Way of St. James in Spain

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marreed

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Hi,
I am the father of an 11th grader who is seriously thinking about taking a gap year after high school. One of the things he really wants to do is to walk the Way of St. James in Spain. We would be very afraid to let him go by himself or with another equally inexperienced companion. I think we would not be that opposed to it if he did it with a group (ideally with other catholic youth). Of course he would have to pay for it himself. Does anyone on this board know of such a group?
Thanks!
 
Our Catholic School principal made the trek last summer and came back with many amazing stories.
She did mention that there were organized groups, though she was not part of one.
I don’t have any recommendations, just wanted to offer prayers and say best of luck - I hear it’s an amazing experience!!! 👍
 
i don’t know what age your son is but as far as safety goes, the french route, the most likely he will take is very safe. there are dedicated spanish police on the route. and so many pilgrims that you almost cannot avoid falling into a group. every one walks the same distance every day and so there is a large group of the same people meeting up almost every afternoon after the days walk.
in santiago, at the end of the walk you can book your return flight home from a building just across the square from st. james cathedral. it is all very handy and safe.
three things i might think about;

getting to the start of the walk [the french route] people usually fly into paris or toulouse, then take a train down through france then a bus and then a taxi to the start. train and bus stations in any country are the only places you might meet minor bother from people asking for money. to join a group when you land and travel down to the start would be ideal. but during the walk its better to split up every day and walk at your own pace. so having a rigid group all through the walk is not the best idea. he should try and walk it alone, he will end up walking and meeting every day with the same few groups.

the second thing is that its an endurance walk and a seventeen year old boy, *, is not yet developed for endurance or stamina. he can do it but hes likely to struggle a bit more than some walkers.

the third thing is not to book a return flight. fly out one way and fly back whenever you reach the end of the walk.

there is a good website caminodesantiago.me/board/el-camino-frances/ where you might be able to arrange to meet up with other pilgrims in paris or wherever and travel down with them as a group.*
 
Just do a search on the Camino de Santiago and there is plenty of information on the internet about it, including formal tours where it is possible to walk the last part of the trip for the distance needed to earn the official pilgrimage stamp. Some tours have backup bus support for the walkers. I don’t know offhand the age requirement for the tours - many “kids” after high school are already 18 and so considered adults.
 
marreed said:
Hi,
I am the father of an 11th grader who is seriously thinking about taking a gap year after high school. One of the things he really wants to do is to walk the Way of St. James in Spain. We would be very afraid to let him go by himself or with another equally inexperienced companion. I think we would not be that opposed to it if he did it with a group (ideally with other catholic youth). Of course he would have to pay for it himself. Does anyone on this board know of such a group?
Thanks!
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Why not discuss it at your parish and see if anyone else wants to do The Way? If there is a Catholic high school near you (don’t know if your son attends public or Catholic), inquire to see if any groups might be going at the time you are thinking about.

We’ve never walked The Way but my husband worked in the area of southern France where it begins. One piece of advice is not to go during the peak of the summer holidays - July and August. It will be very crowded as well as quite hot. If your son is taking a gap year, he can do the walk in the spring or fall when it’s not such a mob scene.

There are lots of great guide books available. I hope your son gets to do it! My 2 sons are interested too, but they are both gluten-free so that may be another level of challenge. They could write a book about it afterward though! 🙂
 
Thanks so much to everyone for their very informative replies. It gives us a running start.
 
No, but what a wonderful thing for him to do!

I hope it works out. 👍
 
I am starting the pilgrimage next week (French Way) and before I made my plans I did a lot of research online. There are tour groups that provide a guide, if you are concerned about him going alone, but I don’t know if they have a minimum age or not - you could contact them via their websites. One was called caminoways and another one was called followthecamino but there are many such tour groups. You might also find a Catholic pilgrimage group going if you research into this.

I think it would be a great experience for him, but at his age, I do recommend that he either be accompanied by an adult, or participate in a tour group. Just how I would feel about it personally.
 
I’m hoping to do The Way in the next couple of years. Four former school teachers who are part of our parish just finished it about 2 weeks ago and a few others from our parish have also walked it. I think it’s pretty safe and if you’d let him go to university in another state you could let him do The Way by himself.
 
Departing Seattle on 1 Sept for a pilgrimage to Lourdes (3 days) and plan on taking the train from Lourdes to Bayone then St Jean- Pied- de-Port on 5 Sept. Will be depart on the Valcarlos route on 6 Sept. Plan on arriving in Santiago on 12 Oct and depart from Madrid for Seattle 15 Oct. Anyone plan on being on the camino during this time frame?
 
morneaux said:
Departing Seattle on 1 Sept for a pilgrimage to Lourdes (3 days) and plan on taking the train from Lourdes to Bayone then St Jean- Pied- de-Port on 5 Sept. Will be depart on the Valcarlos route on 6 Sept. Plan on arriving in Santiago on 12 Oct and depart from Madrid for Seattle 15 Oct. Anyone plan on being on the camino during this time frame?
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I wish. But I will be with you in prayer 🙂
 
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