We were quoted €1,200. Here's what we actually paid.
A travel agency wanted €1,200 to plan our Camino Francés. We said no — and booked the same route, same timeline, for a fraction of that. Every euro, broken down.
The quote that started everything
My wife wanted to walk the Camino Francés. She approached a travel agency in our city, excited to finally be planning it. They asked the right questions — where she wanted to start, how many days she had, how much rest she'd need — and a week later, they sent back a beautiful itinerary.
Price: €1,200.
For a planning service. Not for flights, not for accommodation, not for food. Just the spreadsheet telling her where to sleep each night.
We politely declined.
What we did instead
We sat down with the same questions they'd asked — start point, duration, rest days — and worked through it ourselves. Using free resources (Gronze, the Wise Pilgrim, and eventually this planner), we mapped out every stage.
Then we booked each stop directly. Here's what the same journey actually cost:
| Item | Cost | |------|------|
That's €973 for the entire trip — accommodation, all food, everything — not just the planning. And we had change left over.
Why agencies charge what they charge
To be fair to them: travel agencies add real value for complex multi-country itineraries, business travel, or people who genuinely have no time to plan. The Camino, though, is one of the most documented walks in the world. The information is freely available. The community forums are full of walkers sharing up-to-date accommodation reviews, stage breakdowns, and weather advice.
What an agency charges €1,200 for, you can do in an afternoon with the right tools.
That's why we built this
The Yellow Arrow exists because the planning barrier to the Camino is almost entirely artificial. The walk is not complicated to plan — it just takes time and knowing where to look.
We've done that work for you.