Camino de Santiago is a world-famous network of routes, established by pilgrims hundreds of years ago, who would go on a typically religious-related self-exploration journey from their hometown to Santiago de Compostela.
While Camino de Santiago Spain routes are slightly more popular, there are also established routes in many other countries across Europe.
For instance, Camino Frances, Camino del Norte, Camino Portuguese and Camino Inglés are all popular European Camino ways.
However, while most people choose to walk these routes, some much prefer biking them.
The Camino de Santiago Route is described as being a veinous network of many different paths instead of just one giant way. You can choose your route based on a bunch of different factors.
These factors include how close it is to you, how many people you want to be around, and the landscape. Camino Frances includes a lot of mountains, and the Portuguese Coastal Way is more sea-faring.
In total, there are 9 different routes to choose from. No matter which route you choose, the tips we have for you today will remain the same. It’s always a good idea to be well-prepared no matter the journey!
Biking one of the Camino de Santiago routes is perhaps slightly more challenging physically, but you will also be able to cover a much longer route and therefore see more of the beautiful local culture.
Here’s how to prepare for any of the bike routes!
5 Things You Need to Know Before Biking Camino de Santiago
Start Biking Regularly
If you’re not someone that bikes often, or at all, that doesn’t mean you can’t challenge yourself to a Camino biking holiday.
However, you must also keep in mind that biking the Camino de Santiago may sometimes require some physical stamina.
The difficulty of your chosen route may not be that high (i.e. there may not be that many steep hills to cycle through), but you will still be biking for 4-6 hours per day, which is longer than most people are used to.
It is, therefore, a good idea to start biking regularly, perhaps to and from work or for just an hour every evening.
Doing this will ensure that once you have to be on the bike for quite a few hours every day, your body will not be shocked – but rather take the rewarding challenge.