Accommodation and Obtaining the Credential in Albacete

[handzondeck2]

Hola, fellow pilgrims and greetings from Sydney Australia. I will be walking the Camino de Levante from Albacete to Santiago de Compostela in early April and arriving from Madrid by train early mid week.
My plan is to start out from Albacete on 08 April however, I need to be in Santiago de Compostela on 18th May.
My apologies in advance for some questions about this Camino.
1) Can anyone recommend a pilgrim friendly hostel or hotel in Albacete that won't break the budget.
2) Would it be possible to pick up a credential in Albacete prior to departing or do I need to get one before I depart Australia? and
3) I have walked the Camino Sanabres previously (as part of the VldP x 4 times) and would like to know if it is worthwhile continuing up to Astorga to Ponferrada and then on the Camino Invierno?

I am a fairly good walker and can manage distances of up to 32km quite reasonably.

Thanks in Advance and Buen Camino

 

[KinkyOne]

Hola, fellow pilgrims and greetings from Sydney Australia. I will be walking the Camino de Levante from Albacete to Santiago de Compostela in early April and arriving from Madrid by train early mid week.
My plan is to start out from Albacete on 08 April however, I need to be in Santiago de Compostela on 18th May.
My apologies in advance for some questions about this Camino.
1) Can anyone recommend a pilgrim friendly hostel or hotel in Albacete that won't break the budget.
2) Would it be possible to pick up a credential in Albacete prior to departing or do I need to get one before I depart Australia? and
3) I have walked the Camino Sanabres previously (as part of the VldP x 4 times) and would like to know if it is worthwhile continuing up to Astorga to Ponferrada and then on the Camino Invierno?

I am a fairly good walker and can manage distances of up to 32km quite reasonably.

Thanks in Advance and Buen Camino

Hola!

1) You can definitely find many hostals close to the center in Albacete in 20-25€ range. Less,... I doubt. I slept in Hostal Victoria which had pilgrim discount. I can provide more details but I was there in 2015.
Another idea. When are you plan to get to Albacete? I guess you are continuing Levante from there so no need for sight-seeing, right? If you would come to Albacete early those 20km to La Gineta (or even 40 to La Roda) is completely flat and easy (almost no shade though!!!).

2) The easiest would be to either order it through the forum or contact @JLWV forum member who's with Valencia Amigos de Camino and I'm sure he'll have some idea.

3) If you did Sanabres 4 times then I would suggest you walk up north to Astorga, I haven't done La Granja de Moreruela - Astorga stretch yet but in combination with Invierno which I did walk that's exactly what I would do.

Happy planning and Buen Camino!

 

[Donovan]

Rather old info (April 2014), but at that time the Hostal Atienzar was pilgrim friendly and very reasonable. Also it's well located.
Great camino this. Plenty of interesting towns, lots of castles and wide open spaces.

 

[JLWV]

Hola,
Kinky1 si right, less than 20-25 is very doubtfull.
I have been twice in Hostal Atiensa. Satisfactory.
More options in the resources of this web, and in vieriagrino.com

Ir you are soon in Albacete and can start walking La Gineta is an option at 20 km (accommodation in polideportivo) and there is an other one halfway, hostal Los Gabrieles and hostal Seis Hermanas in a highway area next to Urbanización El Trigal, some hundred meters right of the way. There is a post of Laurie about it.

As far as I know, there is no option to get a credencial in Albacete. It is better to get it before arrival.

Yes, switch to Via de la Plata in Zamora, to Astorga, then Ponferrada and Camino de Invierno is good option. An other one in Zamora is to continue via a way in north Portugal.
Buen camino

 

[handzondeck2]

Hola,
Kinky1 si right, less than 20-25 is very doubtfull.
I have been twice in Hostal Atiensa. Satisfactory.
More options in the resources of this web, and in vieriagrino.com

Ir you are soon in Albacete and can start walking La Gineta is an option at 20 km (accommodation in polideportivo) and there is an other one halfway, hostal Los Gabrieles and hostal Seis Hermanas in a highway area next to Urbanización El Trigal, some hundred meters right of the way. There is a post of Laurie about it.

As far as I know, there is no option to get a credencial in Albacete. It is better to get it before arrival.

Yes, switch to Via de la Plata in Zamora, to Astorga, then Ponferrada and Camino de Invierno is good option. An other one in Zamora is to continue via a way in north Portugal.
Buen camino

Thanks @JLWV. Now that I have the option of accommodation before La Gineta that makes planning a little easier as reports of getting to stay on La Gineta are not favourable.

 

[peregrina2000]

I had spent the night in Chinchilla (VERY interesting, good ambiente, too bad you will miss it), so stopping in Albacete was too short a day. We walked on to La Gineta, but when we got there, we could find no one in the polideportivo and no one in the police station. None of the phone numbers on the door of the police station connected us to a police officer. We had called the ayuntamiento several days earlier to tell them we were coming, and they assured us we could get into the albergue by going to the polideportivo.

Very uncharacteristically in my many years of caminos, we didn’t find anyone in any of the bars or in the plazas who seemed even mildly interested in trying to help us out. So we wound up taking a late afternoon train to La Roda and spent the night there in a pensión. I favored taking the train back to La Gineta the next day to walk those 20 km, but my French companions thought I was nuts, so we walked on. The great compensation was that we then arrived in Toledo a day earlier than they had planned, on a Sunday, and since they needed to go to the post office and Decathlon, that meant we spent a rest day in Toledo. That was amazing and I would highly recommend that!

But back to the topic, if you are going to try to stay in La Gineta, unless things have changed, I would try to arrive on a weekday. But having that train option (I think it was about 6 pm) is a good back-up. And truthfully, those 20 kms didn’t look terribly inspiring as we whizzed by in the train!

 

[KinkyOne]

@peregrina2000 is right that (generally) coming to a village with polideportivo type of accommodation is better during workdays. And even then if you plan to come in the afternoon is advisable to call in advance at least the same morning if not a day before.

For La Gineta I remember from posts (after 2015 when I was there) that the "albergue" is no longer in polideportivo changing room. Still you have to get the key in police station which is on the other side of polideportivo if you are coming from the center/Camino.