A couple of years ago, I read a blog article about a couple that hiked part of the Camino de Santiago with their 8-month-old. If you haven’t heard of it before, the Camino de Santiago (also known as the Way of St. James) is a legendary and ancient pilgrimage with multiple routes through France, Portugal, and Spain, all culminating at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. Approximately 400,000+ people hike the Camino every year, some of which are pilgrims and some of which are just hiking it. In order to get a certificate of completion, you have to hike at least 100 kilometers (62 miles) of any of the routes and get stamps in an official passport book to verify that you did indeed hike the correct distance. Stamps can be obtained from a variety of locations along the trail including cathedrals, lodging, and even the police once for us! I had heard about the famous Camino de Santiago for a few years and talked with Justin about doing it when we took our 1-year-old son to Europe for a three week trip. It sounded like such an amazing adventure to do together as a family, and I knew from reading that blog article that at least someone else had done it with a baby! Unfortunately, I was having knee pain at that time so we decided to wait and ended up having a second baby in the meantime. While I was pregnant there was a great flight deal to Portugal and we talked again about whether to hike the Camino and what that would look like with two small children! We decided to go for it and applied for a passport for Freya the week after she was born. Fortunately, her passport arrived in time and some of Justin’s family decided to hike with us. And that’s how we found ourselves in Portugal in the fall of 2023 with an almost 2.5-year-old and 4-month-old ready to hike the Camino! We didn’t want to hike much more than the required 100 kilometers and wanted to pick a route that was stroller friendly. After some research the easiest thing to do appeared to be taking the train from Porto (where our flight arrived in Portugal - you can book train tickets in advance from sites like Trainline) to Valença, Portugal, which is one of the towns that the Camino de Santiago passes through. It was just a short walk from the train station to the trail - maybe 10 minutes? - and we used one of the Camino apps to navigate there. Our total mileage from Valenca to Santiago de Compostela was 124 kilometers (77 miles). The following is our daily itinerary for our route complete with a description, photos, and top tips. We hope you find it helpful, especially if you have kiddos and have been wondering if the Camino is doable with little ones! If you don’t have time to read this whole article, check out the summary of our top tips below.

Summary of Tips for Hiking the Camino de Santiago With Babies/Toddlers

While we had a wonderful experience on the Camino de Santiago, we didn’t love the Central Portuguese Route. We chose it because it seemed the most stroller friendly, but most of the towns were more modern and grimy than we expected, we passed very few cathedrals and got most of our stamps from our lodging, and the scenery was pretty average. As such, we’d probably recommend a different route, especially if you’re doing this with kiddos that are old enough to walk and you’re not pushing a stroller.
If you do choose to do the Central Portuguese Route, we’d recommend looking into the Spiritual Variant that spends more time along the coast. It sounds like it would be a much prettier route!
If you choose to take a zero day (a day where you rest and don’t hike), we’d recommend doing it in Tui or Pontevedra, which we thought were the two more beautiful/interesting towns on the section of the route we hiked.
If you’re following our itinerary, plan to hike beyond Padron on day 5 (making day 5 longer but should still be very doable as day 5 for us was only 11 miles) to make your final days shorter. Hiking 17 miles on our final day was a bit much and definitely challenging with little kids! Plus, we liked Padron the least of any of the towns we stayed in.
While our itinerary was definitely doable, the mileage was pretty long with a baby and toddler. Our toddler had to ride in the stroller more than he preferred so we could crank through the miles and our baby got really tired of her carrier, necessitating us carrying her out of the carrier for hours, which killed our arms! I’d recommend spending a couple days more on the trail if you have time in order to do shorter days.
Be prepared to use the bathroom in the woods using leave no trace principles (Please! All the toilet paper in the woods was so sad to see and you definitely don’t want to contaminate any water) as there were way less readily available bathrooms than we expected. Also be ready to change diapers without a changing table. Even when we did find a bathroom, none of the ones we used had changing tables. I carried a heavy duty plastic grocery bag that I’d lay on the ground when changing a diaper. It was way smaller and lighter than an actual changing mat and doubled as a way to carry dirty diapers until we had access to a trash can.
There were also way fewer readily available restaurants/grocery stores along the trail than we expected. If you have time, I’m sure there are places to get food off the trail as you go through villages and towns, but because we did such long mileage we really didn’t feel like doing any extra wandering off the trail looking for food. If you plan to stick to the trail like us, we’d recommend carrying lunch with you or at least carrying snacks for your kiddos. We got to our lodging by late afternoon every day so it was easy to grocery shop or eat out for dinner.
If you’re planning to push a stroller, be aware that there’s a section of this itinerary that was really rocky and not stroller friendly, and that we did have to navigate the stroller up and down some flights of stairs. Definitely use a jogging stroller with big beefy tires and take a patch kit or extra tube and hand pump. We sure wish we’d had a patch kit with us when we got a flat tire about half way through our trip! We used a B.O.B Revolution jogging stroller we got for an incredible deal off Facebook Marketplace (definitely recommend looking there first before buying new) and it really was a beast and worked great. We’d highly recommend it if you’re trying to pick a stroller.
We hiked in late October and would recommend it if you have kiddos. We’ve heard that the summer months can be punishingly hot and even in October, we had surprisingly hot weather (almost 90F on our last day). Mornings were cool in the 40s-50sF, but we brought a jacket for our toddler and a fleece bunting suit for our baby and felt that it was easier to manage the cooler weather than to have our 4-month-old overheating in the carrier pressed against my body all day while we hiked! We had read that there could be some rain in October, so we had rain jackets for everyone, a poncho to help cover the baby in her carrier, a rain cover for the stroller, and waterproof lining for our backpack (we do ultralight backpacking and like to use a heavy duty trash compactor bag). Fortunately, we didn’t have any rain.

Day 1, Valença to O Porriño, 12 miles

We started off the Camino with a long 12 mile hike from the train station in Valença, Portugal, to O Porriño, Spain. It felt long, because according to the itinerary we were following, this was only supposed to be a 10 mile day. I know a 2 mile difference might not seem like anything, but after 10 long miles carrying and pushing two kiddos in temperatures much hotter than you expected, going 2 extra miles feels pretty exhausting. Our plan was to ease into the hike so the extra mileage was an unpleasant surprise. As mentioned above, our hike began at the train station as we took the train from Porto to start our trip in Valença. This must have been what added those 2 extra miles as the itinerary we were following simply said “Valença to O Porriño” and didn’t specify where they started in Valença. We found this to be the case several times on the trip where the mileage was quite different according to Strava. A short distance from the train station, we hiked along the edge of a really cool fortress built in the 13th century and re-fortified in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was a great way to start the hike, even if we did have to navigate a long flight of stairs with the stroller. After that we crossed the river into the neighboring town of Tui, which involved some steep uphill climbs on cobblestone paths through the historic part of the town to the ancient Tui cathedral. This section of the hike was really enchanting and I wish I’d taken some photos, but we honestly expected to be passing through many more ancient towns with similar vibes and so I simply didn’t bother. Little did we know that most of the other town areas we’d go through would be much less enchanting and more modern. Construction began on the Cathedral of Saint María of Tui in 1120, so it felt really special to get our first stamp in our Camino passport books at such an ancient place. Justin had to navigate another flight of stairs shortly after leaving the cathedral, but the rest of the day was straightforward. Outside of Tui we entered a rural area and spent a couple of hours hiking through fields and then along a main road through a forest. It was quite hot (mid 80s F) and we drank all our water without passing a single place to purchase more, so we were grateful to finally enter a tiny village with a bar where we stopped and ordered some food and beverages. After that we hiked through more fields and forests, crossed a Roman bridge, and followed a pretty little creek for some time. Eventually we entered a sort of sprawling neighborhood and knew we were on the outskirts of O Porriño. We had purchased a SIM card and had service when we reached that area, so we were disappointed to look up our lodging on Google maps and discover we still had 2 miles left. O Porriño was larger than we thought! After slogging along a very busy main road through an ugly, modern section of town, we finally headed up a cobblestone alleyway into the old town and found our lodging in an apartment across from the town hall without difficulty.

Tips

Plan some extra time to explore the fortress as you leave Valença
Take pictures as you hike through the old town area in Tui as you won’t find anything else quite like it on this section of the central Portuguese route
Make sure you have a decent amount of water (or a water filter) as you leave Tui as it was quite a ways before we were able to get more in a small village
Read about and take the alternate route into O Porriño that skirts around the big industrial area on the outskirts of the city for a more rural meander along a little creek
Stay in the old town part of O Porriño if you can as the rest of the town looked grungy and drab. We stayed at Ohana Home, a three bedroom apartment right on the Camino as it passes through the old town. It was much smaller inside than the pictures make it look, but we were still happy with it and definitely recommend it if you’re hiking with a group like us. The shower was wonderful and we were able to do laundry, although there was no dryer. Also note that there wasn’t a tub if that’s a big deal for you with children. We were also very happy to find that there was a grocery store and fresh produce mart just 1-2 minutes walk from the apartment, which made for an easy dinner after a long day.

Outside the Cathedral of Saint María of Tui, where we got our first stamp!

Navigating our first flight of stairs just beyond the Cathedral of Saint María of Tui

Following the ubiquitous signs of the Camino

So happy to have finally found a place to eat some lunch!

The path was very narrow at times for our wide stroller

Day 2, Porriño to Redondela, 10 miles

Our second day ended up being our shortest day at just 10 miles from Porriño to Redondela and only took 6 hours to complete. We started the day with a little climb out of town through some peaceful vineyards and farmland. About halfway we reached Pazo de Mos, a nice plaza with a 17th century cathedral and several places to eat and get a coffee. Jasper especially enjoyed the great playground located right next to the plaza and we’d definitely recommend stopping here if you have kiddos. We were also able to use the bathroom inside of the restaurant located right on the edge of the plaza. In the afternoon we descended a very steep hill down into the outskirts of Redondela. Pictures don’t do it justice - it really was super steep and a handbrake on the stroller would have been nice, but we managed. We got some views of the ocean on the descent, which was really pretty, but the town of Redondela itself was rather grim and definitely not the prettiest place. We stayed at A Boa Estrela, which ended up being just steps from the Camino and just a couple of minutes walk from multiple grocery stores, so that was great. There was no elevator, which is common in older buildings in Europe, so the fellow who checked us in let us leave the stroller in the little entry room instead of trying to haul it up several flights of narrow stairs. The bathroom was shared and only had a shower, but it wasn’t a big deal to us and we enjoyed the icy cold AC. The room was very small and they weren’t able to provide a sleep cot, so we made beds for the kids on the floor with extra blankets and towels. Because we’d made good time and had the rest of the afternoon ahead of us, we decided to walk around a bit and discovered a nice fenced playground (Xohana Torres Playground) just 6 minutes walk from our place. It was super crowded for mid afternoon on a random week day, but Jasper made friends and loved digging in the sand pit and playing on the little train. Definitely worth visiting if you have little kiddos. The host at A Boa Estrela told us you could catch a tourist train to the beach, but we were just too tired. We’d love to hear from someone who has done that though to hear if they recommend it or not!

Tips

Plan for a playground stop and bathroom break at Pazo Mos if you’ve got kids
We only passed one other restaurant right on the Camino after Pazo Mos, so plan accordingly. We ate at a little restaurant on the outskirts of Redondela as we were pretty famished. We assumed there would be tons of restaurants/cafes along the trail, but they were actually pretty infrequent. Any time you pass through a town you can obviously get off the trail and wander around looking for something, but because we were always trying to make good time with the kids, we didn’t want to do extra wandering and started carrying a little food for lunch since restaurants on the trail were few and far between. Eating on the go was quicker anyways!
If you have kids, visit Xohana Torres playground in Redondela and/or take the train to the beach.

Pretty scenery after a small hill climb just outside of Porriño

Enjoying a break in the plaza at Pazo Mos

We brought one book for Jasper to help pass the time during long periods in the stroller

Our bags - all our clothes and gear were in the gray backpack, diapers and wipes in the black one, Jasper’s toys in the blue one

Day 3, Redondela to Pontevedra, 13.24 miles

Day three was a pretty long day for us, at 13.24 miles from our lodging in Redondela to our lodging in La Fonda and 7 hours and 45 minutes on the trail (including breaks). We also had two decent climbs with 1390 feet of elevation gain, which felt significant while carrying our gear and a baby while pushing a toddler in a stroller! We started the morning early with a pleasant stroll through fields outside the town on a wide gravel trail. After crossing a neat medieval bridge and enjoying views of the ocean, we did our first climb up through a picturesque village perched on a hill. At around the 7.5 mile mark we entered our toughest climb of the trip through a very rocky section in a forest. We were honestly a little shocked because we’d read that the Central Portuguese Route was great for strollers, but this section wasn’t even close to stroller friendly and probably spanned around a mile. Just rocky would have been okay with our beefy BOB jogging stroller, and gravel was easy, but this was straight up boulders that Justin had to half lift the stroller up. We’d get through a section like that and then round a corner and there would be another section of boulders. Justin was amazing though and fortunately nothing broke on the stroller, although it did start to squeak after that. We were definitely relieved to finally reach the summit of this climb and someone was very clever and had a little food truck at the top with snacks and drinks (like fresh squeezed orange juice) and tables to sit at and take a break. The descent was lovely, but it turned into a fairly long slog along a large busy freeway. Not very fun walking on a narrow shoulder with the kiddos while semi trucks rushed past. Walking along main roads was one of the disappointments of the Camino for me. The day was quite hot, so around 9.5 miles into our walk we reached a little town and veered off the trail to stop a store to buy some cold drinks and rest for awhile. There were shaded tables and benches outside the store and a bathroom, which was much appreciated. That was another one of the surprises of the Camino for me was how few bathrooms we came across on the trail and how much evidence there was of bathroom usage in the forested areas by people not familiar with (or choosing not to use) leave no trace methods. Shortly after leaving the store (around mile 10) there was a split in the trail with a signboard and Camino arrows pointing to the both the left and right. Justin had already read about this split and knew that heading to the left by a field instead of straight along the road would take us on a prettier and shadier route along a creek. It looked like it would add a little mileage, although we weren’t able to figure out how much (maybe a half mile?) and so we opted to take the more rural route. We were glad we did as the we really enjoyed the trail meandering along a pretty little sandy creek with lots of shade. If you have time and little kids, I would recommend planning to take a break at that point to let them play in the creek. Eventually he trail entered a large busy town and we hiked for about 20 minutes through the bustling outskirts to the old town city center where our lodging was located. Freya was wailing at this point and we were feeling rather discouraged, but Pontevedra ended up being the prettiest town on the route and our spirits lifted as we passed beautiful cathedrals, plazas, and fountains until we turned up a quiet cobblestone street and used the keypad to enter our lodging at La Fonda. La Fonda ended up being our comfiest and fanciest stay on the Camino, and we really appreciated the pull out mattress under our bed for Jasper to sleep on. There was only a shower, no tub, but it had amazing volume and water pressure and felt absolutely luxurious after our long time. The AC was icy cold and the central location couldn’t be beat (Camino, grocery stores, restaurant, fun shopping, and a beautiful cathedral, plaza, and monastery just minutes walk away).

Tips

Be prepared for some climbing while picking your way through a very rocky and non-stroller friendly section
When the trail splits around mile 10, we’d recommend taking the trail to the left along a field (versus straight through town) for a prettier and shadier route along a creek. However, if you need the absolute shortest route it would be more direct to go through town.
If you’re considering taking a zero day (a day without any hiking), we’d recommend doing it in Pontevedra as we thought it was by far the most picturesque town on the part of the Camino we hiked (aside from Tui but it’s not really a zero day on your first day on the trail!)
Plan to stay in the old town area of Pontevedra as it was really beautiful and convenient to both the trail and amenities
If you stay at La Fonda, note that there wasn’t laundry

Nice easy walking immediately outside of Redondela

A not so stroller friendly section of the trail!

Food truck and drink stop at the top of our big climb

Fresh squeezed orange juice thanks to Mimi :)

Jasper loved playing with his little cars everywhere we stopped

Trail along the creek after splitting to take the scenic route around mile 10

There’s a flight of stairs to get up to the rooms at La Fonda, but there’s a good place to leave a stroller by the door

The beautiful monastery, gardens, and plaza in old town Pontevedra

Always happy if he has some cars to play with

We bought these diapers in a grocery store in Pontevedra and wouldn’t recommend them. Low quality and lots of blow outs!

Day 4, Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis, 13.4 miles

According to Strava, we hiked 13.4 miles door to door from La Fonda to Caldas de Reis, taking 7.5 hours including breaks. This day was one of the most rural and therefore prettier days on our route without any significant elevation changes. We hiked through lots of vineyards and mid morning, passed right by a very busy restaurant full of pilgrims and joined them for some breakfast and a bathroom break. We had our first Tarta de Santiago (Spanish almond cake) and found it superbly delicious. We pulled a few cars out for Jasper and he enjoyed playing with them around the tables. At one point we passed a wall with a kind of cool Camino painting and stopped to take a few pictures. We were excited to see Caldas de Reis as they have some hot springs and I’d read there was a public hot foot bath just a 3 minute walk from where we were staying at Pension Caldea. We arrived in Caldas de Reis around 3pm only to discover that the hair salon where we were supposed to pick up our key to enter Pension Caldea was closed until 4pm. Fortunately, there was a restaurant next door and so we sat down and had a late lunch while we waited for our key. Our room at Pension Caldea ended up being really lovely and spacious and there was a small elevator we were able to use to get the stroller up to the 3rd floor. I asked in advance about a sleep cot and they had a pack n play set up in the room, which was great! There was also a small grocery store/mini mart type place located on the ground floor of the building Pension Caldea was in, which was handy for a cheap dinner of instant noodles. After checking in we walked to the foot baths, only to discover signage stating you are no longer allowed to soak your feet.

Tips

If you decide to stay at Pension Caldea, don’t rush to arrive early in Caldas de Reis since the hair salon where you pick up the keys for the room doesn’t re-open until 4pm
You are no longer allowed to soak your feet in the hot foot baths in Caldas de Reis

Early morning start with a bridge crossing as we left Pontevedra

Eating a breakfast of instant noodles on the go

Our super tasty second breakfast, which included our first Tarta de Santiago

Relieved to walk in the shade for awhile

Had to spend some time walking along a main road towards the end of the day

Stopping to look at the foot baths in Caldas de Reis, but sadly, no foot soaking allowed anymore

Our beautiful and spacious room at Pension Caldea

Jasper loved watching cars from our third floor window

Day 5, Caldas de Reis to Padron, 11 miles

Day five was one of our easiest days at just 11 miles from our lodging in Caldas de Reis to our lodging on the outskirts of Padron (according to our mileage tracking with Strava). Little did we know that this would be setting us up for a crazy final day to Santiago de Compostela! Our day started rather rocky though when we hit the trail at 7:00 am only to discover that one of the tires on the stroller was completely flat. Further inspection showed that the tube had been punctured by a thorn and we had foolishly forgotten to pack a spare tube. Because the weather was unusually hot (highs in the mid 80s-90sF), we had Justin’s family continue hiking without us while we tried to figure out what to do. Amazingly, Caldas de Reis had a bicycle shop less than 10 minutes walk from where we were staying called Garcia Bicis, so we headed there to wait an hour and a half for it to open. Fortunately, there was a park next door where I played with the kids as the owner didn’t show up for two hours. In the meantime, Justin managed to get the tube off the wheel with a fork and was ready to go when the owner arrived. We were planning to just buy a patch kit, but were surprised and delighted when he had 16” tubes in stock - the exact size we needed for the stroller! We had the tube changed out within minutes and finally started out of town around 9:30 am. We found the route from Caldas de Reis to Padron to be one of the prettiest and most rural of all the days, with very little walking along roads and some nice sections of forests and vineyards. We met up with Justin’s family around lunch and only ended up hiking for a total of 6 hours before reaching O Alburgue da Meiga, our lodging on the edge of Padron. Both Alburgue Meiga and Padron ended up being our least favorite places on the Camino. Padron was very grimy and rather industrial looking with lots of trash and graffiti, and felt weirdly empty with most everything closed. There were some very basic restaurants within a few minutes walk of Alburgue Meiga where we got some sandwiches for dinner and a 9 minute walk to the grocery store. Our room was very small but it did have AC and they did provide a pack n play, which was nice. However, the family room with a private bathroom was booked, so I showered with Jasper in the bathroom that we shared with the hostel and was very annoyed that you couldn’t change the temperature of the water and had to press the button to make the shower run every 10 seconds otherwise the water would stop flowing! I’ve showered in timed showers many times before, but they usually have the water run at least 30 seconds so you have time to actually do something. Trying to hold Jasper while only getting 10 seconds of water at a time didn’t work great. As we headed out of town the next morning, we discovered that we were about 10-15 minutes walk from old town Padron, which was definitely a bit prettier than the area we stayed in. However, by the time I made our booking in Padron there was nothing available in the old town.

Tips

If you need a patch kit, more air in your stroller tires, an extra tube etc, try Garcia Bicis in Caldas de Reis
Try to stay in the old town area of Padron or even skip Padron altogether and stay somewhere along the trail closer to Santiago de Compostela so your last day isn’t so long

Trying to figure out where to fix our flat stroller tire

Waiting with our punctured tube for Garciá Bici to open

Day 6, Padron to Santiago de Compostela, 16.8 miles

Our final day of the Camino! We knew this would be our longest day, so hit the trail at 6:30am and reached the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela 9hrs later. We passed some pretty countryside scenery before started our slog through the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela in our hottest temps of the trip - almost 90F. There was nothing terribly memorable about the trail on the final day, aside from the growing crowds of pilgrims, heat, and hill climb to where the cathedral sits at the top of the town. After approximately 15 miles of hiking, the kids were getting pretty tired and fussy (Go figure - we honestly can hardly believe they were such incredible troopers!) so we stopped for about half and hour to let them play and purchased some cold beverages from a nearby shop. At this point we were just hiking up a sidewalk through town and it was all feeling rather anticlimactic. However, after our break we kept pushing and soon entered the beautiful historic part of the town. The streets narrowed and turned to cobblestone and the crowds of pilgrims and tourists became quite dense. Suddenly, we spied one of the spires of the cathedral in the strip of sky above us and it really was a pretty magical moment. Seconds later we walked out into the huge plaza in front of the truly impressive Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. We checked Strava and it showed 16.8 miles. We were drenched in sweat and the kids were both crying as we tried to take a triumphant photo in front of the steps of the cathedral, but Justin and I were grinning ear to ear. There was a lot less smiling when our directions led us to the wrong lodging and we finished the day at 17 miles, but after a nap and dinner, everyone was having a good time again as we walked around the cathedral taking in a beautiful sunset and all the beautiful old buildings lit up. What a crazy adventure! During that whole time on the trail, we only saw one other kid - another toddler being pushed in one of those little carts you usually see being pulled behind a bicycle. Everyone we met was so sweet to our kids and clearly loved seeing an entire family on the trail. It was a great way to meet people as a lot of folks wanted to stop and talk when they saw we had little kids and a lot of people wanted to take pictures with us. Final recommendation? If you’ve wanted to do the Camino de Santiago but have little kids, don’t let that stop you. I think you’ll find that it’s an amazing family adventure and that you’ll really feel the love from all the lovely folks on the trail!

Final day on the trail with our pilgrim’s passport books full stamps. Just waiting for one last stamp in Santiago de Compostela!

Jasper with a pilgrim we crossed paths with several times on the trail who particularly loved him

We could see the spires of the cathedral through the skylight of our lodging

Exploring that evening. The cathedral was beautiful lit up!

Have you hiked the Camino de Santiago with kids? We’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below and tell us what route you did and what your top tips are!