Yes, we walked from Sept 21rd (SJPdP) till Nov 2nd (SdC) in 2022. I wore shorts every day until we got to Astorga (Oct 19th) then I started wearing my hiking pants frequently.
Jim
As a long-time hiker in the New England (USA) hills/mountains, none of the descents on the Camino Frances seemed particularly difficult. I hope they do not concrete over nature!
We walked 42 days back in 2022, and the last week of walking we were doing shorter days to stretch it out a little bit. Did not want it to end. (We finished on Nov 2nd and we had heard that Nov 1st, All Saints Day, would be very busy in Santiago. So we opted to finish on a quieter day.)...
I walked in the fall of 2022. I found the walking over the last stretch very pleasant. Avoid the guide book stage towns.
The only major stage town I stayed in over the last 100+ km was Portomarin (And I had planned to skip that town too. But the albergue in Vilachá, where I wanted to stay...
My wife and I stayed in Burgette at a nice Pension (Pedroarena Rural House). We broke up the Napolean route into two stages using the Mountain Shuttle, so the extra 3 Kms were no problem.
And we found a collection of fellow pilgrims for dinner at Bar Fronton.
A nice little town!
I walked in the fall of 2022, finishing on Nov 2nd, so the big fall wave was in front of us most of the way. But there were stall many Pilgrims walking.
The only major stage town I stayed in over the last 100+ km was Portomarin (And I had planned to skip that town too. But the albergue in...
Not really accurate, if you are coming from France. Train right into town from Bayonne, two blocks from the old town.
I understand from many posts here, that it is a pain if you are coming from Spain. But if your intended starting point is SJPdP, then plan your travel to get to Bayonne or...
We climbed up in the rain Oct 2022. The trail was no problem in the rain. Looked through all my photos of that morning, this was probably the worst:
Jim
I used WisePilgrim (both for the online map and finding hostels/albergues to book), WhatsApp for texting the for room reservations, the Gronze web site for route planning and accommodation recommendations, and sometimes booking.com (only if I had trouble booking directly). I also used maps.me...
I took the river route two years ago, it was very nice.
I had no trouble following the route. I would think the initial turn to the left after the highway is the most like turn people miss.
I wore silk liner socks under lightweight Merino wool socks (got both at REI in the states.)
Worked great for me, no blisters other than a couple where my toes rub. I put a bandaid on those and then started rubbing Foot Glide between my toes. Worked great walking in low cut Merrill Moab II...
Good luck on your Camino.
I had thought about starting about 1 week of walking before Saint Jean Pied de Port, as way to get some walking under my belt before tackling the Pyrenees.
Did not do this, instead used the Bouricott Mountain Shuttle to break up the mountains into two days...
We splurged in Logrono and stayed in an AC Marriott, outside the old city, for two nights. I asked the Front Desk for a stamp. They said all they had was a stamp with their name and address on it (I think for mail return address).
They apologized for not having an "official" Camino stamp. :-)
OK, somebody needs to clue in those of us who have not walked this route.
I am looking at Gronze and Google Maps satellite view and it does look like there is a viable alternate route crossing the river near a small pond. (Assuming I found the same spot, crossing the Rio Pontinas and going...
We took the ALSA bus from SdC to Porto in November 2022, mostly because there was no transfer like the train trip required.
You could get off at Porto Airport, or the Porto Bus terminal. Both have metro stops.
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