How to plan for daily distances?

[StumbleBum7]

Hi all. I have a couple questions. The biggest one is, how do you go about planning your camino personally? It will be my first one and will be with a friend. I'm trying to find information on how to go about planning our trip so we have a idea when we will finish the camino for our after plans. Is there any sort of interactive planner for routes with places to stay marked on the way so I can try to chart out are 4-5 week route? Reason I ask is we hope to fly into Paris, spend a day or two there. Then travel to the Camino start. While i'd like to do a lesser traveled camino it doesn't seem like it will be possible due to our desire to visit Paris for 1-3 days.

Im wondering how much time it will take us to finish (We will be 20 and 24) so I can try to book plain/bus tickets to either the beach or Madrid to visit there for a few days before leaving.

I'd love to visit the beach but it seems like cost wise Madrid is the best bet since we would have to organize separate travel to get to beach then back to Madrid.

 

[markss]

Don't plan.

One of the best aspects of the Camino is that a great amount of preplanning is not necessary. Let spontaneity be your guide once you are out there. You'll have a much richer experience both during your Camino and thereafter with any post Camino travel. In fact the best options for how to spend any excess time after reaching Santiago very well would not even occur to you now. It's easy enough to figure things out when the time comes.

Buen camino!

 

[anniethenurse]

We are all different and some of us have to have a plan. Another thing is how you can keep to your plan but at least you will know if you walk faster or slower than planned and know approximately when you will reach Santiago.

http://www.godesalco.com/plan

 

[evanlow]

Which route are you walking?

I would say that if it is the Camino Frances then it is easier if things don't go according to plan as there are albergues pretty much 4-5 km apart. For the other routes, just a bit mindful on those long stretches without an albergue.

One can't really plan any details on the Camino, and that's the beauty of it (it is going to frustrate those people that needs to know where they are sleep every night).

Just some guidelines.

1. For the whole camino route, take the distance and divide by around 25 (safe) and no more than 30 (extreme) km to get the number of days required. So some days will be 20 km, others 30 km.

2. Day to day you might stop in a earlier town or walk longer than plan, so no need to go into the details.

3. Just do quick relook to what options you have for the following day, every day. And enjoy your walk.

 

[markss]

I see this as issue of:

1) two people in their early 20s who haven't yet experienced the Camino preplanning timing and stages to determine how much time it will take for walking the Camino and where to go on a post Camino excursion.

Seems to me that this can lead to unnecessary restrictions throughout the Camino just in terms of trying to maintain a predetermined schedule. Further that they may purchase tickets and make plans post Camino when if they had waited they might otherwise have found a variety of better alternatives.

vs

2) Two people in their early 20s, getting out on the Camino, determining their daily distances after they have found an optimum comfort and enjoyment level then going with the flow. Thereafter based on remaining time, deciding how to spend their post-Santiago time.

I do recognize that we need differing level of planning. In this instance I don't see any advantage to planning more than one has to. In fact the more flexible the better.

 

[julie]

It's great fun to plan your pilgrimage and the godesalco website mentioned is an excellent aid. I find the best way is to spend many hours meticulously planning then about three days into the pilgrimage, throw the plan away. That worked for me anyway

It is difficult to imagine before you go but one of the delights of the Camino is not knowing where you're going to end up on any one day. You simply walk until it feels time to stop.

It will be necessary to book your flight home but why not leave your after-Santiago options open at least until you're nearing the end? What you think you might like to do often changes as you walk.

 

[nreyn12]

I have used this document to plan all of my Caminos:

http://www.elcaminosantiago.com/Camino-Santiago-Map-Camino-Frances-Profiles-27-Etapas.htm

It's a bit outdated in terms of showing where the albergues are located, but you can download it as a PDF and print it for easy use. It gives nearly the same info as the godesalco site, but I find it easier to use. My only real advice is NOT to get caught up in following the stages proposed in this document or guidebooks; choose YOUR stages that suit your interests, pace, and new Camino friendships.

This site shows where all the albergues are located, and it looks pretty current:

http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es/albergues/#camino-frances

And finally, there is this slick document that lists all the albergues in a different format:

http://www.caminodesantiago.me/camino-de-santiago-guides/albergues-on-the-camino-frances/

These are all great planning tools, and you then you can adjust as you go once you get the feel of the Camino.

Happy planning and BUEN Camino!

Nancy

 

[dougfitz]

On my most recent pilgrimage, my approach was:

a. determine what average daily distance I wanted to achieve. In this case it was in Norway, and the advice was to aim for about 20km/day. In Spain I averaged about 25km/day without difficulty. As younger walkers, you might want to increase that.
b. on paper or a spreadsheet, develop a day-by-day plan, showing the day's start point, end point, the distance involved, the cumulative distance and the target cumulative distance base the average.
c. for days one walks under target, work out when it might be convenient to walk the catch up distance. Note this is more difficult if the catch up distance accumulates too much, and one might need to contemplate a couple of big days walking. That might not be easy to achieve.
d. I planned for a rest day for every 10 days walking, and for a reserve day for medical or other emergencies.
e. I also planned to spend at least a full day at the end of the pilgrimage (Nidaros in my case, Santiago otherwise).
f. base arrival and departure flight bookings around this.

Then, when I started, I put the plan away. Each evening, I worked out where I wanted to walk the following day or two. Each day, within the constraints of needing to reach a place to eat and sleep, I walked the distances I felt comfortable doing - sometimes it was more than I had planned, sometimes it was less than I would have liked, but going on would have meant a much bigger distance than I knew was comfortable for me.

As I got further into the pilgrimage, it became easier to make up the distance as I got more accustomed to the demands of walking every day. At the start, a very long day left me quite drained. Later, I was able to do several longer days without much difficulty.

Finally, you seem to be thinking like a tourist - visit Paris, do a Camino, visit Madrid and the beach. There's nothing wrong with this, but having met a similarly minded person walking St Olav's Way, getting the most from a pilgrimage requires a different mindset. Whenever I met up with this person, she was more worried about whether she would reach Nidaros in time to get a train somewhere else than she was about what I thought was the wonderful experience of the pilgrimage itself.

Regards,

 

[evanlow]

Finally, you seem to be thinking like a tourist - visit Paris, do a Camino, visit Madrid and the beach. There's nothing wrong with this, but having met a similarly minded person walking St Olav's Way, getting the most from a pilgrimage requires a different mindset. Whenever I met up with this person, she was more worried about whether she would reach Nidaros in time to get a train somewhere else than she was about what I thought was the wonderful experience of the pilgrimage itself.

So right Doug. I knew a couple that did the similar trip. By the time they got started on the camino, their backpack was 2 kg heavier despite restrained from buying any additional unneeded stuff from their trip before the camino. Instead of Pamplona to Santiago, they walked from Pamplona for 3-4 days, then took a train to Sarria and for another 5 days walk in order to get their compostella even though they had time. Because of the mindset, their camino got compromised.

 

[Samantha Davies]

Hi all. I have a couple questions. The biggest one is, how do you go about planning your camino personally? It will be my first one and will be with a friend. I'm trying to find information on how to go about planning our trip so we have a idea when we will finish the camino for our after plans. Is there any sort of interactive planner for routes with places to stay marked on the way so I can try to chart out are 4-5 week route? Reason I ask is we hope to fly into Paris, spend a day or two there. Then travel to the Camino start. While i'd like to do a lesser traveled camino it doesn't seem like it will be possible due to our desire to visit Paris for 1-3 days.

Im wondering how much time it will take us to finish (We will be 20 and 24) so I can try to book plain/bus tickets to either the beach or Madrid to visit there for a few days before leaving.

I'd love to visit the beach but it seems like cost wise Madrid is the best bet since we would have to organize separate travel to get to beach then back to Madrid.

First, you gotta choose the Camino route you want to do. For the first time I'd recommend either French or Portuguese, as they're the easier to follow and with lots of resources for pilgrims. Then, you can either choose to complete the way walking, by bike or do some stages by bus if you don't have much time. Madrid is alright but definitely not on the way of any of the Caminos.

 

[jsalt]

First, you gotta choose the Camino route you want to do. For the first time I'd recommend either French or Portuguese, as they're the easier to follow and with lots of resources for pilgrims. Then, you can either choose to complete the way walking, by bike or do some stages by bus if you don't have much time. Madrid is alright but definitely not on the way of any of the Caminos.

Umm, this is a really old thread - the original poster has not been back since he posted the query over five years ago - I doubt he is still interested . . . .
Jill

 

[Samantha Davies]

Umm, this is a really old thread - the original poster has not been back since he posted the query over five years ago - I doubt he is still interested . . . .
Jill

Oh right hahaha Didn't even check the date! Well still useful info if someone needs it

 

[Athena Atterdag]

Oh right hahaha Didn't even check the date! Well still useful info if someone needs it

I found some useful info in this thread (the link to http://www.godesalco.com/plan , for one thing), so thanks for bumping it

 

[Kiwi-family]

I hope he enjoyed Paris, walked to Santiago and on to Finisterre for his “beach goal”, and topped it all off with a few days experiencing Madrid.

 

[gekaklam]

Well, since this topic was "revived", I'll also mention this website [1], that really helped with my planning.
[1]: http://santiago.forwalk.org/en/

 

[James_Anderson]

We are all different and some of us have to have a plan. Another thing is how you can keep to your plan but at least you will know if you walk faster or slower than planned and know approximately when you will reach Santiago.

http://www.godesalco.com/plan

yes! you are absolutely right. Whenever I plan for the trip. It never successful. So, I decided to not plan anything.

 

[Bogong]

Don't plan.

One of the best aspects of the Camino is that a great amount of preplanning is not necessary. Let spontaneity be your guide once you are out there. You'll have a much richer experience both during your Camino and thereafter with any post Camino travel. In fact the best options for how to spend any excess time after reaching Santiago very well would not even occur to you now. It's easy enough to figure things out when the time comes.

Buen camino!

Markss' is the best advice you can get. Just get out and walk. When you've had enough for the day look for somewhere to doss down. Quite easy on the Frances even in winter but with Covid things could be a bit more awkward. Re return think about skipping or truncating Paris and spend a day or so in San Sebastian. A boutique city and I think it makes Paris pale in comparison. Also reputedly has the best city beach in Europe.

De colores. Bogong

 

[donnercruiser]

Planificador - Camino de Santiago - Godesalco.com

Perfiles altitudinales, planificación de etapas y archivos GPS para el Camino de Santiago.

godesalco.com

May this site helps.

 

[peregrina2000]

This thread was started nine years ago, then was bumped up several times between then and 2019, and now today.

Though old threads may contain a lot of excellent information, this one about planning is based on assumptions that may or may not still be reality as albergues re-open. For starters the Xunta albergues (all public albergues in Galicia) are now taking reservations, unheard of till covid hit. Ivar posted about it recently, see his thread. For the time being, public albergues are pretty universally closed, but plans for re-opening are starting to emerge. It will be interesting to see if other regions follow Galicia’s approach and start allowing reservation. That could really change things.

With albergue capacities still cut dramatically, it remains to be seen how much of the old “don’t plan, just get out and walk” approach can survive.