How long will it take? The real question here is how far do you want to walk? Actually one must realize that, aside from the cathedral-imposed requirement of having to walk the last, westernmost 100 km or to bicycle the last 200 km in order to receive the compostela, one can start anywhere. Still, many peregrinos choose to start in either St. Jean Pied-de-Port on the French side of the Pyrenees or in Roncesvalles on the Spanish side. From these starting points the distance is approximately 750 km (~450 mi) and walkers commonly will take about 35 days - perhaps with a range of from four to six weeks. Cyclists should count on about two weeks. From any starting point, about 20 to 25 km/day is a reasonable pace for most walkers. Obviously these numbers will depend on the individual.

• What is the pilgrim's credential or passport? While walking the Camino de Santiago, pilgrims carry a credential, sometimes confusingly referred to as a "passport" or a "pilgrim passport". The credential is a small, book-like document in which the pilgrim authenticates his or her progress by obtaining stamps ("sellos", en español) in villages and towns while walking. The credential or "passport" is not to be confused with an official, government-issued passport. The former is strictly a record of passage along the Camino; the latter is a required document for international travel. The stamps in the credential serve as "proof" that the holder is indeed walking or biking the Road. Pilgrim credentials can be obtained from numerous sources along the way or before setting foot on the Camino, including from American Pilgrims.

PLEASE NOTE: The Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela has announced that, starting on January 1, 2009, they will start accepting only credentials distributed by the Cathedral for the purpose of obtaining a compostela. The newspaper La Voz de Galicia carried the announcement in an article on August 16, 2007. The article leaves many questions unanswered, such as, Will the Cathedral be charging for the credentials? and Will they be making them available to other organizations for redistribution? This latter question is of great interest to American Pilgrims on the Camino and to pilgrims outside Europe. As of March 10, 2008, the page on the Cathedral's own web site having to do with the compostela makes no mention of this proposed change. We will be following this attentively as it develops.

Have further questions that haven't been addressed here? We would encourage you to also look through the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on our site and our Internet Links page. These may either answer further questions or may suggest other sites where further information is available. If after looking there, you still have questions, you can contact us directly but please be aware that personal responses may take a while to compose.