Should I walk the Camino in 2027, or wait? Three questions about the Holy Year

You finally said it out loud. "I'm thinking of walking the Camino. Maybe in 2027."

And your friend put down her coffee and said: "2027? Isn't that the big holy year? It'll be a zoo."

Now you're home, and the sentence is still in the room.

Maybe she's right. Maybe I wait for 2028. I've never done anything like this. Why would I pick the busiest year to be a beginner?

She might even be right. But it's your year, not hers. Here are three questions that are yours.

1. Do you want the door?

A Holy Year happens when July 25, the feast of St. James, falls on a Sunday. In those years the cathedral in Santiago opens its Holy Door, which stays walled up the rest of the time. It opens on December 31, 2026, and it stays open through 2027.

I'm not even religious. Is that for me?

Anyone may walk through it. For Catholic pilgrims it carries a specific spiritual meaning, and the cathedral or your own parish can explain that far better than I can. For everyone else, it's the one entrance to the cathedral you can't use in an ordinary year, and you'd be arriving, on foot, in the year you can. Some people feel nothing about that. Some people feel a great deal.

Would I feel anything? I don't know. You don't have to know yet.

Here's the catch. If the door matters to you, "I'll wait a year" doesn't mean 2028. The next Holy Year is 2032. Then 2038. Then 2049.

And if the door doesn't matter to you at all? Then what's left of the Holy Year, for you, is a livelier Santiago and more company on the road. Whether that's a gift or a price is the next question.

2. How do you feel about company?

Your friend isn't wrong that Holy Years are busy. Picture the line at the counter of a small village café. For every 10 people in that line in 2003, there were 24 in 2004, a Holy Year. (In numbers: about 75,000 pilgrims collected a Compostela, the certificate at the end, in 2003, and about 180,000 in 2004.) The year after, the line was back to 13.

Now the part your friend didn't mention. That 2005 number was roughly half the Holy Year, though still more than in 2003. The same pattern followed the Holy Year of 2010. (The Holy Year of 2021 was stretched into 2022 by the pandemic, so it tells us little.)

So after each of those two Holy Years, the year that followed was far quieter than the Holy Year itself, and still busier than the year before it. If crowds wear you out, 2028 is not a consolation prize.

Two cautions. There is no reliable number for 2027 yet, so you won't get one from me. And the Camino has grown enormously since then: in 2025, an ordinary year, more than 530,000 pilgrims arrived. "Quiet" on the Camino isn't what it used to be, in any year.

But would I hate it, or love it? Think about how you feel in a full restaurant. Some people relax when the room is lively. Some people start looking for the exit. You already know which one you are.

And as a beginner? A busy road has one thing going for it: you're never the only one who doesn't know how something works. A crowd is also a lot of people to ask.

3. Can you choose your month and your road?

This is where "a zoo" gets too simple, because the crowd isn't spread evenly.

In 2025, almost half of all pilgrims walked one route, the Camino Francés. About three in ten started in one small town, Sarria, which sits about 70 miles (roughly 113 km) from Santiago, just outside the 62 miles (100 km) the Compostela asks for.

And in Santiago itself, one date stands apart. July 25 is the feast of St. James and Galicia's own holiday, and in 2027 it's a Sunday. On a Camino forum in August 2026, someone asked about arriving that day. The replies agreed on one thing: have your bed reserved well ahead. One person who lives in the city added that a seat at the main noon Mass that day is next to impossible.

Now the surprise. You've probably read the classic advice: skip summer, walk in May or September. It seems plenty of others have read it too. In 2025, more pilgrims reached Santiago in September than in any other month of the year. And May brought more than July. That's one year of numbers, not a law of nature. But the quiet "shoulder season" isn't the secret it used to be.

Which means the real questions are: Can I go in April, or late in the fall? Am I willing to walk a different road to the same cathedral? The quieter months come with shorter days and fewer services, so check what's open before you count on them. But if your answer is yes, your 2027 can look very different from your friend's zoo.

And what if there's no bed? That one is less about the year than about your month, your route and how close you are to July 25. What to book first, and how far ahead, is laid out step by step in my free Xacobeo 2027 guide.

The honest part

If the door means nothing to you, if crowds drain you, and if your dates are stuck in midsummer, waiting is a good answer. The road will be the same road in 2028.

One thing only you can check: is "I'll wait for 2028" a plan, or a hiding place? A plan has a month in it.

And if the door does matter, no busy year should talk you out of it. It should only change how you plan.

Either way, you don't owe your friend a decision over coffee. Answer the three questions first. Then tell her.