Calling Albergues

[DLSmith]

What type of phone or plan do I need to be able to call an Albergue to reserve a bed? My phone plan does not provide use while in another country.

 

[Tincatinker]

Change your phone plan. Or do what many do - acquire a pay as you go or prepaid short contract chip when you arrive.
You have the option of sharing your new, temporary, number with essential contacts or not.
Edit: the nice young people in the airport outlet will sort it for you in a few minutes.

 

[trecile]

What type of phone or plan do I need to be able to call an Albergue to reserve a bed? My phone plan does not provide use while in another country.

One option is to change your plan to something like T-mobile that gives you free data while you are abroad, plus calls for 25¢ a minute.

Or you can buy a Spanish sim card.

Third option is to only use wifi calling.

BTW, where in Oregon are you? There are two chapters of American Pilgrims on the Camino in Oregon - one in Portland, and one in Southern Oregon where I'm a chapter coordinator. We help new pilgrims with all kinds of questions like this.

 

[DLSmith]

One option is to change your plan to something like T-mobile that gives you free data while you are abroad, plus calls for 25¢ a minute.

Or you can buy a Spanish sim card.

Third option is to only use wifi calling.

BTW, where in Oregon are you? There are two chapters of American Pilgrims on the Camino in Oregon - one in Portland, and one in Southern Oregon where I'm a chapter coordinator. We help new pilgrims with all kinds of questions like this.

Thank you for the helpful information - I am in Eastern Oregon and did not know about the American Pilgrims on the Camino in Portland - I will check that out!

 

[Saint Mike II]

Hola, I am in the Tinka camp. I have an el cheapo phone - nothing fancy and I just get a Spanish sim as soon as I arrive in country. Either Vodafone or Mobil are probably the best ones (from my experience). Cheers

 

[Katherine Radeka]

+1 for T-Mobile overseas.

My bill was a grand total of $5.25 higher because I could use WhatsApp for calling/messaging albergues and often my phone's free data connection was better than the shared wifi.

I'm also from the Portland, OR area.

 

[KimR]

What type of phone or plan do I need to be able to call an Albergue to reserve a bed? My phone plan does not provide use while in another country.

Most albergues are listed on what’sapp so you can use WIFI at another albergue or at a cafe to contact them - if that is convenient.

 

[lt56ny]

What type of phone or plan do I need to be able to call an Albergue to reserve a bed? My phone plan does not provide use while in another country.

You can convert your plan as suggested by some or you can buy a sim card in Spain as suggested by others. I go to Vodafone. Bring your passport and some cash and you can get a great plan for about 20 euros or less depending on where you are going. If you are on the camino more than 4 weeks you can recharge on your phone. You will get a message and you can recharge in English. It takes about 90 seconds.
If your Spanish is poor or non existent and if you do not have it already download whatsapp. You can communicate through google translate and copy and paste your communications with the albergue. If you know even a little Spanish it is easy enough to make a reservation by phone. Also having whatsapp and your loved ones having it makes it easy to call them or for them to call you for free. If you get a sim card from Vodafone you will have lots of data to use if your wifi connection is poor.

 

[trecile]

Another option is to ask the hospitalero where you are staying yo call for you.

 

[Ellann]

Another option is to ask the hospitalero where you are staying yo call for you.

Hey Trecile so now I am thinking about using my phone for calls and data in Portugal and Spain (no one in their right mind would use international roaming from Australia it is so expensive), and my question is that if Municipal Albergues are for pilgrims only and don't accept reservations, why would I call one in advance? I am tossing up whether to get a sim card or just use Wi-Fi. I also don't want to buy a sim card for both Portugal and Spain. I don't intend on making any other calls.

 

[Tincatinker]

No need to buy separate sims for Spain and Portugal. Yerp (Europe) or at least the EC is all the same place so far as mobile service providers are concerned, whether they like it or not.
If you’re planning to only stay in un-bookables then you have no need of a ‘phone unless you want to pre-book restaurants, train tickets or call your chums.
I used to hike in Spain when the easiest means of communication with home was a post-card. The world has changed. Nothing is compulsory.

 

[trecile]

Hey Trecile so now I am thinking about using my phone for calls and data in Portugal and Spain (no one in their right mind would use international roaming from Australia it is so expensive), and my question is that if Municipal Albergues are for pilgrims only and don't accept reservations, why would I call one in advance? I am tossing up whether to get a sim card or just use Wi-Fi. I also don't want to buy a sim card for both Portugal and Spain. I don't intend on making any other calls.

You are right that most municipal albergues don't accept reservations, but there are many other albergues that do, and some towns don't have municipals. But if you are committed to just walking each day and finding a bed in the afternoon you probably can do that.

Have you checked to see if each town you want to stay in has a municipal albergue?
Gronze lists the albergues, and whether they take reservations or not.

Camino Portugués Central | Gronze.com

www.gronze.com

I would still get a local SIM card though. As a woman walking alone it's important to me to be able to contact someone in case of an emergency. The cost of a local SIM card is quite low for the peace of mind.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

A lot of advice here about buying a SIM once you get to Europe. That's what I would recommend. That will not work for you though if your phone is locked. Your current network provider may have set a software flag in the phone so it will not work with any other provider. Check with your provider as soon as possible to see if you have a locked phone and what you need to do to get it unlocked.

 

[DoughnutANZ]

if Municipal Albergues are for pilgrims only and don't accept reservations, why would I call one in advance?

Generally I just walk and take what I find for accommodation but some people like to phone the municipal albergues to ask them how busy they are so that the person seeking a bed has an idea about what beds might be available.

Of course this doesn't stop a tribe of walkers arriving just after you hang up your call but it can give some indication, particularly if the albergue is in an out of the way place.

If you do this (call ahead) then be aware that the albergue host is probably busy booking people in and may take your call as an interruption to more important business.

also don't want to buy a sim card for both Portugal and Spain.

Tinka's advice is good but be aware, particularly in Portugal, that some SIM cards marketed towards short stay tourists are very cheap BUT
1) Won't work outside Portugal.
2) Can't be recharged.

Stick with the big network providers and ASK if the SIM that you are considering will work outside Portugal and is capable of being recharged when the credit runs out.

The other little gotcha to be aware of is that while your SIM may well roam without problems (provided that you turn on roaming in your phone settings), your contract remains with the provider that you purchased it from and so when it comes time to recharge your credit on the SIM then you can only do that with the original provider.

For example, if you buy a SIM from Vodafone Portugal and you are now in Spain (or France or wherever) then you can NOT just wander into a local Vodafone store and purchase a recharge. Vodafone is a different company in each country and the other providers are the same.

There are various ways around this. The method that I use is to recharge over the internet to the original provider using my credit card. I use Vodafone and they are easy to deal with this way, offering English language interfaces to their websites in each country.

Other ways of dealing with this is to pre recharge before you leave the country so that your account is in enough credit to allow it to automatically roll over to a new billing period.

Another way is to pre-purchase one of those sealed recharge vouchers and don't use it until you need it.

You should always get some sort of reminder to put more money into your account when it gets close to the end of your billing period.

 

[Ellann]

You are right that most municipal albergues don't accept reservations, but there are many other albergues that do, and some towns don't have municipals. But if you are committed to just walking each day and finding a bed in the afternoon you probably can do that.

Have you checked to see if each town you want to stay in has a municipal albergue?
Gronze lists the albergues, and whether they take reservations or not.

Camino Portugués Central | Gronze.com

www.gronze.com

I would still get a local SIM card though. As a woman walking alone it's important to me to be able to contact someone in case of an emergency. The cost of a local SIM card is quite low for the peace of mind.

Thanks as usual Trecile I am a very active planner and have already chosen pilgrim hostels in all places I am stopping except Apulia. Thanks for advice about a sim card. I assume Vodaphone is the way to go.

 

[WGroleau]

What type of phone or plan do I need to be able to call an Albergue to reserve a bed? My phone plan does not provide use while in another country.

I got good service¹ from Google's Project Fi in two dozen countries including Spain. Downsides: it only works on a few phone models, and Google will only ship them to a US address. I didn't try it, but they claim that after you set it up on the phone you buy from them, you can get a SIM card to make it work in another model.

¹meaning calls, text, data worked well. Customer service SUCKED. Plus there's the fact it's operated by NSA's biggest competitor.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

I didn't try it, but they claim that after you set it up on the phone you buy from them, you can get a SIM card to make it work in another model.

I tried it about two years ago. I took the card and transferred the data to my Pixel 3a's eSIM. That worked fine. Then putting the SIM card into my Pixel 2 didn't though. The process requires the SIM/eSIM to be installed on only one device.