Best Biking route for Camino/ Camino Norte

[Daniel Reynolds]

Hi everyone!

I am new to the forums here.

My wife and I and 2 other couples plan to bike the camino end of September of this year.

We want to start near the France border to enjoy the mountain scenery. Since we are biking we want to skip past the more plain landscape areas. (Especially since we live in Illinois and see flat land all the time.)

I was thinking of heading up north at some point because the pics I see on instagram for Coruna look amazing. Then maybe cut back down south.

Any ideas for a good start place or what parts would be best to skip on the camino?

Any help is appreciated

 

[AdaR]

Daniel, so exciting to be planning your Camino.
My son and his wife started bicycling the Camino in St. Jean Pied de Port (after cycling thru Italy and France). I met up with them in Pamplona September 8th last year, and we enjoyed 21 days of cycling (with a few rest days) to get to Santiago.
Your starting place will likely be dictated by the amount of time you have to spend on the Camino and the pace at which your group wants to ride. An easy formula to determine this is to estimate how many miles you wish to ride each day (we averaged 30/day), and multiply this by the number of days you have available for your camino (don't forget to add rest and sight-seeing days). Use this number to determine your mileage from Santiago, and this will help you decide where to start.
If you are trying to save time and eliminate the "more plain landscape", I would suggest skipping the Meseta between Burgos and Leon. Depending on your pace, that might only cut out 3 days or so. Attached is a photo of the typical scenery in this area. We utilized a taxi from Sahagun to Leon due to severe storm advisory. But there is also a train service that can accommodate bicycles along this route, though it only runs once per day.
I have no info to offer you on the northern route. Sorry.

Buen Camino

 

[Daniel Reynolds]

Daniel, so exciting to be planning your Camino.
My son and his wife started bicycling the Camino in St. Jean Pied de Port (after cycling thru Italy and France). I met up with them in Pamplona September 8th last year, and we enjoyed 21 days of cycling (with a few rest days) to get to Santiago.
Your starting place will likely be dictated by the amount of time you have to spend on the Camino and the pace at which your group wants to ride. An easy formula to determine this is to estimate how many miles you wish to ride each day (we averaged 30/day), and multiply this by the number of days you have available for your camino (don't forget to add rest and sight-seeing days). Use this number to determine your mileage from Santiago, and this will help you decide where to start.
If you are trying to save time and eliminate the "more plain landscape", I would suggest skipping the Meseta between Burgos and Leon. Depending on your pace, that might only cut out 3 days or so. Attached is a photo of the typical scenery in this area. We utilized a taxi from Sahagun to Leon due to severe storm advisory. But there is also a train service that can accommodate bicycles along this route, though it only runs once per day.
I have no info to offer you on the northern route. Sorry.
View attachment 27401
Buen Camino

Thanks!

That is a big help!

 

[Castilian]

Hi Daniel Reynolds! Welcome to the forum!

Any ideas for a good start place or what parts would be best to skip on the camino?

Where to start will depend on the time you have available and your pace. Could you provide some info about it?

IMHO, there's no reason to skip any part beforehand but, of course, it all depends on your approach to the camino and we don't know it (i.e.: we don't know what's your aim; what are your goals). One thing seems clear though: all what you skip is camino that you miss.

We utilized a taxi from Sahagun to Leon due to severe storm advisory. But there is also a train service that can accommodate bicycles along this route, though it only runs once per day.

AFAIK, there are (minimum) 4 daily trains from Sahagún to León that accept a limited number of bikes (the Regional, the Regional Express and the MD trains).

 

[november_moon]

We took the train from Sahagun to Leon also, and there were multiple per day. We took one around does midday and it had quite a few pilgrims on it - walkers and bikes.