In April 2022, my partner and I embarked on the 800-kilometer Camino de Santiago with a baby and a toddler in tow. Our oldest was two and a half at the time, and our youngest was three months (You can read all about our walk HERE). For anyone else considering doing the Camino de Santiago with a baby or a toddler, we wanted to break down what we packed that helped us care for our children, and what we wished we’d packed.
We carried all of our gear in two large travel backpacks, which we sent ahead each day utilizing CaminoFacil luggage transport, and one daypack.
Note that this post is not an affiliate marketing post or an advertisement in any way. These are simply products we loved that helped us with our Camino adventure.
STROLLER
We chose to bring the BOB Revolution Duallie, and we had a love/hate relationship with this stroller. We absolutely love our BOB Revolution stroller, and think that the single version of this stroller would have been perfect for walking the Camino de Santiago with a baby, as it is slender, lightweight, and very durable. With two very young children, however, we felt that a double stroller was the best way to go, so we packed the much larger, heavier double version, and there were many times when we regretted this choice. Some of the paths were too narrow for the stroller and we had to find alternate routes, and the stroller (weighed down with children, snacks, tire repair gear, and any day-use items) was heavy to push uphill. Plus, most of the trails were too bumpy for our 3-month-old and her limited head and neck control, so we ended up carrying her.
Could we have gotten by with a single stroller? Maybe, but I still don’t think so. We used an adapter to clip our 3-month-old’s car seat into the stroller, and we wouldn’t have had access to a car seat without the stroller. And there were numerous times when both girls were able to ride in the stroller. We probably did need to have access to a stroller that seated both girls, but it was cumbersome and it made our walk that much more difficult.
When we first started talking about walking the Camino de Santiago with a baby, we’d only planned to walk with one child, and she would have just turned one. We would have carried her in a hiking carrier, and we would have avoided bringing a stroller altogether. That would have truly been the ideal situation. The trip got delayed because of Covid, and so we found ourselves planning for a very different trip with two children. Unfortunately, our 3-month-old was too young to sit in a structured carrier, and our 2-year-old was too heavy.
Ultimately, the Bob Duallie was probably the right stroller for our trip, but it was not a perfect answer.
Pros:
- Handles well on a variety of terrain
- The adjustable handle made it easy to push for both my partner’s height and my own.
- Durable and comfortable.
Cons:
- Too wide for everyday use in most of Europe, and too wide for some of the trails on the Camino de Santiago
- Heavy
- Hard to fit into taxis and on trains
BABY K’TAN CARRIER
We baby-wore Eloise for much of the Camino and after trying out every style of wrap and carrier we could find in stores we settled on the Baby K’Tan wrap. We had used it with our oldest, so we were familiar with it. We love that it is lightweight and easy to use. We found it to be the most comfortable and user-friendly wrap. We liked that this is “pre-wrapped,” meaning it already has its shape and we didn’t need to fuss with trying to wrap a long piece of fabric. The downside is that it needs to be sized a bit more specifically, and my partner and I don’t wear the same size. My partner was the one who carried Eloise the most, and she swore by the wrap.
CAR SEATS
We knew that we were going to be taking some taxis here and there, and we wanted to be prepared with car seats for the girls’ safety. However, we also knew that anything we brought with us, we’d have to carry, which posed a unique challenge. For our infant, we were able to bring her bucket seat, which clipped into the stroller. For our toddler, however, we needed to figure out an option that we could carry with us. We ended up posing the question in online forums for car seat safety, and the RideSafer travel vest was recommended.
We absolutely love this travel harness and our daughter gets use out of it every time we travel. It folds up small enough to fit in a backpack, and has been fully crash tested and safety certified. We recommend this product to any parents looking to do a lot of travel with little ones.
TRAVEL CRIB
We knew that we were going to utilize a luggage transport service to move our packs and travel crib from accommodation to accommodation along the Camino de Santiago, but we also knew that we were still going to have to do a lot of walking in airports, train stations, etc, with all of our gear. As such, we knew that we couldn’t take our Graco Pack n’ Play, which we’d previously used for travel. We were also adamant that our baby have a regulated safe sleep space. After a lot of research, we came across the Phil and Ted’s Travel Crib.
When we first assembled this travel crib, we found it impossibly hard to connect all of the pieces, and we thought that there was no way we could assemble and disassemble this crib every day. Subsequent attempts at assembling and disassembling the crib became much easier, and it is now another travel item that we would recommend to all parents. The crib itself is a regulated safe sleep space, it weighs only 6-lbs (the lightest travel crib we could find), and is actually quite easy to set up and take down once the snaps are broken in.
The only downside to this crib has been that the bag it comes with is not the most durable. Ours is currently held together with duct tape.
OTHER BABY ITEMS
We packed two bottles, which we cleaned along the way. I’ll be honest, at 3 months, we didn’t worry about sterilizing the bottle before each use, though we did try to put boiling water through it whenever possible.
We carried enough diapers for a few days, but those were easy enough to purchase at pharmacies, even in small towns (though they didn’t always have the size we needed). Same with baby wipes.
I was combination feeding our infant, so she was taking both breastmilk and formula. We had no issues finding formula throughout Spain. It was affordable and readily available in most pharmacies.
CROCS
We loved crocs for our toddler. We tried numerous different types of hiking shoes and sandals, and we packed a pair of sneakers as well, but the crocs won out. She never wore her other shoes. Her crocs were durable, comfortable, and easy to dry. Addie proudly showed off her crocs to everyone she met, and she was very proud to buy a new pair when we reached Santiago.
WHAT WE WISHED WE PACKED
FOOD
We were surprised that one of our biggest struggles while walking the Camino de Santiago with a baby and a toddlerr was finding food, especially for our toddler. The Spanish siesta meant that we often couldn’t find restaurants that were open when we arrived in towns, and dinners often started after our children were asleep for the night. Stores offered limited non-perishable options, and our toddler mostly lived on chocolate croissants and Cola Cao (the Spanish version of Nesquick). If we were to go back in time and pack for the Camino again, we would fill half of one of our bags with granola bars, goldfish crackers, and fruit pouches, just to have some snack options when needed.
A TIRE PUMP
We brought a tire repair kit for our stroller, but we didn’t test it out beforehand (rookie mistake!) and we didn’t have a proper pump to get air into our tires. On day 1, we had to go in search of a gas station with an air pump, and we found air pumps hard to come by along the walking route. We definitely wished we’d packed a better air pump.
WHAT WE PACKED BUT DIDN’T USE
SLEEPING BAGS
Because we mostly stayed in private accommodations, rather than the group albergues, we never once encountered the need for our sleeping bags. They took up a lot of space in our packs and could have been left at home.
HEADLAMPS
We never walked at night. These were never needed. Had we left them behind and needed a light, I’m sure our phone flashlights would have sufficed.
WALKING STICKS
We didn’t pack these from home, but we picked up a set early on to use along the way. I think they lasted a day before one fell off our stroller and got lost. We needed hands for the stroller, and the walking sticks were only a burden.
this is very informative. Makes you want to grab a small kid and start walking,but i will let you guys do that!!!