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I'm thinking about doing this next year, interested in any feedback. Anyone done it? Any tips? A good experience? Not planning to join an organised trip, would stay in hostels. Thanks 🙂
*waves to Anna. 🙂 A girl that came on our West Country C2C rode it on her own with a Bob trailer. Have unfortunately lost contact with her.
Go for it!
Have you seen this thread?
www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/trails-near-old-sarum
tick, been considering doing this on the tandem
Have done parts of 'it'. Done some of the littoral version a few weeks ago from Arcachon Bassin down to Biarritz. The bits we done where the bits it shares the veloodysee. Other bits I do every day as one of the arms goes 50m past pur house near Grenoble, it's not the normal route though, but one of the feeder arms.
Not really much help was it..... sorry. My wife's dad and his wife did it from their front door near Lyon and back a few years ago. On foot. Still not much help. I'm still sorry.
....walks away muttering.
Drain to the forum please!
I mate has done it the last two years from memory. Lots of knowledge.
Rode the walker's route spring 2012. A good route for simple MTB tour, a lot of easy miles and some really good fun trails. Can be busy with walkers but out of high season it's not too bad, to be expected really. Bikes tend to get out of synch with them anyway so you tend to find a lot of groups early morning then almost none afternoon-evening.
There's better bike routes but the ease of navigation and hostels make it an easy one to try out. We bivvied so didn't use hostels apart from one night - snoring levels were ridiculous so we slept out the rest of the trip.
pics https://www.flickr.com/photos/67338272@N05/sets/72157629830858998/
useful link http://www.caminoforums.com/cycling-camino-de-santiago/
Bit OT, but I watched the film "The Way" the other night, it follows a group walking the camino de santiago. Amazing film, watch it!
Cinnamon Girl!! I have lost your e-mail address in a change of computer. How are you? haven't seen that thread, will check out now.
Thanks for input folks. I fancy an easy, unguided, cheap MTB holiday….. I really fancy giving it a go. Would go out of season. Jameso thanks for links to photos, will have a look at those over the w/e.
I did the same, a few years ago I had a tough summer so just fancied some time on the bike following yellow arrows. I live in San Sebastian so it was a no brainer; four days of riding and bivvying, nothing challenging. I've also done a lot of the coastal route and would recommend that if you have 10 days.
Is the coastal route part of the C de S bob summers? I have googled C de S by bike, but mostly it's tour companies. Will continue to research … 🙂
There are a few established routes. Camino Frances is the most popular, and not great on MTB. Camino del norte takes in the Basque coast and is the one I would do,if you're not pushed for time. It joins the main route later on.
As above, I'm considering doing this by tandem. Transporting tandems is a bit of a pain so really our options boil down to the Bike Bus thingie that goes to Lourdes (join the route at Pau) or get a ferry to Santander / Gijon on the northern coast. Are there enough route variants to make for a pleasant quiet roads / tracks (as opposesd to tech-fest singletrack) ride? I'd imagine that as on our previous tandem trips we'd have panniers which on a tandem don't make for very good riding on technical trails. We'd be using B&Bs though rather than bivvying.
I know someone who has just walked it ....
Just started reading Tim Moore's book about walking it with a donkey. Not sure that that qualifies me to offer advice.
That's a good book!
I know one of the issues riders have had in the past is that walkers (and horse riders) get priority at the hostels, so even if you arrive early on a bike you have to wait until late afternoon to see if any more walkers turn up and grab the last bunk. So probably best to take alternative accommodation.
Done bits of it. We offered trips guided and with luggage transfer but then we got so busy with our mountain bike holidays that I decided to concentrate on that since it's more my passion rather than crunching fire road miles. Mountain biking trips totally sold out this year so we have stopped offering the CDS. There are lots of resources out there, if you use google translate you can get some Spanish blogs. The main CDS, passing through Pamplona is the easiest to follow. It starts beautifully, (although each year it gets sanitized a bit more) but gets less interesting riding wise as you head west. The Camino del Norte is stunning, you pass San Sebastián and head down the coast. It's marked with arrows but the bstd pilgrims seem to love painting those yellow arrows and now there are sections where there are arrows pointing every which way. I hope God takes their graffiti into account and smites those idiots down with a genital pox. The walking route isn't always great for bikes but there are often BTT alternatives marked. The other great option is to do the Camino del Aragon, I think, which passes Jaca. Some beautiful sections there although I've not done it all. It gets you to Pamplona and then you could try and link to the coast and do the Camino del Norte.
Not heard of bikers getting second priority. Certainly not in the places I know bit it might change further west or in the main hostels. Shouldn't be an issue outside the main seasons, although there are always some pilgrims on the path. Hope it helps a bit.
I'd planned this trip based on an Old Roadie I bumped into a couple of years ago. He pretty much came up with whats been said here already, that it's an easy route and roads/trails are fairly rolling undulating stuff. He did it from Santander ferry then got the bus back.
Pretty much how I'll do it too, currently seeking out a Fargo and some panniers, might bivi but probably stay in hotels along the way. 4 days is about right for riding it I'm told, so I'm going to add on some more to take it over a week. I too am looking out of season, fancy Autumn or early Spring..
Interested to hear more about the Arcachon/Barritz route, having lived in Bordeaux and sailing in/out of Arcachon and riding all over the place on the roadie makes me wonder why I've never heard of this..
*off to google I go.. 😀
I used to live in Santiago de Compostela when on uni placement, then I moved to Pau where a lot of the european routes converge before crossing the Pyrenees, so I always fancied doing the trip from Pau to SdC
Ditto all the above plus, as my friends have walked about 5 of the various routes:
The hostals vary between tiny & massive, watch out for bed bugs/snoring/other strange nocturnal noises.
Book yr return flight - Ryanair fly out of Santiago.
Allow more time so you can stop & enjoy the views.
I will do it 1 day, I live in Spain so am acclimatised to the heat - although you do get the extremes on the camino, snow/heat/rain...
Good luck, any questions I can ask my friends
odd - was just looking at this yesterday
http://www.my-bicycling-adventure.com/camino-de-santiago.html
when would be a good time to go including a bit of wild camping - was thinking Apr - Jun?
Thanks all for input. Doug basque v helpful, thank you. Look forward to one of your hols at some stage. On my list!
Two of my team mates completed it recently, here is one of their write ups.
http://vc-moulin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/camino-de-santiago-camino-frances-by-mtb.html
[url= http://www.velodyssey.com/ ]Velodyseey[/url]slight hijack for Bikebuoy: Details of the bike route. The velodyseey is new but the cycle paths are at least 5 years old. Mostly pristine tarmac.
Really interesting links and info, thanks so much everyone! Looks good.
Bloody hell mugs, that's Epic!! I know a lot of the South Brittany Coast very well yet never knew about this route, I clearly have lived a sheltered life 😆
That's a route I'll definitely do within the next three years..
Many thanks !! 😀
I walked in 2006 after a friend's girlfriend spend 45 minutes raving about it at a party. I had an amazing experience. I told my aunt and uncle about it when visiting them in Costa Rica. They've now done the normal route from St Jean Pied de Port 5 times, and have run an albergue as volunteers on several occasions. They're in their 70's.
My advice: walk it. You'll miss much of the experience if you go by bike, since you won't meet the same people for more than an evening at a time.
I have found some really useful websites about this which I thought I'd share as other people were interested.
loads of info about it:
http://www.csj.org.uk
http://www.camino-norte.co.uk/pages/thoughts.htm
I have decided to go for the Caminos del Norte as per bob summer's advice, from Santander to Santiago. Ryanair flights in and out of both.
Just have to work out the logistics of flying with my bike into one airport and out of another! And whether I can put panniers on FS.
Will be interested to hear how you get on. I'd like to ride the Norte route sometime and you can get a ferry to Santander. re logistics, there's a bike shop in Santiago that were helpful in packing our bikes in card boxes and arranging a taxi from Santiago to the airport. I forget the name now but they were a 10 min walk from the centre in the direction you come in on the Camino Frances, a forum or google would find them.
Ok that's very handy to know, thank you Jameso. I'm not going til the 2nd and 3rd week Sept 2015, life logistics means I have to plan ahead at the moment! But I will report back 🙂
Me and my girlfriend are planning to catch the ferry to Santander and cycle to Biarritz in April/May sort of time..
We haven't got as far as a plan to get back yet though 😳
Will be watching this thread with interest