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Camino de Santiago · Planning

Camino YouTube channels and Instagram accounts worth following

There are thousands of Camino videos, and most tell one person's trip, once. These are the channels and accounts pilgrims themselves recommend again and again, each checked in September 2026: which route they cover, in which language, and what they are good for.

Posts reviewed
171,158 on r/CaminoDeSantiago, 2023 to August 2026
Selection
11 creators: 7 in English, 4 in Spanish
Requirement
Published something in the last six months
Peregrina con gorra y una gran mochila de trekking roja, caminando sola por el Camino de Santiago
© Shirley Roots · CC BY 2.0
On this page

When someone asks a pilgrim forum which videos to watch before leaving, the answers repeat with surprising regularity. On r/CaminoDeSantiago, the largest English-language Camino forum, we counted who names whom across the 171,158 posts and comments published between January 2023 and 25 August 2026, and the same five or six channels keep coming up. To those we added the Spanish-language creators with a genuine pilgrim audience, who barely register on an English forum, and dropped anyone who had not published in the last six months. Eleven remain. None of them paid or asked to be here, and the links go to their channels rather than single videos: videos age, channels carry on.

The short answer

If you only watch one, it depends on what you need. For gear, Days We Spend, the channel the most different people recommend when the question is what to pack. To see a whole route before walking it, Nadine Walks or Walk with Efrén, who put each stage in its own video. For questions, Caminotellers, who answer them live. For what is happening in Santiago this week, Ivar's channel. And in Spanish, Manel Peregrino for preparation and Álvaro Lazaga Busto for the routes almost nobody films.

All eleven at a glance (size and latest upload read on 28 Sep 2026)
Channel or accountLanguageGood forApproximate sizeLatest upload
Days We SpendEnglishGear and preparation; many routes47,000 on YouTube25 Sep 2026
CaminotellersEnglishPreparation, live Q&As37,000 on YouTube27 Sep 2026
Walk with EfrénEnglishWhole routes, stage by stage29,000 on YouTube26 Sep 2026
Nadine WalksEnglishWhole routes, stage by stage22,000 on YouTube27 Sep 2026
RobsCaminoEnglishFirst Camino, practical questions15,000 on YouTube26 Sep 2026
IvarEnglishShort news clips from Santiago7,300 on YouTube18 Sep 2026
Stingy NomadsEnglishCamino Portugués7,200 on YouTube28 Jun 2026
Manel PeregrinoSpanishPreparation and stages7,500 on YouTube23 Sep 2026
Álvaro Lazaga BustoSpanishDaily diary of little-walked routes6,900 on YouTube27 Sep 2026
CaminosantiagofamilySpanishFull stages, no gloss24,000 on Instagram27 Sep 2026
Peregrino y mochilaSpanishDaily Instagram: routes, history, tips13,000 on Instagram28 Sep 2026

In English

These are the ones the forum recommends most, which makes sense: 57% of the pilgrims who reach Santiago come from abroad, and English is the Camino's common language. Nearly all of them film whole routes, in Spain and often in France or Portugal too.

Days We Spend

youtube.com/@DaysWeSpend · Instagram @dayswespend. A couple, Lainey and Shawn, who moved to Spain in 2023 and now live in Galicia. It is the channel the most different pilgrims recommend on the forum (29 people), nearly always for the same reason: the packing lists, with the detail of what they carry and why, and the idea of walking with a hip pack instead of a backpack, which more than one pilgrim says they copied. They have walked a lot of routes (their August 2026 video is called "16 Caminos Later") and have guides to Camino cities such as Oviedo and León. A good share of their recent videos are about living in Spain rather than the Camino: the latest pilgrim one was the Camino Inglés from A Coruña, on 4 September 2026. About 47,000 subscribers.

Caminotellers

youtube.com/@caminotellers · Instagram @caminotellers. A channel about nothing but the Camino and long-distance walking, with the weight on preparation: what to pack by month, how to avoid blisters, which way to take over the Pyrenees. What sets it apart is the live streams, where they answer questions on the spot; in August 2026 they streamed five days in a row crossing the Pyrenees, and in September they published a Camino Inglés series. The channel links to resources of their own. About 37,000 subscribers.

Walk with Efrén

youtube.com/@walk_with_efren · Instagram @walk_with_efren. Efrén González has walked fourteen Caminos de Santiago and films them stage by stage, one video a day, with plenty of drone footage. It is the go-to channel for seeing a whole route before you walk it: the Francés (in reverse as well), the Via Francigena and the Via Podiensis, and he shares his GPS tracks. Some on the forum think he is on screen too much; if you are there for the scenery, it does not get in the way. Over a thousand videos and about 29,000 subscribers.

Nadine Walks

youtube.com/@nadinewalks · Instagram @nadine_walks · blog nadinewalks.com. Nadine walked the Francés in 2014 and has since walked routes in Spain, France, Portugal and England, which she tells day by day on video and in writing on her blog. Pilgrims recommend her for the less common routes, the Norte or the Aragonés, and for walking solo. In September 2026 she was publishing one video per stage of the Via Podiensis from Le Puy. About 22,000 subscribers.

RobsCamino

youtube.com/@robscamino · website robscamino.com. Rob has been filming the Camino since 2015 and the channel has a stated goal: making your first Camino go well. So most videos answer a specific question (do you need poles, which apps to carry, how to find a bed, which weather is best) rather than being travel diaries, though there are those too: in August 2026 he posted the Muxía to Santiago stretch day by day. His website has interviews with well-known Camino figures. The forum mentions him little, but he publishes every week. About 15,000 subscribers.

Ivar

youtube.com/@Ivar. Ivar Rekve is the Norwegian who has lived in Santiago since 2003 and in 2004 founded the English-language forum caminodesantiago.me, the largest on the Camino; he also runs Casa Ivar, the city's luggage storage. His is by far the name that comes up most on r/CaminoDeSantiago (202 people), though almost always for the forum or the storage. The channel is something else: short clips from Santiago about whatever affects people arriving that week, such as how many Compostelas were issued the day before, changes to the Cathedral masses, queues or new flights. It keeps you current; it will not help you plan a route. About 7,300 subscribers.

Stingy Nomads

youtube.com/@StingyNomads · website stingynomads.com. Campbell and Alya have lived in Portugal since 2021 and have walked eleven Camino routes, but their ground is the Camino Portugués in all its versions: Central, Coastal, Litoral. On the forum 73 people name them, mostly linking the written guides on their website, which are the best thing they do; the YouTube channel publishes less (the latest video, Finisterre to Muxía, is from June 2026) and their Instagram has been quiet since January 2025. About 7,200 subscribers.

In Spanish

On an English-language forum Spanish creators hardly show up, so here the count helps little and the test is different: a real pilgrim audience, real routes rather than just the Sarria stretch, and still publishing. All four were posting this very week. They are worth it even with basic Spanish: the images carry most of it.

Manel Peregrino

youtube.com/@manelperegrino · Instagram @manelperegrino. The most complete Spanish-language channel for preparing the trip: which route, which shoes, how to train, where to sleep and what it costs, plus the stages of the routes he has walked (Primitivo, Francés, Portugués, Inglés, Vía de la Plata, Finisterre and the Camino from Barcelona). In September 2026 he was publishing the Camino de Invierno. An American pilgrim recommended him on the forum because he speaks so clearly that he doubled as Spanish practice. About 7,500 subscribers.

Álvaro Lazaga Busto

youtube.com/@AlvaroLazagaBusto. He numbers his Caminos in the title of each series, and the September 2026 one is number 66, from Benidorm. He posts a short diary every day, with direct sound and humour, and his value is in the routes almost nobody films: the south-east, the Levante, the Invierno in July 2026. If you are walking somewhere nobody else has a video of, there is a good chance he does. Over 1,700 videos and about 6,900 subscribers.

Caminosantiagofamily

@caminosantiagofamily on Instagram · YouTube channel. Eduardo Abad's account, which bills itself as "Camino de Santiago sin postureo", the Camino without posing: full stages with their distances, climbs, rain and tiredness included. It is bigger on Instagram (about 24,000 followers) than on YouTube (about 1,400), but the long videos are on YouTube: in September 2026, the Camino Sanabrés stage by stage.

Peregrino y mochila

@peregrinoymochila on Instagram. Gonzalo posts a gallery of his Caminos almost daily, sorted by theme in his highlights: legends, history, tips, the Cathedral, the Camino del Mar and the Inglés. He has walked the Vía de la Plata, the Sanabrés, the Norte and the Portuguese Coastal among others, and Gronze already singled him out in 2021 among the creators who tell the Camino from the inside. It is not for planning a particular stage but for understanding what you are looking at. About 13,000 followers.

Who is not here, and why

They came up in the count but did not pass the filter. Homemade Wanderlust (Dixie) has a Francés documentary that the forum cites as a favourite, but her Camino videos are years old and the channel is now about US thru-hikes. Lisa and Josh filmed the Francés and the Portuguese Coastal and five people recommend them, but theirs is a general travel channel. Jay Wanders Out has not posted since September 2024. Sara Dhooma, cited for her videos of little-known routes, is now filming the Pacific Crest Trail. Nor are the agencies that sell Camino trips, however good their channels: only people telling their own Camino make the cut.

What the forum names most, in fact, are not channels but tools: Gronze (432 different people since 2023) and the Camino Ninja app (327). What each one is for is in how to book an albergue.

How we chose

On the public r/CaminoDeSantiago archive, which runs to 25 August 2026, we counted across the 159,354 comments and 11,804 posts published since 1 January 2023 how many different people name each creator, which is what measures a recommendation; the number of messages sits alongside. We read the threads where someone asked for channels to see why they were recommended. Then we checked every channel and profile on 28 September 2026: size, what it covers and when it last published. Anyone silent for more than six months was out. Nobody pays or asked to be listed, and we did not know whether any of them would welcome it when we drew up the list.

Different people recommending each creator on r/CaminoDeSantiago, January 2023 to 25 August 2026
CreatorPeopleMessagesWhy they cite them
Ivar (forum and channel)202590Almost always for the caminodesantiago.me forum or Casa Ivar, not the channel
Stingy Nomads73169Mostly links to the guides on their website; the channel less so
Days We Spend2942Packing lists and the hip-pack setup
Walk with Efrén2331Daily vlogs of whole routes
Caminotellers1827Preparation and live Q&As
Nadine Walks1723Whole routes told day by day
RobsCamino24First Camino
Álvaro Lazaga Busto22Recommended in a thread asking for Spanish-language channels
Manel Peregrino11Recommended by a pilgrim who used him to practise Spanish
Caminosantiagofamily11Recommended in the same Spanish-language thread

Peregrino y mochila scores zero because the forum is in English; it gets in on the Spanish-language test. Sizes are rounded and change every week: read them as an order of magnitude. If you think someone who meets the same bar is missing, the "Suggest a correction" button at the foot of this page reaches us directly.

After the videos

Videos show you what a route looks like; decisions get made with numbers. If you are choosing a route, start with which route to walk for the days you have. For gear, the packing list and the pack-weight calculator. And if you want the last 100 km split into stages, the planner does it for you.

Frequently asked questions

Which Camino de Santiago YouTube channel do pilgrims recommend most?

On r/CaminoDeSantiago, between January 2023 and August 2026, the channel recommended by the most different people is Days We Spend (29), mainly for its packing lists. Next come Walk with Efrén (23), Caminotellers (18) and Nadine Walks (17). Ivar and Stingy Nomads are named more often, but almost always for their forum and website, not their channels.

Are there good Camino channels in Spanish?

Yes. Manel Peregrino is the most complete for preparing the trip (route, shoes, training, budget); Álvaro Lazaga Busto posts a daily diary of routes almost nobody films and is on his 66th Camino; Caminosantiagofamily shows full stages, and Peregrino y mochila covers history and tips on Instagram. All four were publishing in September 2026.

Which channel shows a whole route before I walk it?

Walk with Efrén and Nadine Walks, who post one video per stage. Efrén has the Francés, the Via Francigena and the Via Podiensis; Nadine has the Francés, the Norte, the Aragonés and routes in France and Portugal. In Spanish, Álvaro Lazaga Busto and Manel Peregrino do the same for quieter routes such as the Camino de Invierno.

Where can I get up-to-date news from Santiago and the Camino?

On Ivar's YouTube channel. He has lived in Santiago since 2003 and founded the caminodesantiago.me forum, and he posts short clips about whatever affects people arriving that week, such as the day's Compostela count, changes to the Cathedral masses or new flights.

Did these creators pay to be on the list?

No. Nobody paid or asked to be included. The list comes from counting what pilgrims recommend on the forum and checking each channel is still active; those silent for more than six months were left out even when they were cited.

Should I watch lots of videos before walking the Camino?

Just enough. Gear videos and those about little-known routes genuinely save trouble. But on the forums the top-voted advice to someone asking for Francés vlogs was not to watch too many, so you do not arrive with the Camino already seen and with expectations that are not your own.

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