Walking the Camino as a woman (and on your own)

In 2025, around 53.5% of the 530,987 Compostelas handed out went to women — the third year running with a female majority, according to the Camino statistics. That is not an anomaly, nor a brave minority making room for itself: it is simply the majority of the people walking. Many of them walk alone, and a good number of those walk a second Camino precisely because the first one, on their own, went well.

Is the Camino Francés safe?

It is worth being honest here about what exists and what does not: there is no official crime statistic specific to the Camino de Santiago — neither the Guardia Civil nor the Interior Ministry publish that breakdown. What does exist is a very broad and consistent consensus, repeated for years across women pilgrims' forums, specialist blogs and communities like Camigas: the Camino Francés is seen, and in practice experienced, as a quiet route. It is full of people in the shoulder and high seasons, the albergues are shared and supervised spaces, and the kind of person who walks the Camino — pilgrims, not passing tourists — creates an atmosphere of mutual care that is rare in other travel settings. That said, this is travel common sense, not a guarantee: the basic precautions of any trip still apply. What does happen — the blocked-card scam, harassment from cars — we have collected in safety and scams on the Camino.

The app actually worth carrying: AlertCops

AlertCopsis the Spanish Interior Ministry's official app, run together with the Policía Nacional and the Guardia Civil, available in Spanish and English for Android and iOS. It is not a third-party product: it is the direct channel to the Spanish security forces. It lets you:

• Use an SOS alert button that notifies them immediately with your location.
• Chat directly with the Policía Nacional or the Guardia Civil, without having to call.
• Share your location in real time with trusted contacts.
• Turn on the Guardian service, which tracks your route and raises an alert if you stray from it or stop in an unusual way.

Installing it before you leave takes five minutes and weighs nothing in the backpack.

What the women who have done it say

The advice that comes up most among veteran women pilgrims, in forums and communities like Camigas, is not sophisticated, but it works:

• Walk the first two or three stages — the ones for finding your rhythm and your confidence — with other pilgrims, something that happens by itself in any albergue.
• Tell someone at home the day's stage and the town you are heading for, a two-line message that puts both ends at ease.
• Choose an albergue over camping alone on isolated stretches.
• Walk with one earbud only if you listen to music or podcasts, so you stay aware of what is around you.
• Set off in daylight and avoid finishing stages very late through unpopulated areas, especially on the eucalyptus stretches in Galicia.

Community: you will not be alone even if you walk alone

Camigas ~ A Buddy System for Women on the Camino, the private Facebook group, brings together close to 39,000 women who share questions, look for someone to walk a stretch with, or simply tell each other how it went. It is the starting point most often cited by women preparing to walk on their own. And once you are on the route there is nothing official to sign up to either: you get to an albergue and ask who is setting off tomorrow for the next stage. Camino culture is built on exactly that.