isawtman
Active Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Camino Frances, 2022
Ice Age Trail, 2014, 2019
Last year I started out from St Jean on Sept 2, which was one of the busiest days of the year. I barely got a bed the first day of walking and I had to walk all the way to Burguette. September is the busiest month from St Jean. This past spring we had several posts from people having a hard time getting a bed. I think that's going to start happening again after Sept 1. Should be interesting to see what happens. Again, my advice is to book the first 3 nights. That would be St Jean, Roncesvalles, and Zubiri. Pamplona should have enough beds unless there is some sort of event going on. But, if Zubiri is completely booked on the night before Pamplona, I would book Puente La Reina for the night after Pamplona. I didn't do that and again, I just barely got a bed in Puente la Reina. But part of my Puenta la Reina problem was I was shipping some unneeded stuff to the end, and I got a late start after going to the post office (Correos.) So I started from Pamplona at 9 instead of 7. The next night after Puente la Reina, I went to Ayegui where I had booked with booking.com. It's just past the end of the stage which is Estella. At Ayegui, the Albergue wasn't even close to being full. It's the San Cipriano Albergue in a sports arena. It has 3 rooms of 14 bed each, and they didn't even open the 3rd room. So, staying away from the end of the stage is another strategy and of course booking your room is also a strategy. When I was worried about getting a bed, I booked. Otherwise, I just went with the flow. I guess another strategy is not to bring too much stuff and have to ship some of it. You can always buy items in Spain if you need them. So, pack on the light side. Also, many albergues have a shelf or box where other pilgrims left items they didn't want to carry anymore. Or perhaps the items were forgotten at the Albergue. So, there are ways of getting the stuff you may need. You can see exactly what I did for each night here: http://tmanshikes.com/where-i-stayed-on-my-camino-trip/