Bull run

[22Andym22]

Would anyone recommend the bull run in Pamplona? Either taking part or maybe just watching from a far. I'm just basically asking if anyone has done it along the way to Santiago and recommend or have any tips for a first timer...?

 

[Mark Lee]

Was in Pamplona on my first Camino just after San Fermin, and my second Camino about a month before. All I can recommend (and that's from people I knew who have been there during San Fermin) is that you make reservations for accommodation now if you decide to be there at that time as they fill up fast and get expensive.

 

[SYates]

Would anyone recommend the bull run in Pamplona? Either taking part or maybe just watching from a far. I'm just basically asking if anyone has done it along the way to Santiago and recommend or have any tips for a first timer...?

Most likely it is already too late for you to find an affordable place to stay those dates. SY

 

[Walter1407]

You cannot watch from far, as the bulls run through the streets. They don't often break through the barriers, but when they do, pray that it's not where you are standing. The luxury places are windows one floor up from the street. But that should even harder to find than a hotel room. If you are in Pamplona at festival time, you should get one of those red scarfs which the locals wear.

 

[22Andym22]

I suppose what I meant from by watching from a far was not get involved in the actual running of the bulls but just in festival it's self. Thanks for the replies... I have an excuse to walk again next year.

 

[naplesdon]

The part of San Fermin that bothers me the most is it has turned into something like the Mardi Gras in NO. Lots of kids, drinking and drunk all night long and streets littered with broken glass. There are other festivals in Spain and France which also feature running bulls, for example the Fete de Bayonne late in July this year.

 

[Al the optimist]

Sagahun does it late May?

 

[Mark Lee]

I was in Puenta la Reina in late July on my first Camino while they were celebrating San Fermin. Not quite the crowds and spectacle that is Pamplona, I am sure, but it was fun to observe and the streets filled up at night, and they ran the steers (not Spanish fighting bulls) during the day. Lot's of celebrating.

 

[naplesdon]

I also was there during their fete. I loved watching the parade of kids walking on tall spiked shoes and pushing things that looked like scooters with bull horns on the handle bars. It is a beautiful festival. Okay so there weren't bull running in the street but the stores and side street were barricaded. I saw those beasts in the trucks they were transported to the town and I for one would not want to meet one face to face. Mark, you are braver than me.

 

[Mark Lee]

I also was there during their fete. I loved watching the parade of kids walking on tall spiked shoes and pushing things that looked like scooters with bull horns on the handle bars. It is a beautiful festival. Okay so there weren't bull running in the street but the stores and side street were barricaded. I saw those beasts in the trucks they were transported to the town and I for one would not want to meet one face to face. Mark, you are braver than me.

They had something like that they were pushing around at night and the horns were on fire and exploding with fireworks of sorts I think. It was cool.
If you notice Don. that photo was taken from a slightly elevated position. The steers, although not the testosterone filled territorial beasts Spanish fighting bulls are, can still do some damage. They are just less interested in working you over. I would jump up on a barricade when they got close, ha ha. I ain't as young and nimble as I used to be.