5 reasons to do the Camino de Santiago

2022 has only just begun and, like every year, it is time to set new resolutions that motivate us and make us grow. From Viajeros Canallas we leave you 5 reasons why you should do the Camino de Santiago in this special new year for the Jacobean route.

👣 Live an active tourism experience

It is no longer a secret that there is a large difference between a journey and an experience. For many, it is great food for the soul. An experience generates enjoyment from beginning to end: before doing it, only with the imagination and the preparation of it; at the moment of doing it, living a different adventure, sharing it, growing and learning, and after finishing it.

How many times have you smiled simply by remembering those moments you lived, those new friendships, those laughs, those cries or those beers?

Without a doubt, it is a way to make the soul smile.

On the other hand, perhaps the Way of St. James combines in a single experience many totally positive factors:

• Walking in nature in the company of a lot of colleagues who are pursuing the same challenge as you, which generates thousands of sensations, closeness, friendship and even deeper bonds than we imagined. In short, we see and feel what is most beautiful in people.
• Achieving a challengeIn my experience, I would say that it is important to set yourself a challenge every year. It stimulates me and gives me a fantastic vibe. Whether you are physically prepared or not, doing the Camino de Santiago will always be very rewarding.
• Self-awarenessAs this is such a deep and interesting topic, it certainly deserves a whole section, so we will discuss it in more detail below.

🤔 Going on a journey of self-knowledge

I have travelled to many towns, cities and countries. I have not discovered a single place where I know myself better than on the Camino de Santiago..

Perhaps it meets some special conditions: being a different trip/experience (because we don't always think about going backpacking around the world for a few days), walking through nature, finally taking time for ourselves, sometimes sharing with people we don't know, something that gives us absolute freedom, disconnecting 100% and, without a doubt, eating delicious food, having a cold beer and talking and laughing with your fellow travellers.

It is known that many people who need a change in their lives, both personal and professional, or who want to make an important decision, who are at a crossroads and do not know which path to choose, consider doing the Camino de Santiago.

I could not count the number of conversations I have had with other travellers and the huge transformation I have seen in them in just a few days when they see clearly what their next steps are going to be. E

t is something I am passionate about and have been studying for many years, the what generates so much happiness in the people who do the Camino.

🤝 Sharing and making new friendships

The Camino itself has a reputation for being the only trip where everyone greets you with a smile..

I love to see how a bunch of strangers, within a few hours, already talk to each other as if they were childhood friends, and a few days later they help each other and leave each other anything from a band-aid or an ointment to a deep conversation at the right time.

The same way they would treat their brother if they went on a trip with him.

In our case, in Viajeros Canallas, we constantly see how, months and even years after the end of the experience, many of the groups stay in different cities and towns to see each other and remember those incredible moments they shared (no one will ever know how happy I am to see those reunions).

No doubt, if you feel like meeting and making new friends, perhaps doing the Camino de Santiago in a group would be a great success.

🏆 Challenge

I always tell all my friends to set themselves at least a couple of challenges a year. Obviously, challenges at your level.

Something that stimulates you and makes you grow. Just feeling those little nerves, that feeling of if I'm going to make it, makes me feel alive.

And I know from my experience that it is something very commented among the Camino groups. I have seen expressions like "my family told me I couldn't", "there are friends at work who didn't trust me" or "the day we started I didn't imagine I could make it to Santiago", turning into a smile of pride or tears of emotion for having achieved it.

No one knows until they achieve it the satisfaction, growth and empowerment that comes from completing the challenge..

✅ Xacobeo

For a year to be Xacobeo, the 25th of July, the feast day of St. James the Apostle, must fall on a Sunday. And so it was in 2021, which became the 120th Holy Year in history. Due to the situation caused by the Covid, which did not allow many pilgrims to make the Jacobean route last year, Pope Francis extended the celebration of Xacobeo to 2022.

This year we are fortunate to be able to enjoy this special event and the possible presence of the Pope in Santiago next summer.

Incidentally, we can also take the opportunity to go through the Holy Door of the Cathedral of Santiago. de Compostela, which reopened its doors at the end of 2020 after several years of closure and will remain open throughout 2022.

If you have already made the decision to do the Camino de Santiago organised but you still don't know which route to do, here you are our post and a video of Alberto, Camino expert, talking about it 👇