Most people picture the Camino de Santiago as the busy French Way. The Camino Primitivo is a different beast entirely — the original route, crossing the mountains of Asturias and Galicia in northern Spain, and widely considered the hardest and least crowded of the lot. That's exactly why one American couple featured on The Trek picked it: it was the most challenging option, far quieter than the classic paths, and its length fitted their available walking window neatly.
Their approach to planning will feel familiar to anyone who has organised a long-distance trek — or reassuring to anyone tempted to wing it. Beyond flights, they booked nothing until just two or three weeks before departure, relying instead on a handful of well-known Camino resources to map stages and find beds. Free route-planning tools like Camino Ninja and the Wise Pilgrim site helped them plot daily distances, while Gronze.com became their go-to for checking albergues and small hotels along the way once they realised pre-booking a few nights might be wise. Follow the Camino's maps and the Stingy Nomads stage guide filled in the rest.
Physically, they didn't leave training to chance. Months of gym work, indoor climbing and strength training went into the build-up — sensible for a route that climbs over the Cantabrian mountains rather than skimming the flat Meseta. One detail worth copying: new sleeping bags were on the kit list, because some of the older, simpler albergues on the Primitivo don't provide bedding. The whole itinerary lived in a Google spreadsheet, shared with family so people back home could track their progress day by day.
For travellers, the takeaways are simple. The Primitivo runs roughly 320km from Oviedo to Santiago de Compostela, usually taking two weeks or so at a relaxed pace, with mountain weather and real climbs early on before it joins the French Way near Melide. Booking late is viable if you're flexible — the route sees a fraction of the pilgrim traffic of the Camino Francés — but a little research into stages and albergues makes those last-minute decisions far less stressful. Go in decent shape, carry a sleeping bag, and let a shared itinerary keep everyone at home happy.
