Your Pilgrim's Passport (aka 'Credencial')

What It's For

Your pilgrim's passport is a document that identifies you as a pilgrim, and provides proof that you have walked, cycled or ridden on horseback, the required distance to gain your compostela. It allows you to sleep in the albergues and hostals at special rates. It can also be used to get access to the low-cost pilgrim's menus as well as qualifying you for reduced-price entry to certain tourist spots. On a deeply personal note; it provides a wonderful record of the places that you stayed, and makes for a beautiful, soulful reminder of a special spiritual journey.

How It's Used

Your credencial is a long piece of card, folded over a number of times to produce a mini booklet. At the pilgrim's office, you will receive your first stamp and after that, you will produce it every time you arrive at an albergue or hostal. On payment of your accommodation, you will get a stamp in the passport to prove that you stayed the night in a specific hamlet, village, town or city.

Where to Get it

You can obtain it at the Pilgrim's Office at the start of your camino. You simply find the office, register as a pilgrim, and you will be given the passport for a small fee (currently 2 euros). If you start in a town without a Pilgrim's Office, you should be able to obtain a credencial at the local church, or at one of the municipal albergues. Simply ask around and you should get lucky.

Alternatively, before you leave, you can obtain a pilgrim's passport from the camino associations and confraternities in your country. Be careful, though, as the Pilgrim's Office in Santiago is coming down on some of these associations for charging too much and ruining the spirit of the camino pilgrimage. Check if your home confraternity is towing the line. It is probably better to buy one when you arrive at your starting point.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Your Pilgrim's Passport & Your Compostela

The compostela, which is the certificate that testifies that you have completed the camino de santiago, can only be granted to you if you can prove that you have actually done the camino journey. The credencial, the pilgrim's passport is the proof that you need. There are certain conditions though:

1. If you are walking, or doing it on horseback, you must complete a minimum of 100 km and it must be the last 100 km before Santiago de Compostela. If you are cycling, it must be the last 200 km before Santiago de Compostela. 

2. You will not get a compostela even if you walk, horseback ride or cycle up to 700 km on the camino, and get a bus for the last 100 km. This is because to call it a pilgrimage, the camino must be walked or cycled all the way to the tomb of St. James. The compostela is a Catholic certificate which demonstrates that you have performed a pilgrimage rather than just a hike. Producing your credencial and arguing a different point of view with officials will not help.

3. Until walking the last 100 km, or cycling the last 200 km, it is only necessary to have one stamp per day in your pilgrim's passport. For nostalgic reasons, many pilgrims get a number of stamps during the day, most from the different churches, restaurants and bars in the villages that they walk through. For the last 100 kms, however, you HAVE to have at least two or three stamps a day. This rule is in place to prevent abuse from pilgrims who do not actually complete the camino, but instead get buses and taxis for most of the way. In the past, people have obtained their compostelas on false pretenses. 
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When You Can't Find A Pilgrim's Passport

If you can't find a credencial, don't panic. As long as you have blank paper, you will be alright. What is important is the stamps that you get from your accommodations, restaurants and churches. These prove you have done the camino. If you make sure you get your paper stamped and dated, the Pilgrim's Office in Santiago de Compostela will be satisfied.
Photo used under Creative Commons from juanpol