The World’s 10 Most Popular Pilgrimage Routes
Spiritual pilgrimage is making a quiet comeback. Once the domain of monks, saints, and devout believers, ancient religious pilgrimage routes are now being walked by a much wider range of people.
Some go on a pilgrimage in search of healing or clarity, while others walk for solitude, adventure, or as a break from the speed of modern life. Many people find that this sacred unplugged time is life-changing.
Religious pilgrims are still a strong presence, following age-old traditions. But more and more seekers are showing up with no specific doctrine, just a desire to reconnect with something bigger than themselves. The path becomes a moving meditation, a way to slow down and let go.
The appeal is timeless. Walk long enough, and the mind starts to settle. The body works things out that the brain cannot. Whether through forests, deserts, or city streets, putting one foot in front of the other with no digital distractions has a way of cutting through noise.
In a world of constant digital entertainment, walking in silence feels radical. There’s no algorithm keeping you hooked on a pilgrimage. No rush. No need to be anywhere but here. That simplicity is part of what makes pilgrimages so powerful.
Pilgrimage today is both old and new. You don’t need to be religious to walk with purpose. You just need to commit to a path, find your reason for walking and be open to being transformed by the journey.
1. Camino de Santiago – Spain
The Camino de Santiago is Europe’s most iconic pilgrimage. For over a thousand years, pilgrims have walked to Santiago de Compostela to pay homage at the tomb of Saint James. Today, it’s a journey of both spiritual meaning and personal growth.
The most popular route, the Camino Francés, stretches around 800 km from the French Pyrenees across northern Spain. You’ll pass historic villages, ancient Roman bridges, awe-inspiring cathedrals, and plenty of communal albergues where walkers gather over shared meals and stories.
While the route is well-marked and supported, it still requires physical endurance and mental commitment. The simplicity of walking, day after day, creates space for clarity and transformation.
- Duration: 30–35 days (Camino Francés)
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Highlight: Cathedral of Santiago, Spain’s natural beauty and the community of pilgrims
- Cost: $1,200 – $2,000 USD
2. Kumano Kodo – Japan
The Kumano Kodo is a network of pilgrimage trails in Japan’s Kii Peninsula, which have been used for over a thousand years to visit the sacred Kumano Sanzan shrines. It’s a quiet and nature-immersed pilgrimage deeply rooted in Shinto and Buddhist spiritual traditions.
Pilgrims walk through ancient cedar forests, misty mountains, and peaceful villages along moss-covered stone paths. The Nakahechi route is the most well-known and manageable for international visitors, often taking 3–5 days to complete.
Along the way, you’ll find traditional inns, hot springs, and ritual purification sites. This pilgrimage is excellent for people who love forest bathing, or what the Japanese call “Shinrin-Yoku,” as the landscape invites reflection and reverence, inviting contemplation of nature and impermanence.
- Duration: 3–7 days
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Highlight: Shrines, animism, forest bathing trails, hot springs
- Cost: $600 – $1,500 USD
3. Varanasi and the Ganges – India
Varanasi isn’t a hiking pilgrimage but a spiritual immersion. It is one of the world’s oldest living cities and the holiest site in Hinduism. Pilgrims come to bathe in the sacred Ganges River, believing it washes away sins and helps the soul reach liberation.
Every day, you’ll witness powerful rituals along the ghats — cremations, offerings, chants, and the mesmerizing evening Aarti ceremony. Sunrise boat rides on the Ganges reveal a living tapestry of devotion.
This pilgrimage isn’t physically challenging but it can be emotionally intense. A visit to Varanasi is more than tourism. It’s a confrontation with life, death, and the sacred cycles between.
- Duration: 3–5 days
- Difficulty: Easy (urban immersion)
- Highlight: Ganges rituals, sunrise boat ride, cremation ghats
- Cost: $300 – $800 USD
4. The Hajj to Mecca – Saudi Arabia
The Hajj is Islam’s most sacred pilgrimage and one of the Five Pillars of the faith. Every Muslim who is physically and financially able is required to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their life.
Held annually during the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah, Hajj involves a specific set of rituals over five to six days, including walking between the hills of Safa and Marwah, standing on the plains of Arafat, and circling the Kaaba.
It is the largest religious gathering in the world. The scale, devotion, and collective spirit are absolutely awe-inspiring. Due to high demand and logistics, pilgrims must apply and secure visas through official channels.
Note: Non-Muslims are not allowed to perform the Hajj. The Saudi government strictly enforces this rule, and access to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina is restricted to Muslims only.
- Duration: 5–6 days (Hajj rituals only)
- Difficulty: Moderate to challenging
- Highlight: Kaaba, Arafat, Mecca, collective devotion
- Cost: $3,000 – $10,000 USD (varies by country and package)
5. Rumi’s Tomb in Konya – Turkey
Konya is the final resting place of the 13th-century Sufi mystic and poet Jalal al-Din Rumi. His tomb is located in the Mevlana Museum, which draws pilgrims from around the world seeking love, unity, and spiritual depth through Rumi’s teachings.
The pilgrimage is inward more than physical. Visitors sit in silence, recite poetry, and reflect on the Sufi path of surrender and ecstatic union with the divine. The Whirling Dervish ceremonies in Konya are a mesmerizing spiritual practice rooted in Rumi’s legacy.
Konya is easy to reach by train or bus from Istanbul or Ankara. While some walk there symbolically, most visit as part of a spiritual tour or personal pilgrimage.
- Duration: 2–3 days
- Difficulty: Easy
- Highlight: Rumi’s tomb, Whirling Dervish ceremonies
- Cost: $200 – $600 USD
6. Mount Kailash Kora – Tibet
Mount Kailash is one of the most sacred peaks on Earth, revered by Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, and followers of Bon. Pilgrims believe that walking the kora (circumambulation) around the mountain can cleanse a lifetime of negative karma. The mountain itself is never climbed out of respect.
The 52 km kora pilgrimage is usually completed in two to three days and involves crossing the 5,630-meter Drolma La Pass. The journey is raw and physically intense. It is often paired with days of overland travel through remote Tibetan landscapes to get there.
Because of the extreme altitude and spiritual significance, most travelers join guided pilgrimages from Nepal or Lhasa. Proper acclimatization is crucial, and trips often include cultural stops along the way.
- Duration: 2–3 days (Kora only)
- Difficulty: Challenging (high altitude)
- Highlight: Mount Kailash and Drolma La Pass
- Cost: $2,500 – $4,000 USD (guided trip)
7. Lourdes – France
Lourdes is a small town tucked into the French Pyrenees, known around the world for its healing waters and apparitions of the Virgin Mary reported by Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. It’s one of the most visited Catholic pilgrimage destinations globally.
Pilgrims come to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes to pray, light candles, and bathe in the spring believed to have healing properties. The nightly candlelight procession is a moving experience of collective faith and devotion.
This pilgrimage is gentle and highly accessible, including facilities for disabled and elderly pilgrims. Accommodations, group tours, and retreat centers make it easy to plan a stay.
- Duration: 2–4 days
- Difficulty: Easy
- Highlight: Healing baths and candlelight processions
- Cost: $400 – $1,200 USD
8. Via Francigena – England to Rome
The Via Francigena is one of Europe’s oldest pilgrimage routes, stretching over 2,000 kilometers from Canterbury to the Vatican. In medieval times, it was the primary path for pilgrims journeying to Rome. Today, it’s a quiet alternative to the Camino, ideal for long-distance walkers seeking solitude and sacred history.
The route crosses four countries—England, France, Switzerland, and Italy—passing through rolling farmland, alpine passes, and historic towns. Highlights include the Grand St. Bernard Pass, Tuscan hill towns, and finally reaching St. Peter’s Basilica on foot.
Most pilgrims walk sections of the trail rather than the full journey. It’s well-marked in Italy and has a growing network of hostels and pilgrim accommodations. This is a physical and spiritual journey that rewards patience, stamina, and a sense of wonder.
- Duration: 30–90 days
- Difficulty: Moderate to challenging
- Highlight: St. Peter’s Basilica, alpine and Tuscan landscapes, historic cathedrals
- Cost: $2,000 – $5,000 USD (depends on route and pace)
9. Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe – Mexico City, Mexico
This is the largest Catholic pilgrimage in the Americas. Millions of people from all over Mexico and beyond travel to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe every December 12th to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe, who is believed to have appeared to an Indigenous peasant named Juan Diego in 1531.
The image of the Virgin on Juan Diego’s cloak (tilma) is enshrined in the basilica, making it a powerful symbol of faith, identity, and cultural fusion. Some pilgrims walk for days, others crawl the last stretch on their knees as an act of devotion and sacrifice.
The celebration includes masses, Aztec dances, fireworks, and street processions. It’s a moving mix of Indigenous tradition and Catholic ritual that transforms the city into a sacred gathering place.
- Duration: 1–3 days (varies by start point)
- Difficulty: Easy to strenuous
- Highlight: Tilma of Guadalupe, candlelight vigils, Indigenous dances
- Cost: 150 – 250 USD
10. Qoyllur Rit’i Pilgrimage – Cusco Region, Peru
This Indigenous-Catholic pilgrimage takes place each year before Corpus Christi in the high Andes near Ausangate. Tens of thousands of dancers, musicians, and pilgrims climb above 4,500 meters to honor Christ of the Snow (Qoyllur Rit’i).
The pilgrimage merges Catholic devotion with pre-Columbian Andean cosmology. Dancers wear elaborate masks and costumes, shamans perform ceremonies, and young men once carried sacred glacier ice as part of the ritual.
This is one of the most powerful spiritual experiences in South America, but also one of the most physically demanding due to cold temperatures and high altitude.
- Duration: 4–5 days
- Difficulty: Challenging (altitude and exposure)
- Highlight: Night dances, mountain rituals, shamanism, Andean syncretism
- Cost: $200 – $500 USD
A Spiritual Pilgrimage Can Transform Your Life
Something shifts when you walk with intention. The noise of daily life fades, and what’s left is space. Space to hear your thoughts, feel your body, and reconnect with something deeper. A spiritual pilgrimage can break routines in the best way and open doors you didn’t know were shut.
You begin the journey thinking you’re just walking from one place to another. But along the way, you leave behind stories you’ve outgrown. You meet yourself again without the filters. Old emotions surface. Unexpected insights land. The rhythm of your feet becomes a kind of prayer.
Without distractions, clarity comes. You start to see what actually matters. Decisions become simpler. Gratitude grows louder. The longer you walk, the more you realize that the real pilgrimage isn’t out there. It’s what happens inside you.
And when you return, you bring something back. Not just memories or photos, but a quieter mind, a softer heart, and maybe even a new direction in your life. Pilgrimage gives you a before and after. Your life is reframed by the journey.
If you feel the call, trust it. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to start walking. The transformation doesn’t come from knowing where you’re going. It comes from being willing to take the first step and commit.
I have been running mindful hiking retreats for the last 7 years that integrate mindful awareness, experiential learning and community building practices.
I love exploring new places, flying my drone and sharing my adventures on my Instagram.
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