Start in Leon or Astorga?

Dutchwalk53 · Oct 14, 2014

Ok going back and forth with planning my Camino it seems I sadly only have about 15/18 days after arriving from the USA. I do NOT want to rush and enjoy it all (I'm in decent shape and 53 years "young") . I also want to have a 2 day break in Sarria where I might be meeting up with family to join me for the last stage to Santiago. For that stage we want to reserve 6/8 days. My questions is....how boring or nice is the walk between Leon and Astorga ? To win some time I was thinking about maybe starting in Astorga after taking a 1 day "jet leg recovery day" in Leon.
FYI I will most likely do all between June 1st/25th.

jefferyonthecamino · Oct 14, 2014

Dutchwalk53 said:
Ok going back and forth with planning my Camino it seems I sadly only have about 15/18 days after arriving from the USA. I do NOT want to rush and enjoy it all (I'm in decent shape and 53 years "young") . I also want to have a 2 day break in Sarria where I might be meeting up with family to join me for the last stage to Santiago. For that stage we want to reserve 6/8 days. My questions is....how boring or nice is the walk between Leon and Astorga ? To win some time I was thinking about maybe starting in Astorga after taking a 1 day "jet leg recovery day" in Leon.
FYI I will most likely do all between June 1st/25th.

Not that exciting, gets a lot prettier after Astorga

Iamherdingcats · Oct 14, 2014

The best alburgue is in Hostipal de Orbigo... Albergue Verde. `
Do yourself the pleasure of stopping in and having dinner. Plus you can do a yoga class and or have a massage by donation.
I stayed two nights just to enjoy the atmosphere, the love, the wonderful evening meal.
Albergue Verdi, I heard about it last year on my Camino and decided to start in Leon just so I could be there this year.
Truely a Camino gem!

Ellie

Peter Fransiscus · Oct 14, 2014

Good morning , start in Astorga and you have more time to do the walk to Santiago.

tyrrek · Oct 14, 2014

Hi!

I'd start in Astorga to give yourself the flexibility you need. The first half day out of Leon is pretty grim, to be honest. Santiago is well worth a couple of days at the end if you do have spare time.

I know you want to allow plenty of time, but I doubt you'll take 8 days from Sarria. You can easily take a bit longer than guidebooks suggest between Astorga and Sarria, though. This is due to a combination of staying in pretty places like Acebo and tackling the climb up to Cebreiro at the start rather than end of the day.

If you find you're arriving in Sarria too early (and even if you're not), consider taking the detour to Samos. It's a half day from there to Sarria, but maybe could allow it to eat into your two days in Sarria slightly.

Enjoy!

Olivares · Oct 14, 2014

I would start at Hospital de Orbigo. Definitely would not want to miss their beautiful bridge and the villages afterwards are very pretty as well.

As far as getting to Sarria, I took the Samos route from Triacastela, toured the monastery and enjoyed the trail inmensely, gorgeous streams and forrested areas. Highly recommend it.