I have heard of the camino de Santiago from someone planning to do it. I just looked it up and it says you can choose one of many routes. Camino Frances being the most popular. Feel like this will be on my bucket list if I can ever get that fit :-).

> I just looked it up and it says you can choose one of many routes.

Yes, I've done small parts of the route on two different occasions. First time I quit due to problems with my feet, the second time I quit after problems with the heat :-)

I never planned to go the full camino, as most of these routes are quite long. The one that starts in France is about 800 km (500 miles) I think, so that will be a full summer holiday and probably a few weeks off work at best. Not ideal to walk during the height of summer either, as the heat can be brutal.

Does the quality of shoe matters here ?

Yes, but in my experience the quality of your socks matters much more. A single wrinkle is gonna give you a nice blister within 5km. Get nice socks and pack blister bandages. Those things are like magic.

Are there any socks you recommend? I've had good luck with Darn Tough socks, but I'd be interested in something better if available.

From my adjacent experience (ultrarunning / multi-day races), after trying a bunch of different brands, I've settled on Drymax. By far the best blister resistance! They're really good at keeping feet, well, dry, which helps a lot against chafing.

If you have particular hot spots, I'd also recommend applying some foot cream like Trail Toes. I always use it for runs over ~30km.

Merino wool socks are definitely what I'd recommend for trekking.

Socks with a high percentage of wool are amazing if you've got even remotely sweaty feet. You can be having a complete swamp in your shoes and still have warm feet.

As an anecdote, I stopped buying "normal" socks from regular clothing stores completely.

All I wear is hiking labeled socks from sports stores. Greatly reduces wrinkles even if you go for the cheap ones. (Decathlon's store brand for example, but that's EU only i think).

+1 for Compeed. A miracle bandaid.

Probably but it's one of many factors.

When I (not parent) went to the Camino de Santiago, I was already an experienced hiker (I could certainly walk 30kms in a day and I had done it many times) and I brought a good pair of shoes with me (that I used before without getting any blisters).

But my feet were just not ready to take 30km per day for many, many days in a row. It's one thing to do it just during weekends, doing it every day is a different beast.

Eventually it got better, but it took a while for me to get used to it (and a whole lot of Compeed plasters).

My advice for anyone who is going, would be to start gradually (maybe 10-15 km/day) and then over time go for longer and longer walks.

Edit: I totally agree with the sibling comment about socks being just as important, if not more, than shoes

This was something I heard very often from fellow pilgrims on the camino. That the constant abuse, really is something else. There is a ton of shoe stores along the camino, and plenty of people that "just have to wait a bit" for their feet to catch up. I guess both shoes and socks are important; but certainly never do what I did and go to Spain with brand new shoes...

Absolutely. Not only the size, but the general shape and the technologies of the shoe. For walking/running (not hiking as the parent post is discussing) I like the Ultra Boost line of shoes with their "torsion system", breathable knit upper material, and lightweight foam outer sole. Comfiest shoes I own.

I think in my experience the size of the shoe matters hugely, more than the quality. Slightly too loose or slightly too tight will lead to blisters if you do an unusual (for you) amount of walking.

Probably, but I wore brand new shoes the first time I tried walking the camino, and that's a big no-no :-)

I'm going to go against the grain here but probably not. I walked 500+ km (300 miles) on the Camino Del Norte in a pair of 20£ under armour running shoes I bought 3 years ago. I only had one blister that went away when I put a blister plaster on it.

I had a good baseline fitness from other activities, so was able to pretty much launch into 20 km daily.

Blisters happened at the beginning. Investing in Darn Tough socks helps.

> Investing in Darn Tough socks helps.

Thanks for the advice. In the army we got the opposite advice, they said we must never use woolen socks when we did the 30 km march, always use cotton they said...