Back on the forum and fingers crossed I won’t be “bumped out” today! This post is in response to the question from
OzViking about which tour provider I settled on for my Camino experience in May-June 2015.
Based on my own needs and budget and I came to the conclusion that the best option for me was to use a tour provider (and I figure you have already read through the conversation so I won’t go back over it). I originally found around 10 providers and eliminated some of those because they:
A) Were too expensive
B) Didn’t offer the full French Way
C) Appeared to cater for groups and not individuals or
D) Focused less on the walking and more on high-end accommodation and exquisite gourmet food (which sounded lovely but not for me)
E) Included lots of additional side trips
As mentioned, I wanted a supported (self-guided) tour and don’t necessarily need to travel with the same group all the way either. Not to say I won’t enjoy joining groups but I can also exercise flexibility.
I listened to and enjoyed some old Rick Steves podcasts I found in iTunes (he loves Spain) and I found a Spanish provider who sounded perfect. But because my trip was 18 months away he was reluctant to give me an estimate and was also too busy at the time. When it got closer, I reminded him, however he didn’t follow up (so unfortunately that provider missed out). Most of the providers had a strong connection to Spain and a sincere appreciation of walking (and while they are selling a product,) the ones with careful marketing that reached out and appealed to my own values were the ones that got into the next round so to speak.
I got the list down to four final contenders listed below:
1.
Follow the Camino
2.
Macs Adventures
3.
Camino Ways
4.
Frontier Holidays
Based on the criteria of what I deemed important, I then assessed each of the four providers on
1. Cost
2. Website
3. Responsiveness to follow up questions
4. Testimonials
5. Itinerary and
6. Free Wifi (not essential but as I will be writing a blog it was somewhat important to me)
To be honest I assigned a value against each of the criteria and scored each of them on a rating of 1-10. A bit like someone would conduct a tender evaluation. On many aspects the ratings were the same score for all four providers and there wasn’t much between first and last – 4 points in fact. The costs were assessed on an average daily rate over the full period and they were very similar and competitive. Yes, I probably could have done it myself but I want to enjoy my walking and not spend hours researching and booking travel before I leave or while I am in Spain. As I mentioned previously, I find it refreshing to hand over the organising to someone else because most of my life so far has been about organising others.
Interestingly, out of these four providers two where based in Dublin and the other two were based in Glasgow. (However many have offices around the globe). I have since discovered there are more providers in the US but my “search-engine” didn’t push me in that direction.
I settled on
Follow the Camino – the very first website I stumbled across when the idea of walking the Camino first popped into my head back in December 2012. I considered my options for around 13 months and paid my deposit only a few weeks ago. “The proof of the pudding will be in the pot” as they say but this is what I came up with and I am happy with my decision and equally happy to share with other interested folk like yourself.
I continue to enjoy my preparation (which is now placing the organising in the capable hands of a third party) and to continue with my own local walking adventures. I will also be researching equipment and developing my photographic and writing / blogging skills so I can share my adventures with my support crew at home. In October I am going to walk The Six Foot Track, in the Blue Mountains (not nearly as long as your amazing Bibbulmun track but something I am looking forward to) In the meantime I continue to discover and rediscover many beautiful walks here in the Australian Capital Territory. I am dreaming also of my next Camino in 2018 (with my son) and we are talking about the Northern Way.
Life is such an adventure and I have learnt many things from the forum. It was perhaps naïve of me, but I didn’t anticipate there would be so many people questioning why I would want to choose a tour provider – and so few comments about how to choose a good one and ones to watch out for. I did however get some very comforting personal messages in my in-box and an invitation to join a local group who are really lovely. I will continue to learn a great deal from them. I work full time, have a very active young son in his final years of school. I will take up more part time study this year and enjoy my own very busy social and active life with my partner. The fact I have handed a small part of my Camino experience over to tour provider does not mean my Camino experience and the life-lessons will be any less authentic than someone who stays in an allbergue and has a more spontaneous less-planned and most definitely less expensive journey. I am still going to be walking around 900kms and I will still worship in the same beautiful places and get my passport stamped each day and receive my Compostela and attend mass where ever I can.
I hope this has been useful and good luck on your Camino pilgrim xx
