How I Run a Small Camino Company, and Why

This year, walking the Portuguese Central, I stopped for the night in Rubiaes and stayed at a small guesthouse run by a fellow named Fernando. I spent the evening there, got to know him a little, and watched the way he looks after the walkers who come through. By the time I left the next morning I knew a few of my own clients would love the place, and would love him, the sort of host you end up sitting up talking to long after dinner's cleared away.

So I pulled out my laptop that night and updated their itineraries to include a night with Fernando. That's a small thing, but it's the kind of small thing that only happens because I'm actually out there each year, staying in these places myself, meeting the people who run them, rather than booking a bed sight unseen off a wholesaler's list. It's also, more or less, the whole reason I run Tierra Trekking Co the way I do.

Fernando's place in Rubiaes, one of my favourite stops on the Portuguese Central.

Why I built Tierra Trekking Co the way it is

Big companies tend to fit you into an itinerary they've already built. I do it the other way round: I build the itinerary around you. When you tell me you've got a dodgy knee, or that 25km days aren't realistic, that goes straight into how I plan your route, not into a form that gets passed to someone else to interpret. I design every trip myself and book it myself, so there's no separate reservations team and no handover between departments. And when you ask me later why day 4 is 18km and day 5 is only 11km, I know the answer, because I'm the one who decided it based on what you told me. It's the same reason I could drop Fernando's place into a few itineraries this year: I'd stayed there, so I knew exactly who it would suit. If something changes three weeks out, or comes up mid-walk, I'm the one who already knows your situation, so I can just make the call.

The walk itself is always yours. You set your own pace, you decide where to stop, and no one can take that part away from you. But everything around the walk, the planning, the changes, the person you turn to when you're unsure, that's where it either feels personal or it doesn't. When all of that runs through a support team reading off a script, you're on a personal journey but being handled like a booking reference, and the two don't sit well together.

People come to me because they want their Camino put together by someone who actually walks it. Not a travel agent who's read about the route, but someone who spends real time on these trails, knows them in the seasons and the weather, and treats the Camino as something more than a product to sell. And when something goes sideways at week one, whether that's a missed bag transfer, a dodgy knee, or just nerves about whether they've bitten off more than they can chew, they can reach a person who has had all the same doubts they're having, many times over, across a lot of Camino journeys, and knows what to do about it. I'm not the cheapest and I'm not the biggest, and the people who book me aren't looking for either.

How I measure success

People sometimes ask how the business is going, and I don't really think in terms of numbers. I count it a good year when someone tells me walking the Camino had been a lifelong dream, and I got to be part of them finally doing it. Or when a walker who wasn't sure they'd make it sends me a photo from the cathedral in Santiago. Or when someone comes back to walk a second route, because the first one left them wanting more. Those are the things that make it feel worthwhile to me.

What it looks like in practice

The best way to explain what I do is probably to show you. Here are a couple of the things a normal week looks like.

I had a walker last year who'd been nervous for weeks about crossing the Pyrenees on the first day, which is fair, it's a big day. So the evening before, I called him. We talked it through properly: what the climb actually feels like, what to do if the weather turned, and the backup transport options if it came to that. He crossed it fine the next day and sent me a photo with his feet up and a beer in Roncesvalles.

Sometimes it's much smaller than that. I'll get a message from someone literally standing at a fork in the trail, deciding between the Litoral and the Coastal route, asking which I'd take given the weather that day and how their legs are holding up. I can answer that, because I've stood at that same fork myself. You don't get that from a database.

If walking the Camino is something you've been thinking about for a while, maybe for a long while, I'd love to hear about it. Get in touch and tell me what you've got in mind, and we'll work out your walk together.

Tierra Trekking Co. is an Australian and New Zealand tour company running self-guided Camino experiences. Our routes include the Camino Francés, the Portuguese Coastal Camino, and the Camino del Norte. Get in touch to find the right route and timing for your Camino.

Hi, I’m Ben

I’m Ben, founder of Tierra Trekking Co.

I’ve personally walked Camino routes across Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy, and started Tierra Trekking Co. to help Australians and New Zealanders experience these trails with practical support, thoughtful planning, and honest advice from someone who genuinely knows them.

If you’re unsure which Camino route is right for you, feel free to get in touch.

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