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20/05/2019
Sometimes going to the theatre with your kids a Sunday afternoon, filling your flat with friends to celebrate a birthday or organising a weekend at the grandparent's house can become a true odyssey. You are parents so you know it. This is why the idea of doing the Camino de Santiago with family and kids may seem crazy at first glance. In times where overprotection spreads, the lightest comment you will hear from your family setting will be: “are you going to take the kids to walk for a week?”
 
For your tranquillity, we will tell you that yes, the Camino de Santiago is an experience perfectly suitable for families and children. And no, you are not mad and you are not the only ones thinking about this possibility. In fact, travel agencies of the Camino de Santiago such as Galician Roots confirm that the reservations for pilgrims with family have increased by 45% during summer months and during school holidays, besides being a growing option in the last years. Therefore, do not panic: children can be amazing pilgrims capable of completing this thousand-year-old route and they will keep great memories of it.
 
Well, it is highly important that you consider two basic premises. First, that the Camino with children will require a detailed planning and complete forecast. You need to bring with you many of these “just in case” items. Just in case they are hungry, in case they get tired, in case they get wet… You won’t probably learn anything that you haven’t learnt already as a consequence of your daily experience. The second premise is to bear in mind that children are children thus you cannot pretend them to follow the patterns of adult pilgrims nor can you expect them to adapt your pace. It would be a mistake to punish them with more physical effort than the Camino is already demanding to them or transform the experience into a series of obligations and goals that have to be reached necessarily. To avoid this you must start the itinerary with an open mind and being aware that there are days where you can leave half of the stages undone or where you have to stop to eat one hour before scheduled. At Galician Roots, we define the perfect approach of the Camino with family and kids with a perfectly understandable contradiction: the strict adaptable planning.
 
In addition to planning, your trip towards Compostela in the company of the younger children of the house requires an extra ingredient: motivation. Adults represent, they are the ones who take the initiative to embark on the Camino, but it is very important for children to do it too, especially for the dose of energy required by this adventure, and so that they don’t think they are simply adding up to a plan of older people. It is also their plan!
 
The tricks used in order to engage children in this objective of doing the Camino vary depending on the age, but you can start explaining them part of the pilgrimage history and tell them that they are going to complete the same route that has been done for over a thousand years by people from diverse provenance and condition: kings, sirs, peasants, beggars… if you take a moment to remember your childhood, you will remind that major dreams are usually provided by the smallest details and this is a point where the Camino de Santiago has much to offer: eating a sandwich in the fields, crossing a river, sleeping in bunk beds, caressing a cow, feeling like an explorer or simply wearing a scallop shell around your neck. There is much to be gained!
You can’t forget the less interesting part of the tale: they must be conscious of the sacrifice and physical effort entailed by the Jacobean route, including the storms, blisters and the climatology, that always has its advantages and disadvantages. Usually to do the Camino de Santiago with family and children people take advantage of the summer season, due to school holidays. It is advisable, but be careful with the heat, that can become a major problem. Reject the idea that in Galicia it always rains and that it is always cold. During summer months most days are sunny and in inland areas temperatures over 30 degrees can be exceeded easily. You won’t have this problem in spring or fall, but you will still have rainfalls, as rain is more frequent. This is a decision that has to be taken as many others, including the selection of the path. The best thing is to choose the French Way because it is full of services you could need during the walk. Furthermore, it will allow you to plan shorter stages.
 
Having said that, you only have to start the Camino. You will do it following the usual recommendations and adapting them to the smaller ones according to common sense. This is also the formula you will apply when making the necessary physical preparation. It is advisable to start doing hikes and routes two months prior to your travel, beginning with short itineraries and increasing little by little the distances. If the child is going to carry its own backpack, then don’t forget to bring it on these training, as there is a huge difference between walking the Camino free of weight and doing it with a rucksack on your back, even if it is lightweight.
 
Regarding the length of the stages, this depends on the children’s age, that shouldn’t be under 3 years old, being preferable that these young pilgrims be at least 6 years old or more. In any case, stages should not exceed 15 or 20 kilometres. They must be short, especially during the first days, and for every hour walked a short break should be taken and you should eat something. Other recommendations, common to every pilgrim, is walking during the morning and avoiding the hot hours of the day, applying sunscreen frequently and wearing already used footwear.
 
What is not really common to everybody, but rather exclusive to children, is the boundless energy, that will persist once the stage is completed and will translate into a demand for the activity. So, adults who read this, forget about taking a nap under a leafy tree and the afternoons having a beer at a terrace or a “tinto de verano” in the shade. The option you have chosen to do the Camino de Santiago demands an extra effort from you. You know: children have to be entertained! Actually, this task will be easier than you think, as many of the towns of the Camino offer numerous leisure activities, mostly in the summertime, including specific programming for pilgrims. Local celebrations have much to offer and if you stop at a rural accommodation, dinner can become even more attractive by taking part in a barbecue. Also, municipal swimming pools and fluvial beaches are great choices. And if the kids make friends, and it will certainly happen, you can congratulate: welcome the afternoons filled with naps and shaded terraces.
 
Making the Camino de Santiago with your family does not necessarily imply the presence of children. A group of friends, work colleagues or classmates can also be considered as a family. Whether there are children or not, in case you want to do the pilgrimage towards Santiago de Compostela as a shared experience, at Galician Roots we recommend you to choose the organised tours of the Camino de Santiago or the customised tours of the Camino de Santiago. It will ensure security and comfort.

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