You might consider asking the hotel where you will be staying in Madrid if they will hold the things you will only use in Madrid, so you won't have to carry them on the Camino.
If you will be flying to Madrid first, you might stay in the same hotel at the beginning and the end and ask the hotel...
We just walked 3 weeks on the Camino del Norte. We had altus rain ponchos and no other rain gear. (New for us.) We ran into rain here and there and chilly weather and they worked beautifully.
We've always brought rain jackets in the past but we did not miss them at all. It's true that you look...
Yesterday, we were walking in the rain on the Camino del Norte between Castro Urdiales and Islares. When the rain stopped, we took off our Altus rain coats and hung them from our backpacks so they could dry while we continued to walk. I thought I'd stuffed mine down far enough so it wouldn't...
This is similar to what we have decided to do. I bought some hi-viz nylon fabric and put an elastic drawstring through one long edge so it can be worn kind of like a little apron when needed. (It's 7 or 8 inches wide, I think.) In this photo, it wraps all the way around to the back around the...
Hmmm. Definitely slow while surfing. I'm having trouble remembering about maps. Probably a little slow but I'm not sure. If you want to use it for maps, you might pre-load the maps when you have wifi.
We have found that T-Mobile's free data in Spain is slow. But, of course, usually you have wi-fi when you need to do heavy-duty use of data so that might not be too much of a problem.
Last time I checked, my T-mobile plan had free data and texts, but calls were 25 cents per minute. I do plan to get a vodafone card for use in Spain. But wanted people to be able to reach me on my T-Mobile phone from the US in emergencies.
We do plan to get Spanish SIM cards after we get there because the T-Mobile data is slow and I think calls are 25 cents a minute (and Vodafone is so inexpensive these days). But, I wanted to be sure my family could use our US numbers as an alternate way to reach us, especially before we get our...
I was wanting to let my family here in the US know how to reach me while I am in Spain. Our T-Mobile phone numbers should work there. Do you know ... if someone is calling me, do they just call my number as they would if I were in the United States with the phone? I.e., just dial the number...
I second the rain kilt. My husband and I had rain pants our first camino and ended up mailing them home. Too heavy and too much trouble to put on and take off. But a rain kilt/skirt is extremely light weight and easy to put on and off. And it works!
Gosh, seems so soon for them to go wrong. I have walked 1000s of kilometers with my Black Diamond Z-Poles and so far they have worked fine. Since they are getting old, I do worry they will give out on me at an inopportune time. Your post is making me worry even more.
You might consider replacing the rain pants with a rain skirt/kilt. The skirt is much much lighter, works just about as well for keeping your legs dry, and is much easier to put on and take off. We ditched our rain pants for skirt for our second camino and never regretted that choice.
It's great to get these good reviews for the Altus. Ours are on order and we are excited about getting them. We've used rain jacket plus pack cover plus waist pack cover plus rain skirt all these years. That system has worked well to keep us dry, plus it's nice to have the rain jacket to use...
In lieu of rain pants, you might consider a rain skirt/kilt. They are much much lighter than the pants, work nearly as well, and are easy to take on and off. (Rain on the camino is often off-and-on and it's good to have things that are easy to take on and off.)
We just ordered an Altus poncho from https://www.tradeinn.com/trekkinn/en/altus-atmospheric-h30-poncho/139758343/p
Thanks to Trecile for giving us the above link for ordering from the US in this thread: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/to-poncho-or-not-poncho.74443/
The only...
Fun thread. We found some super super lightweight plastic bowls at our local dollar store. We take them with us because we sometimes like to have breakfast cereal and fruit in our room for either breakfast or dinner. The bowls have held up for several years.
This site is run by Ivar at in Santiago de Compostela.
This site participates in the Amazon Affiliate program, designed to provide a means for Ivar to earn fees by linking to Amazon