San Gil variant between Grimaldi and Carcaboso on VDLP - any experience?

[SioCamino]

Hi all, i'm looking for some information from anyone who has recently walked the VDLP. We will be restarting our VDLP in a week or so from Cañaveral and I've been trying to look at how to break up various stages. Looking at gronze today I saw that there was a variant to take the calzada romana to San Gil on the way to Carcaboso. This would mean not going to Galisteo nor Aldehuela del Jerte.
There seems to be a new albergue in San Gil (according to various local papers online) which opened i think late 2017.
So a few questions!
Has anyone walked this variant? if so would you recommend?
Has anyone stayed at the San Gil albergue? Is it definitely open?
Would it be a shame to miss the other 2 towns (Galisteo and Aldehuela del Jerte)?
Any info on the type of terrain for both routes? I think the Galisteo route may be on the road quite a bit??

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Margaret Butterworth]

You can actually walk to Galisteo via San Gil, though this is not shown on Gronze. Galisteo is interesting to visit as a completely walled town. The San Gil route to Galisteo is better if you want to stay in Hotel Medina Ghaliayah, which is about a kilometre out of town. I saw two señoras from the town doing a round walk from Galisteo towards Riolobos and back via San Gil. They were handing out leaflets for the new Pension Parador in Galisteo.

 

[SioCamino]

Many thanks Margaret