Booking Travel while on the Camino

[Camino@robbie]

Has anyone every left your travel plans up in the air while walking the Camino Frances? Here is my situation. I have 21 walking days and will be starting in SJPDP on May 18th. I already have a flight to CDG booked and a train booked to SJPDP. I also have a flight booked home on June 9th from Madrid.

I just cannot decide if I will just walk 21 straight day until I run out of time and take a train/bus from there to Madrid. Or if I will move ahead and end up in Santiago. Should I maybe pre book both a Flight from Santiago and a train/bus from Leon?

I guess in the end my question is will I be able to book travel as I go or do seats fill up and booking 1-2 day in advance is not a good idea. I just don’t want to corner myself into ending in Santiago if things are going well along the way and I don’t want to move ahead.

Thanks!

 

[natefaith]

Welcome to the Forum, Robbie!

I would start out free and flexible and not worry about it for now. As you walk, you'll get a feeling for where you'll want to end up and then can start thinking about booking things to get back to Madrid for your June 9th flight. Even if you book travel a couple days or a week in advance to get back to Madrid, it should be fine as long as you don't mind paying more expensive fares for last-minute seats (if it comes to that).

For example, if you end up in Santiago, there are multiple options to get back to Madrid (bus, train, flight), and you should be able to find something to bring you to Madrid even if you're only booking a few days in advance.

Buen Camino!
Faith

 

[Dorpie]

Hi Robbie,

Agree with Faith, I'd hold off at least until you're a few days in and have a better of how you're getting on. I booked my flight to Madrid three days before I got to Santiago and while it would have been cheaper booking earlier I valued the flexibility and it wasn't much more than €100. Train and bus work too but are much slower.

 

[Fletchonides]

If its not important top you to finish in Santiago and get a compostella (ie. walk the last 100kms), then just walk and see how far you get; 21 days could get you to Leon, depending on how far you walk each day and rest days etc.

 

[Camino@robbie]

If its not important top you to finish in Santiago and get a compostella (ie. walk the last 100kms), then just walk and see how far you get; 21 days could get you to Leon, depending on how far you walk each day and rest days etc.

I go back and forth on my desire to get a compostella. Right now I don't have plans on going back, but of course that might change. It does seem wrong to go over and not end up in Santiago, but I know a bunch of people have done part one year and headed back to complete the journey.

 

[David Tallan]

We had our travel plans in the air when walking. We started on July 7 in Roncesvalles. I knew we needed to be in Buñol, Valencia at the end of August. I was pretty confident that we had more than enough time to do that and there were going to be extra days in between, but I didn't know how many there would be, so I wasn't sure how/where we'd spend them. In the end, we got a ride share to Madrid from Santiago and had no problem making other travel arrangements without weeks of notice.

 

[Fletchonides]

I go back and forth on my desire to get a compostella. Right now I don't have plans on going back, but of course that might change. It does seem wrong to go over and not end up in Santiago, but I know a bunch of people have done part one year and headed back to complete the journey.

We are on our fourth year this year; SJPdP to Pamplona, Pamplona to Burgos, Burgos to Leon, and in June we will finish Leon to Santiago. But Ireland is a lot easier to get back to Spain than North Dakota.