Accommodation Availability

[mohewitt]

My husband and I are planning to walk Camino Frances starting the 1st of September 2023. I was trying to book reservations ahead of time for the first week directly or through booking.com. I am having a hard time finding anything available. Am I too late to be planning for this September? Thanks!

 

[C clearly]

The first week of September is the busiest of the year for people starting in SJPP, and there is often a bed crunch in the first few days as far as Pamplona. It eases at that point as people disperse and there are more options. It also eases at the end of September.

I am confident that it is not too late to make arrangements, although Orisson and Borda might be full. Then you need to shuttle up and back from SJPP, walk a long first day, or maybe just start in Roncesvalles or Pamplona.

What exactly are your problem points? Remember that booking.com has only a fraction of the actual available beds.

 

[C clearly]

P.S. Welcome to the forum! You have come to the right place for help .

 

[trecile]

I am confident that it is not too late to make arrangements, although Orisson and Borda might be full. Then you need to shuttle up and back from SJPP, walk a long first day, or maybe just start in Roncesvalles or Pamplona

Or walk the Valcarlos route.

was trying to book reservations ahead of time for the first week directly or through booking.com

Booking.com does not have access to all the available beds/rooms.
You should contact the properties directly. Check Gronze for a list of all accommodations on/near the Camino. It has contact information.

Camino Francés | Gronze.com

El Camino Francés es el Camino de Santiago en el que confluyen la mayoría de las vías medievales de peregrinación europeas, siendo por tanto el camino de mayor relevancia histórica y el más seguido por los peregrinos. Su punto de inicio, hoy en día, tanto puede considerarse Roncesvalles como...

www.gronze.com

Gronze is only in Spanish but if you use the Chrome browser it will automatically translate to English or the language of your choice.

 

[mohewitt]

The first week of September is the busiest of the year for people starting in SJPP, and there is often a bed crunch in the first few days as far as Pamplona. It eases at that point as people disperse and there are more options. It also eases at the end of September.

I am confident that it is not too late to make arrangements, although Orisson and Borda might be full. Then you need to shuttle up and back from SJPP, walk a long first day, or maybe just start in Roncesvalles or Pamplona.

What exactly are your problem points? Remember that booking.com has only a fraction of the actual available beds.

Oddly enough I was able to find space in Orisson and am waiting for confirmation.

We have decided to take it slow for the first 7-10 days. I am having trouble finding space in Roncesvalles, Zubiri, Uterga and Villamayor. I haven't attempted to find anything past that. I have contacted some places directly.

Can anyone please suggest a work-around? I can also keep checking the closer we get.

Thank you!

 

[mohewitt]

Or walk the Valcarlos route.


Booking.com does not have access to all the available beds/rooms.
You should contact the properties directly. Check Gronze for a list of all accommodations on/near the Camino. It has contact information.

Camino Francés | Gronze.com

El Camino Francés es el Camino de Santiago en el que confluyen la mayoría de las vías medievales de peregrinación europeas, siendo por tanto el camino de mayor relevancia histórica y el más seguido por los peregrinos. Su punto de inicio, hoy en día, tanto puede considerarse Roncesvalles como...

www.gronze.com

Gronze is only in Spanish but if you use the Chrome browser it will automatically translate to English or the language of your choice.

Thank you. I was not familiar with Bronze. I will give it a try.

 

[peregrina2000]

Can anyone please suggest a work-around? I can also keep checking the closer we get.

Did you see @trecile’s comment that booking.com only has access to a few rooms in any one lodging? You will get much better results by contacting the places directly. Many have their own websites, some will read email, you can phone them, and many of them use WhatsApp.

Good luck, but I wouldn’t worry about things being sold out already, though September is an increasingly busy month.

 

[C clearly]

I am having trouble finding space in Roncesvalles

Have you tried the albergue website? If you are looking for a private room in Roncesvalles, the options are more limited. Gronze.com lists the options, including links to Booking.com, but as others have said. Booking.com does not get access to all rooms.

To find the website of the lodging, you should google the hotel name, but the first search results will be the booking sites that have optimized their sites for prominence in google searches. You need to scroll down the search results to find a link to the website owned by the lodging - you can usually recognize this by seeing the name of the site in the URL. For example, this might be the website of Hotel ABC: www.hotelabc...

 

[Rob Hooks]

My husband and I are planning to walk Camino Frances starting the 1st of September 2023. I was trying to book reservations ahead of time for the first week directly or through booking.com. I am having a hard time finding anything available. Am I too late to be planning for this September? Thanks!

Have you tried Hotels.com?

 

[joramos]

Oddly enough I was able to find space in Orisson and am waiting for confirmation.

We have decided to take it slow for the first 7-10 days. I am having trouble finding space in Roncesvalles, Zubiri, Uterga and Villamayor. I haven't attempted to find anything past that. I have contacted some places directly.

Can anyone please suggest a work-around? I can also keep checking the closer we get.

Thank you!

At gronze.com, it lists Roncesvalles-Hotel Roncesvalles +34 948 760 105 or La Posada +34 948 790 322 (Racquel); Zubiri-Albergue Suseia,+34 679 667 603, (Sara); Uterga-Camino del Perdon +34 948 344 598 (Noelia); Villamayor Monjardin-Oasis Trails +34 623 428 215. Buen Camino . . .

 

[WalkingMan]

There is a really good app on the playstore called Camino Pilgrim-Frances,if you click on each location it will give you a list of available albergues plus the contact details,I found it really helpful,has maps aswell

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Have you tried Hotels.com?

I use Hotels.com in the USA, but they don't offer many smaller guest house type properties in Europe, which are less useful when walking Camino routes. Booking com has far more options that work for Camino walking in addition to Gronze.

 

[CindyWalks]

The Caminoteca.com website has downloadable spreadsheets for albergues and hotels. I just took a quick peek at them, but both of these spreadsheets look really useful:

https://www.caminoteca.com/img/cms/list-of-albergues-on-camino-frances-2017.pdf

https://www.caminoteca.com/img/cms/list-of-pensions-and-hotels-on-Camino-2015.pdf

 

[trecile]

The Caminoteca.com website has downloadable spreadsheets for albergues and hotels. I just took a quick peek at them, but both of these spreadsheets look really useful:

https://www.caminoteca.com/img/cms/list-of-albergues-on-camino-frances-2017.pdf

https://www.caminoteca.com/img/cms/list-of-pensions-and-hotels-on-Camino-2015.pdf

I noticed that those lists are from 2015 and 2016, so may not be reliable.

Camino apps like Wise Pilgrim and Buen Camino, along with the Gronze.com website will be more up to date.

 

[Wayfarer1]

I've been using Gronze a little, but I've also emailed a couple of places asking if they did reservations, many of them have come back and said they only did walk ups. To be fair these were the bigger albergues, and I'm not fussy about where I sleep.

 

[trecile]

I've been using Gronze a little, but I've also emailed a couple of places asking if they did reservations, many of them have come back and said they only did walk ups. To be fair these were the bigger albergues, and I'm not fussy about where I sleep.

Gronze will tell you if the place takes reservations or not.

 

[frannie z]

My husband and I are planning to walk Camino Frances starting the 1st of September 2023. I was trying to book reservations ahead of time for the first week directly or through booking.com. I am having a hard time finding anything available. Am I too late to be planning for this September? Thanks!

You’ll find something - good advice to contact establishment directly (even if booking.com says full. Use wise pilgrim app for fuller lists. Try to stay a bit off or away from Bierly book stages.

 

[bks]

My husband and I are planning to walk Camino Frances starting the 1st of September 2023. I was trying to book reservations ahead of time for the first week directly or through booking.com. I am having a hard time finding anything available. Am I too late to be planning for this September? Thanks!

Don't be too concerned about finding accommodation. Have some faith!!! Isn't that part of the pilgrimage? Many places will only take reservations a day before you arrive and most places don't advertise on one of the accommodation web sites. When your walking you can phone for a place the evening before you arrive or even on the day you expect to arrive. In addition lots of places only except people who show up without reservations. Sure you may not always sleep where you want to but that's why your on a pilgrimage!!

 

[Crossroads Travel]

I have an agency and book Pilgrims' accommodations. We have been chatting with our accommodations and a lot of them have told us they are already up to 80% booked for 2024. This year has been challenging I sense that many people due to the past few years are booking rooms to avoid communal sleeping. Good Luck Buen Camino

 

[mohewitt]

The Caminoteca.com website has downloadable spreadsheets for albergues and hotels. I just took a quick peek at them, but both of these spreadsheets look really useful:

https://www.caminoteca.com/img/cms/list-of-albergues-on-camino-frances-2017.pdf

https://www.caminoteca.com/img/cms/list-of-pensions-and-hotels-on-Camino-2015.pdf

Super helpful. Thank you for sharing the links!

 

[trecile]

Super helpful. Thank you for sharing the links!

Those spreadsheets are possibly out if date.

I noticed that those lists are from 2015 and 2016, so may not be reliable.

Camino apps like Wise Pilgrim and Buen Camino, along with the Gronze.com website will be more up to date.