[Closed] El Camino

My friend wanted to walk it, but in the end someone drove him in a van, and he just paced up and down in the back the same distance. Does that count as walking it or not?

Yup, El Camino del Norte and El Camino del Norte combined with Primitivo which is what I'd recommend. I've also done half of the Camino Frances.

All very good experiences. The usual joys - the people, the landscapes, the walking, the history, the places you stay in. The usual miseries - the people, finding some days hard, some of the places you stay in, bed bugs (we were lucky), the race to find a bed.

Take a bivvy bag or light tent and you eliminate the biggest headache which is accomodation. If things are looking bad it's nice to ba able to disappear into a local wood rather than put up with snorers, drunks, a water pump running all night, mosquitos, people getting up at 04:30, sick people spreading germs having caught some horror on a plane.

If you don't want to change your life in subtle ways for ever, don't do it.

Do it.

is it expensive?

If you stop in a hotel every night, eat in a restaurant every day then yes. If not no. We walked with a Dane who had no money at all. He begged and sponged off other pilgrims, stayed in donativo hostels and picked up a lady friend who then paid his way. Most students on a budget spend less than 25e a day on average.

Leaving from England on foot the biggest single expense could be your ferry ticket, but having some money will make it a more enjoyable experience..

Edit: as for us, we do what others are doing and spend what they spend when staying in albergé, in donativo we're generous. Sometimes we just walk into a nice hotel and pay the going rate for some peace and comfort.

We did a section of it a couple of years ago (October) starting near Astorga to Santiago. Booked all the stop overs and baggage transfers ourselves (no problem finding places), so we just walked with day bags .Had a great time and I could really get in to the long distance walking thing. We did about 15 miles a day,start early and finished early.Even though it was termed off season, the temperature was good and tbh I wouldn't enjoy doing it in the summer with the big crowds .Quite fancy going back to do the whole route on bike though.

Not looking to do it on a shoestring, but a bit of a budget. Don't' really fancy sending 1500 for a week as some operators seem to charge

Booking, baggage transfers, walking with day bags. That's one of the problems with El Camino, it's become a tourist attraction. EDit: "operators" FFS.

So Charlie, if you are setting out as a pilgrim on a trek that's good for your soul(even if you're not religious) and mucking in with the other pilgrims it will be a very different experience to following a pre-booked schedule. You'll meet people and they'll change your plans so booking anything more than a few hours before is pointless. I turned off my phone for two weeks.

Edit: the idea is of a pilgrimage is that you walk out of your house, lock the door and with a destination in mind then make it up as you go along. Watch "the Way", it might be Martin Sheen and Hollywood but the film treats the idea of a pilgimage sypathetically.

How much of it do you want to do?
We did 5 nights on the walk and 2 in Santiago* at the end.
The walking bits cost less than 800 euros for the both of us.

*we splashed out a bit there though.
Edukator makes it sound grim**,so maybe a good move to do it out of season.

** We had zero grim moments 😉

Edit.. >> I never wanted to be a pilgrim,i just fancied a bit of walking <<

I like your idea Edukator. But some real life constraints apply too. Will probably only have a week, maybe a day or so more. Also some sympathy with fasthaggis, don't want too much grim in pil[b]grim[/b]age.

Was thinking of starting from San Sebastian. But am more open to not thinking about where to end. Take a tent?

So why santiago, Haggis? There are plenty of other places to walk.

As for out of season, there are still hundreds of pilgrims arriving in Santiago in November. I live on one of the French routes and see pilgrims year round. On El Camino Frances May and September are popular as it's not too hot. The coast is about 10°C cooler than Leon in Summer which makes it an increasingly popular choice.

Walking 840kms it's hard to avoid one or two "grim" occasions. I wouldn't even describe them as grim though, "trying" would be my choice of word. Walking 5days with no particular objective other than the next hotel doesn't put you in a state of mind that makes getting there important to you. I did a week around Léon with a mate who was doing the camino in stages. We did the week in typical pilgrim style but it was a very different experience to passing signs with "santiago 757km" and knowing you'd be walking all of them.

A week, how about St Jean de Luz to Deba with St Seb in the middle. After Deba the route goes inland through Guernica which is one place to avoid spending the night. Bilboa is an interesting place though.

Ok, Guernica sounds historically interesting.Why not stay? Bilboa?
And you get to walk across a border.

Guernica has the most expensive shitiest accomodation on the Camino based on two stops there. 80e for a foul hotel room with no breakfast. As for the history, there's not much sign of the place being used for blitzkrieg practice, is there something I missed?

As for the history, there's not much sign of the place being used for blitzkrieg practice, is there something I missed?

Only for Picasso's painting. as a place of significance.

I was in the post office the other day (in Cataluña) and noticed that they are advertising a bag transfer service for €4 a day. They also have a place in Santiago de Compostella to store bikes. I wasn't sure from your post whether you are planning to walk or ride it, riding gives you more flexibility of where to stay and allows you to get ahead of the walkers each day. If you only have a week, I'd favour riding as you'll see more.

walking as it will be a long term intermittent project

Getting ahead of walkers on a bike won't help because municipal albergués give priority to cyclists and you'll have to wait until 2 or 4 by which time they'll be full in season. You'll never be with people for more than a night which is a pity as to me the Camino is as much about the people as anything. If you must use a bike fit a warning device and be careful and courteous as you pass.

As for seeing more, I see much more on foot as I worry less about where I put my feet than my wheels. The tracks are fine on a hardtail MTB (apart from irun - St Seb) but require concentration. A lot of bikers ended up on the roads on the northern route as they got fed up with the mud, rocks, stiles and pushing.

Two weeks ago between Iruna and Burgos:

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You meet some really interesting people. Here's someone quite well known:

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Looks just right

One from the El Camino Del Norte between Zumaia and Deba. A mountain biking weekend rather than walking the Camino but you get the idea.

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El Camino del Norte vs the northern part of the Camino De Santiago? El Camino de Norte is beautiful, certainly on the bits I know which are really between St Jean de Luz and Deba. On bike if you follow the Camino it’s pretty rubbish, but if you know your way around then you can take alternatives and it’s fsntastic cycling on that whole stretch. Even in August there’s no issues with walkers.

You know there are a bunch of alternatives? There is the camino de Aragon which starts up in the Pyrenees. Also the first few days on the northern part of the Camino De Santiago are amazing and that area is a lot cheaper than the coast. I’ve done lots of bits on bike and it’s cool, there are a lot more walkers though which might be cool to have more company while walking but for biking you need to time it right.

Edited with a couple of photos, all biking im afraid!
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Sorry, made a mess of that!

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I was thinking the Northern Route of the Camino Santiago.

Is that the Deba route? and definitely walking

Yes

[url= http://www.icietlanature.com/tour/86-camino-del-norte-from-irun-to-santiago-de-compostela-first-7-stages-from-irun-to-bilbao ]the first seven days from Irun[/url]

I suggest the GR 121 (the coast path) from Zumaia to Deba rather than the Camino, and the new variant via Guetaria from Zarautz. Doug may have alternatives for other bits.

Watches with interest wife and I are planning on walking el Camino 2019...