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1300 pilgrims a day currently arriving in Santiago. Not heard of any Covid cases at all and I just walked for 28 days. Of course someone will be unlucky but that would also happen if you visit the supermarket at home. And albergues are very low risk after the first few days.
The other day I made a critical comment about food at an albergue. Another pilgrim said I should not complain as it was free.
If donativos are treated as free then there will be no more donativos.
Everyone can afford to donate something. Most pilgrims can afford to donate at least as much as...
Stayed at casa de Trinidad convent in Laredo. Good albergue with most rooms only 2 or 3 beds but....they have a 10pm curfew. Most restaurants don't open until 9pm so it is a bit rushed.
Four of us got back from food and beer at 2245. The cunning plan was another pilgrim inside ready to open the...
sure hot tips....
1. take gr121 along coast at elorriaga/auzoa instead of camino. see camino wise app for map. gr121 is often a good choice tho sometimes longer.
2. take bus from bilbao to la arena as all the walking routes from bilbao are uninspiring. though worth walking to the Guggenheim on...
My experience of current albergue situation on the norte....
It is close to capacity with all the municipal albergues still closed. There are beds but you need to reserve a bed in the morning as distance between albergues is quite long. Also prices are generally going up.
These are where I...
There is a live spreadsheet for the Norte mentioned elsewhere on the forum (link below). I am starting the Norte on Tuesday and aim to walk ideally 25-35km per day. Have a plan for the first 16 nights staying in albergue/hostel accommodation. Not planning to book until each morning - if anyone...
This can be a problem if you need a visa though unlikely if you are from a developed country. You can actually buy a genuine return ticket which expires before you use it for only $14 from onwardticket.com. There are many others offering fake tickets which may also work. I have not tried these...
I use Halifax Clarity credit card and withdraw cash as needed from ATMs. This is the best according to this:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/
Also in portugal ATM fees vary a lot. The cheap ones are liberbank, kuxtabank, ibercaja, espanaduero, unicaja...
Either would be interesting. I would pick Primitivo as I like hills. Also the albergues are definitely open whereas on the Portuguese coastal many are currently closed (at least that was the situation in October - may have changed).
An alternative is to stay a night in Madrid near the airport then take early morning flight to Oviedo and start walking when you arrive. I did that in September.
I travelled in October by train. There is one train a day but with a rather hurried connection in Vigo; or a bus I recall every hour or so. Probably they don't yet have timetables for May on the website.
probably hostels in cities. otherwise yha, couchsurfing.com, airbnb? may be challenging to find places on a specific route outside cities. if you can find others to join you for part of it then that would halve the cost.
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