Walking from Santander on Norte but I want to join the Ingles

[Merger]

Hi all,
We are starting our Camino from Santander at the end of May. We would love to join the Ingles for the last part of the camino but should we leave the Norte and walk along the coastline from Ribadeo, bus it or is there another solution? We have already completed the French Way, so it would be great to approach Santiago from another route. Can anyone give us advice please, any suggestions would help.

 

[Castilian]

Look for info about the Ruta do Mar (aka Ruta del Mar) out of Ribadeo. You can find info about it on the forum (there's a specific area for that route at the bottom of the right column of the "Other routes in Spain" list on the main page of the forum) as well as on other webs.

 

[Merger]

Look for info about the Ruta do Mar (aka Ruta del Mar) out of Ribadeo. You can find info about it on the forum (there's a specific area for that route at the bottom of the right column of the "Other routes in Spain" list on the main page of the forum) as well as on other webs.

Thanks for your advice Castilian. I had a long look at those links and it seems to me that unless you had a good standard of Spanish and an ability to map read, you would probably be in trouble. Would there be a direct train or bus link that can be taken from Ribadeo to Ferrol or A Corūna?

 

[Magwood]

I am about to do just this. Walking through Santander tomorrow. You can follow my blog if you want to know how I get on.

https://magwood.me/el-norte-ingles/

 

[Merger]

That sounds fantastic, will follow you with great interest. Enjoy the rest of your journey.

 

[Castilian]

Would there be a direct train or bus link that can be taken from Ribadeo to Ferrol or A Corūna?

Yes, there are direct RENFE FEVE trains (www.renfe.com/viajeros/feve) from Ribadeo to Ferrol. These are slow narrow gauge trains with lots of stops along the route.

www.arriva.gal has a direct bus from Ribadeo to A Coruña but it just runs on Sundays. The rest of the week you have to change buses in Lugo.

If you don't bother to walk till Vilalba, Arriva has direct buses from Vilalba to both Ferrol and A Coruña. Take a look at their web (linked above) for info about schedules, fares...

 

[Merger]

Yes, there are direct RENFE FEVE trains (www.renfe.com/viajeros/feve) from Ribadeo to Ferrol. These are slow narrow gauge trains with lots of stops along the route.

www.arriva.gal has a direct bus from Ribadeo to A Coruña but it just runs on Sundays. The rest of the week you have to change buses in Lugo.

If you don't bother to walk till Vilalba, Arriva has direct buses from Vilalba to both Ferrol and A Coruña. Take a look at their web (linked above) for info about schedules, fares...

Thank you for that information, it was most helpful. That might be the way to go and we would then have time to get to Muxia and Finesterre. We got to Finesterre last year and we really loved it.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

I took the FEVE train from Oviedo to Ferrol. It was a loooong trip, but the scenery was knockout and the ride very comfortable and enjoyable.

 

[AlanSykes]

it seems to me that unless you had a good standard of Spanish and an ability to map read, you would probably be in trouble. Would there be a direct train or bus link that can be taken from Ribadeo to Ferrol or A Corūna?

I walked from Ribadeo to the Inglés last November. It's a lovely part of Spain, fairly empty at that time of year, but probably much busier in the summer. I enjoyed it very much, with the oldest cathedral in Spain, the highest cliffs in mainland Europe, a mermaid's bay, a pre-Christian pilgrimage site at San Andrés de Teixido, pretty fishing villages, lovely woodland walks and fabulous fresh seafood to eat. On the down side, there are no albergues after the xunta one in Ribadeo (right on the Ruta do Mar) until near Ferrol, so it's more expensive than other routes.

People seem to manage everywhere without speaking Spanish, and I don't think this would be any worse than, say, the Plata. I walked quite happily without maps, other than wikiloc's offline one, which I downloaded. The signage is not very good, or if it is I managed to miss it quite a lot, but much of the path is on a coastal GR with excellent signage, and there are also (some) ichthys signs showing the way to San Andrés (technically, I think, not on the Ruta do Mar, but well worth the slight detour). If you do get lost, you are rarely more than 5km from a FEVE stop, which is reassuring.

This is the wikiloc detail on the trail from Covas to Ortigueira, one of my top days of any camino:

http://es.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=11444063