Hey folks, I learned about the Camino de Santiago quite some time ago and thought it'd be neat to do if I'm ever in Europe. Well, as it turns out, I'll be heading to Germany this summer, and so I was hoping to do the Camino sometime around June while I'm over there.
I'm concerned about cost though. I've seen people say it costs about 30 euros a day, but how long does it take to walk the trail? A couple of weeks? A month? Longer? Also how does one gauge when to book their return flight?
Is the goal of the Camino to hoof it from one hostel to the next each day, or is it safe to camp in the country? I figure hostels cost money and if you camped out, perhaps you could save a bit here and there to bring the total cost down. But I've no idea just how industrialized Spain is (obviously they're a first world country, but I mean free land space that's not built up on). Here in the states there's a lot of open land between each town, but I don't know that you can extrapolate from here to there. Also there's the concern of private property and whether you'll get shot (or dog sicked on your or whatever) camping out on someone's property. I don't know if that's the culture over there but coming from Texas, where you can (though it doesn't really happen except in defense 99% of the time) legally shoot anyone who's trespassing, it comes to mind.
For that matter, just how safe is it to walk the trail? I'll be walking alone, with very little Spanish, so is it doable, or a disaster waiting to happen?
And what do you do for food? Carry around small MRE type meal-in-a-bag type things, stop in towns, or what? Is it even feasible to plan all this out between now and June?
Thanks! I just found this forum and am trying to pour over all this, so I'm sure I'll find a few (probably even all) of my questions asked and answered already, but that will take time. Any immediate help so I can judge whether this is even viable would be appreciated!
I'm concerned about cost though. I've seen people say it costs about 30 euros a day, but how long does it take to walk the trail? A couple of weeks? A month? Longer? Also how does one gauge when to book their return flight?
Is the goal of the Camino to hoof it from one hostel to the next each day, or is it safe to camp in the country? I figure hostels cost money and if you camped out, perhaps you could save a bit here and there to bring the total cost down. But I've no idea just how industrialized Spain is (obviously they're a first world country, but I mean free land space that's not built up on). Here in the states there's a lot of open land between each town, but I don't know that you can extrapolate from here to there. Also there's the concern of private property and whether you'll get shot (or dog sicked on your or whatever) camping out on someone's property. I don't know if that's the culture over there but coming from Texas, where you can (though it doesn't really happen except in defense 99% of the time) legally shoot anyone who's trespassing, it comes to mind.
For that matter, just how safe is it to walk the trail? I'll be walking alone, with very little Spanish, so is it doable, or a disaster waiting to happen?
And what do you do for food? Carry around small MRE type meal-in-a-bag type things, stop in towns, or what? Is it even feasible to plan all this out between now and June?
Thanks! I just found this forum and am trying to pour over all this, so I'm sure I'll find a few (probably even all) of my questions asked and answered already, but that will take time. Any immediate help so I can judge whether this is even viable would be appreciated!