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We were there last year in the fall, when things were quite busy. No problem booking bus tickets once the schedule comes out, a few weeks ahead. You should be fine, but always good to have a backup
Rachel,
Some Options are
1. carballo de Prada
2. Stay in Combarro and walk through Armentiera to Ribodumia ( email oscastanos@oscastanos.eu).
3. Take a taxi from Armentiera either back to Combarro or to Ribodumia and taxi back to Armentiera the next morning.
We found that eating the larger meal around 3 after we were in for the day worked well. Dinner tended to be either tapas or something picked up from the grocery store.
Both Correos and Caminofacil cover the Variante. If Combarro if that is one of your planned stops, go with Caminofacil. They offer luggage transfer there, but Correos does not.
Have you tried Carballo De Prado in Armentiera? ( on booking.com). They will pick you up and then return you to the next morning, there is a family room for 4 if it’s available.
Or you could stay at the monastery de Poio, and then walk 7 km past Armentiera to Ribadumia and stay at Oscastanos...
I have a tentative arrangement with Caminofacil for a reverse transfer from the central to coastal Portuguese routes for 2 days. The quote was more than the regular cost, but was a reasonable cost, would be worth checking with them.
The other option would be to stay overnight in Combarro and then walk through Armentiera and walk a further 7 km to Riboudumia and stay as Os Castanos, ( email oscastanos@oscastanos.es). It’s a small hotel was 60€ for a double room with a great breakfast last year.
We took 5 days to walk from Pondevedra, with stops in
Combarro
Armentiera
Ribodumia
Escrivatude ( just past Padron)
Santiago
Was a nice leisurely walk.
You could bus out to Finnesterre, and the walk to Muxia ( taking 1 or 2 days) then bus back to Santiago. I loved that section
from the boat landing, we walked to Picarana after a nice lunch stop and look around the market in Padron. It’s not picturesque, but made for an easy walk into Santiago the next day.
My strong advice is to NOT include meals if you go with an agency or certainly not dinners. Who knows when your kids will be hungry. We had meals included on my first Camino,and had to wait until 9pm when we saw many appealing places open earlier. With your kids you might want some...
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