Shopping on the Camino

Updated June 2026

Shops you’ll find on the Camino

• Farmacia (pharmacy). In Your health on the Camino I shared the most relevant information about pharmacies,  as well as the difference between farmacia and parafarmacia and the meaning of farmacia de guardia. To sum it up:
  • Farmacia –  your go-to for medicines, with or without prescription, as well as a long list of other items for your personal care.
  • Parafarmacia –  stocks same stuff as in a pharmacy except for medicines – think tiritas and Compeed, creams (sun protection and others), jabón (soap), shampoo and pasta de dientes (toothpaste)… 

 Tip: personal care products tend to be cheaper in supermarkets.

• Frutería (greengrocer’s) – the place to buy fruta (fruit) and vegetables. Loose fruit and veg is sold by weight, so the price you see, unless something else is specified, is the price for a kilo. Let’s say you just want an apple or two; no problem! You pick what you want, they will weigh it for you and you pay for what you take.

• Panadería (bakery) – you can buy pan (bread) here, obviously. But you can also get empanada (savoury pie) and empanadilla (small version of empanada). Many panaderías are also pastelerías (cake shop), so you can also get all sorts of sweet pies, cakes and pastries.

• Supermercado (supermarket) – in the bigger supermarkets you can buy all of the above (except for medicines), as well as other things. If you are in a small town with a small supermercado, your options will be more limited but you are still likely to find a bit of everything.

Do you just need a snack? A panadería or frutería  might be all you need. But if you are planning to cook your meals at the albergue or need non-food items, you might want to visit the supermercado.

Opening times: what you need to know 

You arrive in the next town in the middle of the day, ready to do some shopping, and find that everything is closed).

Why?

Because in Spain, lunch is the main meal of the day. In smaller towns especially, it’s still common for people to go home to eat. Add to that the intense heat in summer months, and it makes sense for businesses to close during the hottest hours of the day. It’s just safer to stay indoors.

So most shops close at lunchtime, which in Spain means any time between 1:30 – 4:30 pm. (And to be clear: this is a lunch break, not a siesta!)

Some shops operate on horario continuo, meaning they stay open all day without a lunch break. This is more common in bigger cities and larger stores like department stores.

A general guide to opening hours

Shops typically follow a schedule similar to this:

• Monday to Friday: morning and afternoon, with a lunch break roughly 1:30 – 4:30 pm
• Saturdays: morning only; it’s common for shops to close Saturday evenings
• Sundays: almost everything is closed, except bars, restaurants, panaderías and pastelerías (mornings only)
• Public holidays: treat these like Sundays. Most things will be closed

Note: Spain uses the 24-hour clock in writing, so don’t be surprised to see shop hours written as 09:00–14:00 / 17:00–20:30.

Banks open mornings only, usually 8:00 am – 2:30 pm, and do not open in the evenings or on Saturdays.

Pharmacies operate an on-call rota so that at least one is always open in each area. Check the notice on any pharmacy door to find your nearest on-call pharmacy.

If you’re starting your walking day early (as most pilgrims do), you’ll find almost everything is closed.

Buy what you need the evening before.

And finally, some useful phrases you can use when shopping

• If you can’t find what you need and want to ask if they have it, you can simply say ¿Tienen…? (do you have?) and add the name of the item you are looking for. For instance, you go into a supermercado looking for tiritas, but you can’t find them. You can ask a member of staff ¿Tienen tiritas?

• If you want to know the price of an item, you can ask ¿Cuánto cuesta esto? (how much is this?) while pointing at it. You can drop esto if you think it’s not necessary because it’s obvious enough what item you are asking about.

• ¿Cuánto es? (how much is it?) is similar to ¿Cuánto cuesta?, but they are used differently. We use ¿cuánto cuesta? to ask about the price of a specific item. However, we use ¿cuánto es? when we finish our shopping, to find out how much the total is.

Are you ready to go shopping on the Camino de Santiago?

Today’s Spanish words

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¡Buen Camino!