Camino question

If it's the same hike we had on the RS Basque tour, it will be the descent from Alto de Perdon outside of Pamplona . The first mile or so is steeply downhill on somewhat loose stone. After that bit, the path becomes gentle.

My wife and I just used our brooks walking shoes (like Hokas). In our RS group, there a were a few people who had poles, there at least 1 person who skipped the steep part (the bus took him to down the path past the steep part), a few people had hiking boots, a few had trail runners, and of course there folks like us who used regular walking shoes.

We had folks who were in their 80s who walked it.

Whatever you are most comfortable with is probably the right choice for you.

Good luck and happy travels!

Thanks for the helpful info. I really don't want to bring hiking boots if I can avoid it. Too heavy and take up too much space.

I used regular running shoes when I walked the last 120km into Santiago. Whatever you have will work just fine for a day walk. Alto de Perdón is nice and affords some nice views of the surrounding area. I believe the walk ends near Church of Saint Mary of Eunate; a 12 century Romanesque church. It’s very pretty. If you can continue on to Puente la Reina, there’s a pretty Romanesque bridge in town.

We just did this tour in May 2026. We walked 8 KM of the Camino and it was as described above. "All day on the Camino" is very misleading as it's only that 8 KM stretch. I wore my Keen hiking shoes and they were fine. In fact, I wore them on the whole tour so I wouldn't have to pack multiple pairs of footwear.

Thank you fellow Seattle-ite.

I also did the tour in May 2026, with my regular walking shoes. I don't even remember much uphill. It seemed pretty flat to me. And I'm one of those in their eighties.

Although not exactly on the topic, I thought I would mention that when I took the Basque Tour (2019 I think) at the end of our Camino walk, we entered a small church (Inglesia de San Andrés) and received a very detiled personal reflection from our excellent guide who lived in Pamplona and was married in that church. Francisco Glaria was our guide

Just take into account that all northern Spain is quite rainy and GoreTex shoes are an excellent option.

I took this tour in 2017 and only had two pairs of shoes with me … leather city walking shoes and athletic sandals. Our guide said that closed-toe shoes were necessary for the first section so I had to wear my leather city shoes on the first rocky downhill section; I managed but wished that I had brought a different shoe. My regular running shoes would have been ok but a pair of trailrunners would have been ideal. I did buy a hiking pole in St-Jean-Pied-de-Port which was necessary for me on the first leg due to the terrible shoes I had brought. The second and third legs or our walk were flat so I switched to my athletic sandals and left the pole on the bus.

When I took this tour, the guide broke it up into 3 legs so there was an opportunity to get stuff from the bus between each leg or to skip a segment. One person on my tour skipped the downhill leg.

This all very useful info. RS folks are the best! Thanks