Pick your drinking system

We never carry more than 1.2 liters per person. You really don’t need to take more unless you are certain you will be doing a long stretch that will have you walking for more than 4 hours in the middle of nowhere.

There are several systems out there and we’ll highlight the most common ones so you can decide for yourself:

Simple plastic water bottle right from the supermarket shelf

• easy
• light-weight
• not very friendly for the environment…
• no need to clean (don’t re-use it too often though)

Sigg-like aluminum bottles you can refill

• easy and no after-taste
• 0.6 L bottle in each of the side pockets of your backpack is easy to balance
• often carried in a pouch (unless you have trail-access side pockets in your pack) so you can get to your water without taking your backpack off
• easy to clean

Camel bags, Platypus and other hydration bladders

• try them if you want to, here’s why we don’t use them:
• they are not easy to clean
• most of them add a particular taste to your water
• water does not stay as cool as in regular sigg-like bottles
• they take up space in your backpack and refilling is a bit tedious
• they might leak into your backpack soaking your gear
• you can run out of water without noticing it in time!

Filter your own water

• we never had the necessity to filter our own water and you won’t need it on a regular camino

How to clean your drinking bottle

Before you start your trip fill your bottles with hot water (not boiling) and drop a cleaning tablet in it. Follow the instructions for use of the tablets.

You can also throw in one of those tablets that are used to clean false teeth (steradent) or use a solution with vinegar.

We find the tablets most useful because it is easy to just take a few with you in your backpack.

Thoroughly rinse the bottles with clean water and you’re all set.

During the hike you can repeat the process once in a while and we do recommend to rinse the bottles anyway before re-filling them. You can use a plain odor-free washing solution to rinse them more frequently, but we only used the tablets before and after the hiking period and plain water during the hike, without experiencing any issues.

Tap water

As for regular tap water in Spain: it is fully safe to drink it. Yes, it might have a different taste than you are used to at home since there are places where they add maybe a bit more chloride or other substances. If you don’t like the taste just buy mineral water.