Pack Weight on the Camino de Santiago

How Much Should my Camino Pack Weigh?

Pack weight for the Camino must be one of the most often discussed topics and frequently asked question!

You will hear all kinds of advice and ‘rules’, such as the 10% of bodyweight rule.   But what is a realistic pack weight?   The 10% rule is OK as a very rough guide.  But to be honest, your pack should be as light as possible.   I have walked with a 10kg pack, and 8kg pack and a 6kg pack.   I can assure you that the 6 kg was the best!

There is another ‘rule’ that I read about recently, that kind of made sense.  And it was this.  Take your bodyweight in Kgs, divide it by two, and that should be the capacity in litres of your pack.  That’s fairly  close for my wife and I.

It’s Your Pack and Your Camino

Ultimately it’s up to you of course.  We all have different needs.  Some people might carry a CPAP machine or lots of meds for example.

But here are a few tips to get your pack weight down, that you might want to consider:

1. Lay all your gear out, and ask yourself if you really need each item.  Many ‘just in case’ items might never get used, or alternatively can be bought locally if required.
2. Try to take items that have more than one purpose.   My rain jacket and pants for example, keep the rain off.  They also provide a wind proof layer. They also provide an extra layer to keep warm. The jacket I use to wear in the evening for extra warmth.  The jacket and pants are sometimes worn if I go to a ‘laundry’ allowing me to wash and dry everything else!
3. Don’t take too many clothes.  You really don’t need anything except walking clothes.  We wear them to and from the Camino, as well as on the Camino.
4. You only need two sets of clothes!  The set you are wearing, that you will wash at the end of the day.  And a spare set to put on in the evening, that you will wear for walking the next day.
5. Go for lightweight options if you can.  Sadly. lightweight options often cost more.  But you can look for special deals and even used items.  A lightweight sleeping bag for example might only weigh 400 gms,  My wife’s is 350 gms.
6. Only carry small amounts of things that you can buy locally.  For example I carry very small amounts of toothpaste, vaseline for my feet, deodorant, soap, etc etc.   Most of these types of things I carry in small nalgene screw top bottles.
7. Towels and similar items can be quite large, bulky and heavy.  Look at lightweight versions.  My wife for example carried a tiny camping towel that is 80×40 cms.   She would love a larger one but doesn’t want to carry it!

Maybe you have some questions about packing light?  Feel free to ask in the comments below.

Or share your own packing light tips?

Camino Packing List

Oh.  Weigh everything!   I keep a spreadsheet with all the weights of my gear and I go through it many times looking for where I can reduce weight.  You can download the packing list here, and use to enter your own gear.