El Camí: Hiking, Catalan-style

El Camí is a network of cultural hiking routes designed especially for travellers with time and leisure on their hands: hiking from one Catalan hamlet to another, taking in beautiful landscapes, exploring cultural heritage, folklore and gastronomy along the way. At least this is how the creators of the project envision the ideal El Camí hiker!

Since 2003, over 4700 km were transformed into El Camí routes, not counting add-ons and various diversions—with all of them taken into account, the total distance covered by El Camí rises to 5400 km.

As of 2022, there are 7 main routes, called Grans Intineraris. Each of them would take even very advanced hikers at least a month to complete. The main route is split into 4 to 10 segments (Trams) whose length varies, yet on average, each would take about a week to explore. In turn, segments are split into 6 to 10 stages (Etapes) connecting any two towns or hamlets (6-22 km), meant by the organizers to be covered in one day or faster. There is only one exception to the above—the route between Montserrat and Barcelona, most of whose segments are much shorter than in other Grans Itineraris.

As noted, travellers are meant to hike between Catalan hamlets and since Catalonia isn't the only place where Catalans live, there are El Camí routes in the autonomous community of Valencia, on the Balearic Islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera, and even in Italy (!) as the town of Alguer in Sardinia is historically inhabited by Catalans too.

The navigational sign of El Camí is two letters "C" chained together. The main routes use red-coloured signs while the route diversions use yellow.

The official website of El Camí offers plenty of technical information about each of the routes, as well as "Camipèdia", tour guides for many of the hamlets on the way. The organizers also publish printed guides whose full set makes a great gift for the new members of the association of El Camí (the membership is 5€ per month). Unfortunately, the Catalanness of the project extends to all of its informational materials—even the website lacks an English version, offering El Camí travellers an excellent opportunity for immersion not just into Catalan culture, but into the Catalan language as well.

Completing even one main route of El Camí makes you eligible for a special diploma featuring artwork of the famous Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies. Proof of completion is in the collection of stamps that you can receive in bars, restaurants, hotels and tourism offices in participating towns along the way. Collect them all and proudly present the set to the association to receive your diploma.

Every once in a while, the El Camí association invites the public to join a themed hiking trip somewhere along an El Camí route, usually 3-5 days in duration. It's free to join for the association members; everyone else needs to pitch in 10€.

The map of El Camí routes in Girona