Minimum age for children to walk on 800km Camino Frances

[Bowmanfamily36]

Hello
In the future sometime, we would like to take our 2 Aussie teenage grandchildren with us to walk the Camino from SJPdP to SdC. We think it would be a wonderful life experience if they are in their early to mid teens , maybe 12-15 yrs old?
Is a 12 and half yr old (girl) too young?
We want them to carry their own back packs and we are happy to go slow each day as necessary. Also thinking of walking in late Sept and October to avoid heat and crowds.

For those who have walked with their children (or grandchildren) - could you offer any guidance or tips?

 

[David Tallan]

When I walked with my teenage son in 2016 there was a Korean family who were walking with a 5 year old daughter and a 7 year old son. They were walking the same distances we were, and the kids had more energy than us at the end of the day. I don't know that there is a minimum age. It depends on the kid.

There was another family who walked with a 10 year old son and 12 year old daughter and vlogged their whole Camino on YouTube. You can find them as "WorldTowning" and watch their Camino de Santiago Playlist and see how they found it and what worked and didn't work for them.

And another family with three kids of various ages vlogged their whole 2022 Camino on YouTube. You can find them as "GettingLost onthetrail".

 

[C clearly]

Click on the tag "children" that has been placed under the title of this thread, and you will find lots of relevant posts.

Also read the posts here on the forum by @Kiwi-family.

 

[Kiwi-family]

I'm a bit embarrassed that I often get tagged in threads like this as if I'm the forum authority on walking with kids - but it is true I have walked the Camino with eight of them from six to 18 years years (and hiked at home with all of them from before birth) - and multiple trips with 8-13 year olds. But I am not alone, plenty more have done it too. My specialty when discussing this kind of thing is NOT giving advice or telling you what to do, but asking questions that might help you work out what matters for YOU!
That said, to answer your first question, there is no minimum age.
My main questions at this point in the conversation would be: are the kids interested? do they walk?

 

[Anamiri]

We walked with our 13 year old grandson; in 2 years we'll take another grandson (who will be 13 too)
I made the decision to do this after meeting an Alaskan couple with 2 kids aged 8 and 12 who walked from Le Puy - we met them in Rabanal.
We did a lot of preparation with him, but I think that you're more concerned about your grand kids than your own. (We didn't want to hand a broken kid back to his mother).
That age worked for us also with his schooling, the time off school didnt impact on his NCEA studies - key education milestone.

 

[JabbaPapa]

The youngest pilgrim I have ever seen was about 2-3 months old. I have seen a few other very young minigrinos over the years, and more than usual this year. Most are about 6 to 7 years old or more.

 

[falcon269]

I walked the last 100km with my 4 1/2 year old grandson and his father. Keep an eagle eye on them at that age!

 

[Gumba]

Our (Aussie) boys were 9 and 11 on their first camino and 11 and 14 on their second. I agree with Kiwi-family - probably most important question is 'do they want to walk'. This was a fabulous experience for everyone as well as for us as a family unit. Every day we let the kids know that they could set the pace. Every day, they out-walked us!!!!

 

[SAGALOUTS SON]

Just finished a 300km walk with my 2 boys and did a section of the France last year. They loved it both times and we saw younger children along the way. They are 16 and 14 now. None of the Albergues we went to seemed to have an issue with children.

This year we found ourselves using Booking.com to find rooms. For some reason, if you put the children's ages, it won't find Albergues. I found it was easier to search for 3 adults. Occasionally I had to search for 3 adults in 3 rooms to get the Albergues to show up. Maybe someone has a better way but this worked for us. More often than not, we ended up at a municipal or a nice Albergue popped up along the way that we just stopped at. Great when you see a pool!

 

[sillydoll]

Many years ago I wrote a blog on walking with children.
https://amawalker.blogspot.com/2010/03/suffer-little-children.html
At the time, these were the stats for children from 0 to 12 years
2006 - 930
2007 - 1070
2008- 1093
2009-1272

 

[t2andreo]

There is no minimum age to walk any Camino. However, there is a minimum age to receive your own Compostela. In general, a pilgrim requesting a Compostela, and meeting all of the other conditions (credencial, sellos, distance etc.) must have:

- (if Catholic) received their first Holy Communion - they might ask if in doubt - OR
- reached ten years of age - considered the cut-off point for children to understand what they have just accomplished, within the historical and cultural context.

This is why children in strollers, carriages, and papoose carriers do not get their own Compostelas.

One year, there was a young Korean boy who did the entire Camino Frances, with his parents, using a stand-up push-type scooter when possible. But, he walked his own pilgrimage - the whole 800 Km. As I recall he was nine-years old. They gave him a Compostela - it was a judgement call.

I thought I read somewhere above that the children involved in this current Camino, were young teens. Assuming this is correct, they should have no problems requesting their own Compostelas.

In the past, in cases like this, where parents show up with young children, we have suggested a Distance Certificate issued to the "Familia Perez-Lopez," etc. in lieu of a Compostela to the child.

Hope this helps,

Tom

 

[chinacat]

as if I'm the forum authority on walking with kids

You kind of are ….

 

[bullingtonce]

Hello
In the future sometime, we would like to take our 2 Aussie teenage grandchildren with us to walk the Camino from SJPdP to SdC. We think it would be a wonderful life experience if they are in their early to mid teens , maybe 12-15 yrs old?
Is a 12 and half yr old (girl) too young?
We want them to carry their own back packs and we are happy to go slow each day as necessary. Also thinking of walking in late Sept and October to avoid heat and crowds.

For those who have walked with their children (or grandchildren) - could you offer any guidance or tips?

As mentioned by another poster, it depends on the kid and always will. A bratty kid? Problems. A spoiled kid, can be problems. Immature and uncontrolled emotional kid? Problems. How can one tell? Easy, see how they behave on a regular grocery store shopping trip or a shopping mall trip or a trip to the park/beach trip. The 'tells' are always there. If you 'know' the child/kid, then you will have your answer. And sometimes you don't need to 'know' the child/kid; rather, know the parents. How they are, most of the children will be. In any case, wish you the best. Chuck

 

[hikentravel1234]

Hello
In the future sometime, we would like to take our 2 Aussie teenage grandchildren with us to walk the Camino from SJPdP to SdC. We think it would be a wonderful life experience if they are in their early to mid teens , maybe 12-15 yrs old?
Is a 12 and half yr old (girl) too young?
We want them to carry their own back packs and we are happy to go slow each day as necessary. Also thinking of walking in late Sept and October to avoid heat and crowds.

For those who have walked with their children (or grandchildren) - could you offer any guidance or tips?

I know the weather can change but I started 1 year, from SJPD or Roncesvalle on Sept 27, thinking I would have cooler weather. Wrong!! It was very very hot. Mid Oct it began to get better but still very hot. You may want to google average monthly temperatures for some of the cities along the way. However, I realize you will be walking the entire length and need to strike a balance.

 

[CWBuff]

The youngest Peregrina I encountered during my CF was all but 3-mo old She and her parents were German
The next is an American couple with 6-month old daughter and 4-yo son
And then I saw a bunch of other kids here and there anywhere from mid-single digits and into their teens

12-15 is wonderful esp. if they are of 'adventurous' type!

and yeah - by all means being "this old" one should be able to carry their own backpack!

Good luck and Buen Camino

 

[trac1]

I think there is a lower age limit, to enter/sleep in the dormitiry in albergues. You have to find separate rooms

 

[Phil W]

In the albergues where I have volunteered there was no lower age limit to sleep in dormitories as all we had were dormitories. Where we had children, they were walking with one or more parents or grandparents. I'm not saying that all albergues are like this. Just those where I have served.

 

[Jopo]

Hi, we walked in May 2022 Portuguese Costal with 3 kids (age at that time 14y, 12y and 9y) - about 300km and it was perfect. You just have to adapt daily stages to their age. We had also some rainy days but the kids (and also we as parents) did it very well. The youngest carried almost nothing on his back (just a small backpack with some small stuff), the middle one some light stuff and the oldest carried all his stuff. In May there were not many people and sometimes we slept in private room or got some Booking.

 

[cfromhk]

Someone in 3 y/o also tried , I think depending on your energy not them

 

[Ethan2009]

I walked the Camino de Santiago alone during my summer vacation in 2024 (just a few months ago) when I was only 14 years old. It took 32 days to reach Santiago de Compostela from Saint Jean pied de port. (I probably was the youngest person to do it alone?)