THank you for this very helpful info. After reading your post, I have decided I will zig zag too. Curious if you read or followed a certain book to decide where and how to zig zag, or did you piece different posts to figure out how to do it. Thanks in advance for any tips in this regard.
I am not the OP but I am following this thread since I am going on or around March 24, and I will make the time to include this in my walk based upon the opinions expressed in this thread.
We did not plan this. We expected to walk the central route, but after two days, which included collapsing from heat exhaustion, we decided we had to make course corrections. And we did many along the way. But this is the kind of peregrinos we have been over the years. We plan in excruciating detail, researching and enjoying the research. But we have never, to my recollection, followed exactly our planned itinerary. After walking our first camino, in which we were three days ahead of our itinerary after the first week, we still aimed for places we wanted to visit, but looked for all the options getting there.
To be frank, on previous caminos, course corrections were course corrections. From Porto, the only way to describe what we did is zigzagging. And to be clear, a few times this required taking buses, which we also found not unpleasant at all. Like the boat ride, you can look all around you rather than down at your feet or what lies immediately ahead.
Read up on the most scenic routes, the most safest routes, the most interesting cities, towns and villages. You may be able to put together an itinerary in advance that you can hold to. But it will be complicated, I can assure you. Bom/buen camino!