3 signs that you urgently need the Camino de Santiago (and why you will like it even if you deny it)

The Camino de Santiago can help teenagers disconnect from screens, gain autonomy, improve their physical fitness, and develop social skills. Although there may be protests and fatigue, the experience helps them mature, coexist better, and reconnect with reality.

Being a mother or father of a teenager nowadays is a high-risk mission. We look at them with a mix of unconditional love and absolute perplexity. They are fascinating creatures: capable of editing a 4K video with their thumb while eating cereal, yet they freeze if you ask them to go buy bread and do not accept Bizum.

It’s not that they do it on purpose. They have grown up in a world where everything is just a click away, and real life, the one that requires patience, sweat, and talking to strangers, sometimes feels like an unknown "map" to navigate. If you’ve noticed that your child lives in a parallel reality, perhaps the Camino de Santiago is just the "reset" of the system they need. Here are three signs, lovingly counted, that it’s time to swap fiber optics for yellow arrows.

1. The permanent energy-saving mode

What you see at home: Your child is not lazy; they are simply an expert in energy efficiency. They have calculated the exact number of steps needed to go from the bed to the sofa and from there to the fridge, and they will not take many more. Sometimes you have the feeling that if they could teleport to the bathroom to avoid lifting their feet, they would do it. Their physical endurance is legendary… but only for binge-watching series or late-night video game tournaments.

The twist of the Camino: The Camino de Santiago is a gym disguised as an adventure. At first, they will probably look at you as if you suggested crossing Mordor on one leg. You will hear the phrase "my feet hurt" in audio frequencies you didn’t know existed. But here is where the magic happens: after the second or third day, that "exercise allergy" disappears. They will discover that their body is good for something more than just holding a head that looks at a screen. And, to top it off, nothing brings a group of teenagers together more than discovering, all at the same time, that having sore muscles can also be a reason to laugh and not just to complain.

2. The panic at voice calls

What you see at home: It is a modern paradox: your child has 500 friends on Instagram and is in twelve active chat groups simultaneously, but if they have to call someone to order a pizza or ask a stranger for the time, they panic. For their generation, sometimes an unexpected voice call is practically a horror movie scare: they do not know whether to answer, to flee, or to pretend they did not hear anything. They have forgotten the noble art of inconsequential chatter and face-to-face interaction without emojis in between.

The twist of the Camino: The Camino is the safest social environment in the world to unlock this skill. Here, it is impossible not to interact. Everyone greets each other. At first, your child will feel strange saying "hello" to people they do not know and who have not sent them a friend request. But soon they will discover that the real world is quite friendly. They will end up sharing a table (and blisters) with a German gentleman or a Korean student, discovering that they can hold an interesting conversation without the need to send stickers. It is an accelerated course in "Social Skills 1.0" and languages that no app can match.

3. The Wifi Seeker Syndrome

What you see at home: Your child's hierarchy of needs has changed, and at the base is not food or shelter, but Wifi. When they enter a new place, they do not look at the decor, they look at the signal bars. If the connection fails, you see an existential void in their eyes, as if they have suddenly been expelled from civilization. They suffer from the fear of not being "in the loop," of missing out on that meme that will expire in 24 hours.

The twist of the Camino: Galicia has wonderful corners where the coverage is, let’s say, "vintage." And that is great. After the initial shock (which will last a few hours and require patience), your child will discover something incredible: boredom is not deadly. In fact, it is necessary. Without notifications buzzing every ten seconds, they will lift their heads. They will realize that the landscapes of the north have better resolution than any latest model screen and that, surprisingly, the best "stories" are not the ones posted on Instagram, but those lived while walking with other kids, getting lost on the way, or laughing because someone has lost a flip-flop in the middle of the forest.

Conclusion: A few kilometers to reconnect

I won’t deceive you: there will be complaints. Some "my feet hurt," a couple of "this is inhumane," and probably some dramatic looks worthy of a Goya Award. But the Camino de Santiago has a wonderful side effect: at the end of the journey, when they arrive at the Plaza del Obradoiro, your child will be dirtier, more tired, and, miraculously, more present than ever. And perhaps, just perhaps, during the group dinner, they won’t pull out their phone, but will share an anecdote from the day. Just for that, every step will have been worth it.

If you want to better understand how this educational adventure works, you can check all the details in our section dedicated to the Camino de Santiago for young people and teenagers, where we address questions about safety, organization, and logistics. And if you are interested in knowing the complete model, visit our page on summer camps for teenagers based on the Camino de Santiago, a clear and direct guide on why this proposal has become one of the safest and most valuable experiences for young people in the summer.

Because the Camino, just like life, is better understood when walked together… even if there are protests along the way.