Camino Pilgrim

If you are travelling light with under 10% of your bodyweight as your gear, then washing clothes becomes practically a daily routine. You finish your stage on the Camino, find an albergue, then go and wash yourself and your clothes.

Washing by hand

Surprisingly, you can’t wash by hand at all of the accommodations. They either do not have a washing station (usually outdoors) or a dedicated area of drying clothes. Keeping this in mind you either can wash your clothes in the bathroom sink and dry things hanging off your bed or have a spare set of clothes in the backpack that you can still use for the next day.

Getting hand washed clothes dry between October and April can be quite an issue because of the moisture and lower temperature outside. You might want to consider using a dryer on those cold and rainy days.

Washing machine and dryer

These are both paid services. Again, they are not available everywhere. Besides dryer usually will cost more than the washing machine. Using both machines can often cost you 9 Euros in total (4 for washing, 5 for drying). getting to use these machines still does not mean that you will get washing gel or capsules to be included in the cost.

Use shower gel for everything

On the Camino cutting down on weight and bulky items inside the backpack might be something you become concerned with. An option to do that is to wash your body, hair and clothes all with the same thing – shower gel. You can easily add shower gel on top of your dirty clothes inside the washing machine and things will come out clean once the washer has finished.

Shared washing machine costs

Very often pilgrims that travel in the same group put their clothes in the washing machine together. This way you can cut costs per person drastically, put little of own effort into getting clothes clean and have more time to go out for dinner and wine with your new Camino friends. Work smarter, not harder.