Booking Ahead?

[ebrandt]

We will be starting the Vasco on 14 May. I have never booked in advance for our prior caminos, but on the Vasco there are a number of places we are likely to stay that do not have albergues. One thing I should add is that I have a total ankle replacement and my husband has two disc replacements in his neck. We are very fit, but walking more than 30 km in a day can be difficult for us. So not finding a place and having to walk on could be hard! Having said that, I kind of like to be relatively unscheduled.... So, I have several questions:

1. Do I need to book in advance?
2. Is 24 hours enough? Or should I book from the US before we leave?
3. Are there any pinch points we should know about where booking might be advisable?

Thanks!

LizB

 

[peregrina2000]

We will be starting the Vasco on 14 May. I have never booked in advance for our prior caminos, but on the Vasco there are a number of places we are likely to stay that do not have albergues. One thing I should add is that I have a total ankle replacement and my husband has two disc replacements in his neck. We are very fit, but walking more than 30 km in a day can be difficult for us. So not finding a place and having to walk on could be hard! Having said that, I kind of like to be relatively unscheduled.... So, I have several questions:

1. Do I need to book in advance?
2. Is 24 hours enough? Or should I book from the US before we leave?
3. Are there any pinch points we should know about where booking might be advisable?

Thanks!

LizB

Liz, are you planning to walk the “official” or the Saiatz alternative? And are you planning to go into Santo Domingo or Burgos? I know that this area (at least in the upper Basque part) is extremely popular with day hikers, and I had to do a lot of hunting to find a place to stay on our second day on the Saiatz. It was about 3 km off route (straight down!) but a beautiful little town, Errezil. Actually, I think it was @islandwalker who found me the place.

We did have reservations up to Zegama, I believe, but from there not.

May will not be high tourist time, but I bet there will be plenty of day hikers on weekends at least up to Vitoria.

 

[ebrandt]

We are going to stick to the official route. I’m just a little wary of the Saiatz option with my current knee situation. And, we are going to SDC as Tom wants to visit the Atapuerca dig site on this trip. I’ve made a reservation at Zaraton ( a couple days after Vitoria) where we will stop to break up a long stage. There was only one place I could find. It’s a bit high end and had only 5 rooms, so I decided to reserve it. I was wondering about Tolousa. I’ve written to the one Pension but not received a response. I think I won’t worry about it. There is a big highway hotel there and I suspect it will have rooms if everything else is filled.