Booking a Camino with a company you’ve never met asks for a lot of trust. You’re handing over weeks of your year, your sleep, your bags and, for many of you, a journey you’ve been carrying in your head for a long time. So before you decide, it makes sense to hear from the people who walked before you.
We’ve read through hundreds of Follow the Camino reviews on Trustpilot, Tripadvisor and Google, the glowing ones and the critical ones. Below, we’ve grouped them by the questions we hear most: what is it like as a first-timer, why do people come back, how do our guided groups feel, and what happens with the app, the pre-departure briefing and the emergency phone once you’re actually on the trail.
Follow the Camino reviews at a glance
| Platform | Rating | Reviews | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trustpilot | 4.7 / 5 | 649 | 76% five-star, 17% four-star |
| Tripadvisor | 4.6 / 5 | 961 | Travelers’ Choice award, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 |
| 4.7 / 5 | 316 | Many include pilgrims’ own Camino photos |
Figures as of October 2026
Two things stand out when you read them side by side. People rarely talk about “the hotels” or “the luggage” on their own. They talk about not having to worry. And when something does go wrong (a late taxi, a bag that arrives after lunch, a hotel too far from the village), they talk about how fast someone answered.
First-time pilgrims: “I never had reason to worry”
Most first-timers arrive with the same quiet list of fears. Will I find the way? Will there be a bed waiting? What if my feet give up halfway through the day? Reading the reviews from people on their first Camino, the answer comes up again and again in different words: the worry stays at home.
A pilgrim from Switzerland thanked us on Trustpilot for “making my first experience on the Camino de Santiago so special”, and added that even without any urgent issues, they felt sure things would have gone smoothly if they had. That sense of a safety net you never needed to use is exactly what a supported Camino is for.
Paula, from the US, was honest on Trustpilot about how hard some days felt. She called the walk challenging and sometimes exhausting, then summed up her trip in one line: “I never had reason to worry.” Knowing there was a comfortable room and her suitcase at the end of each stage, even in the busy season, let her keep going.
Others talk about the mental space it frees up. Jeff wrote on Trustpilot that the itinerary “made it easy to be in the moment”, and Janet, also on Trustpilot, put it even more simply: everything was clear, so it was “easy to simply put one step in front of the other.”
It starts before you land, too. Ilona, from Australia, wrote on Trustpilot that “Quote and booking were very simple”, with calls set up to answer her questions and an airport pick-up already arranged.
If this is your first time, most people start with the last 100 km from Sarria, which is enough to earn the Compostela. Have a look at our Last 100 km of the Camino trips, or the Camino Short Walking Days option if you’d like gentler stages.
Returning pilgrims: why people walk with us again
There’s a saying among pilgrims that the Camino calls you back. What surprised us, reading through the reviews, is how often people come back to the same planner, not just the same path.
Diane, from Canada, opened her Trustpilot review with “Having just completed my 4th in 4 years”. What keeps her coming back is that her planner, Clara, knows the kind of experience she wants: when to book dinners and when to leave an evening free for a local find. That leaves Diane free to focus on the history and the reflection, which is why she walks in the first place.
Trixie, also from Canada, went further afield, to Ireland’s Wicklow Way. “This is our 5th trip with this company,” she wrote on Trustpilot, naming Angie, who handled the accommodation, and Jade, who answered their emails quickly. Joan, on Tripadvisor, was on her third trip and said the same about our team in her own way: “They are always available and I mean always!!”
And some people know they’ll be back before they’ve even unpacked. Tim and Cari walked 40 days from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago with Jade and Sol planning every stage. Their review is one of the most moving we’ve received. “The Camino has changed us,” they wrote on Tripadvisor, and they already plan to return.
If you’ve walked the Francés and the Portugués, the next step is often a quieter route. Returning pilgrims often choose the Camino Primitivo, the Camino del Norte or the Via Francigena. And with 2027 being a Holy Year, our 2027 Holy Year Specials are worth a look early.
Guided group tours: walking with strangers who become friends
On a guided Camino, the guide shapes everything: the pace, the stories you hear, the mood at dinner. So it’s no surprise that our guided group reviews read less like hotel reports and more like thank-you notes to a person.
Sheryl joined one of our small groups with her 11-year-old granddaughter. The other eight walkers were mostly strangers to each other. “Within a day, we had bonded,” she wrote on Tripadvisor, and she gives much of the credit to Sylvia, a guide with twelve years of leading pilgrims who seemed to anticipate what each of them needed. At 72, Sheryl counts the trip among the highlights of her life.
John described his guide, Juan, on Tripadvisor in a way we’d love every guide to be described: “Attentive without being intrusive. Guiding without being rigid.” Juan coached the group through the tired days and helped with special requests along the way.
Shorter Trustpilot reviews say the same thing. Cindy simply wrote “Our guide Luis was great,” and Joyce, after a guided trip where hotels, meals and guiding were all arranged, said “All we had to do was walk and enjoy the journey.”
That balance is what a guided Camino is designed for: you’re never walking alone, yet you still have your own quiet hours on the path. You can meet the people who lead our groups on our Tour Guides page and browse fixed departures in our Guided Tours 2027 collection. Travelling with your parish, school or charity? See our Group Tours.
The support you don’t see: our app, the pre-departure briefing and the emergency phone
Our app puts your whole trip on your phone: your travel documents in one place, the official route on a map, and every accommodation marked stage by stage. Molly, on her third trip with us, noticed the difference straight away. “The new app is a major upgrade,” she wrote on Trustpilot, while also pointing out that some information still needed updating (a fair point, and feedback like hers is how the app keeps improving).
The Follow the Camino app
Kristine, a travel advisor who walked from Oia to Santiago with five friends, listed in her Tripadvisor review the Camino mapping app alongside the hotels, meals and luggage transfers as part of a trip with “Zero Complaints”. If you’d like to see how it works before you go, read our guide: Get to Know the Follow the Camino App Before Your Trip. The app does rely mainly on a data connection, so we always recommend keeping your walking notes handy too.
The pre-departure briefing
Before you fly, we invite you to an online pre-departure briefing. It’s a general session for pilgrims about to set off: how luggage transfers work, what to pack, how to follow the route and what a typical day on the Camino looks like. At the end there’s time for questions, so anything specific to your own trip can be cleared up there. Lisa wrote on Trustpilot that “The pre-hike Zoom call was also very helpful”, and Ilona mentioned how easy it was to set up calls and get all her questions answered. For many first-timers, that one conversation is where nerves turn into excitement.
The emergency phone line
Every client travels with our 24/7 emergency phone number, and the app has an emergency button, always visible while you walk, that calls either 112 (Spain’s emergency number) or our line directly. Most people never need it. The ones who do tend to remember it.
Edel, walking with us again in 2026, said on Trustpilot that our emergency team “got everything sorted for us straight away.” Janet, from Canada, wrote on Trustpilot that she had an extra piece of luggage to move each day, and “a quick phone call had it dealt with.” Jeff hit a confusing accommodation question mid-journey, and his planner Fernanda replied quickly with a clear explanation of where he needed to be. Frank, from the US, only had to call once or twice, and found us quick and responsive both times.
That’s the real job of a support line on the Camino: not to be impressive, just to be there when you need us.
The honest part: what our critical reviews say
A page full of five-star quotes wouldn’t tell you much. About 7% of our Trustpilot reviews are three stars or lower, and we read every one of them. These are the themes that come up, and what’s behind them.
| What pilgrims mentioned | What’s behind it |
|---|---|
| Some hotels sit outside the village, meaning extra walking or fewer places to eat | On busy stages, especially in peak season, the best-rated rooms aren’t always in the centre. Tell us if location matters more to you than anything else and we’ll plan around it. |
| Bags have to be ready early, around 8am | Luggage companies run long routes on fixed schedules, so pick-up times are set by them, not by us. |
| Included dinners felt repetitive | Pilgrim menus in small villages are simple. If food is a big part of your trip, ask us to leave some evenings free. |
| Some walking days felt too long | Stage length is the one thing we most want to get right with you before you go. If 20 to 25 km a day sounds like a lot, ask for shorter stages or an extra night, or look at our Camino Short Walking Days. |
| A bag arrived later than expected on one stage | It happens occasionally on busy routes. Bags almost always arrive on time, and one call to our team tells you where yours is. |
| It’s more expensive than booking it all yourself | It is. The price covers private rooms booked months ahead, daily luggage transfers, walking notes, the app and a team to call while you walk. If budget matters most, see our Camino on a Budget options. |
Bill, from Ireland, gave us four stars on Trustpilot. The early bag drop and one breakfast weren’t to his taste, but what he remembered most was “The comradery and the craic along the walk.” He’s already thinking about next year. That, more than any score, is what we hope people take home.
Where your story starts
Every review on this page began with someone who wasn’t sure yet: about the route, the distances, or whether they could really do it. Tim and Cari finished their 40 days already planning to come back. Diane has now walked four Caminos in four years. None of them knew any of that when they sent their first email.
If you’re at that “not sure yet” stage, let’s talk about your Camino. We’ll help you find the route and pace that suit you, then take care of the path so you can focus on what happens along it. You can also read why pilgrims book with us, or find more stories in our testimonials and Tripadvisor reviews.
Buen Camino.
