Camino 2021 Holy Year

[Walkingboy]

I have been planning to walk the Camino Portuguese in 2021 but I understand that this is a Holy year and people are already booking accommodation for this year. Would this only be for the period leading up to Easter or does it apply to the whole year. Also I understood that municipal albergues could not be booked in advance. Is this the case and would I be ok for accommodation later in the year in say September/October? Many thanks. Dave

 

[Vacajoe]

The Holy Year is (unsurprisingly) all year. Expect increased pilgrim traffic the entire time.

 

[Bradypus]

As @Vacajoe says the Holy Year is spread over 12 months In any case the special highlight of a Holy Year in Santiago is not so much Easter but the feast of Santiago on 25 July. That is likely to be the most difficult period for accommodation though I fear that it will be an issue for most of the year.

 

[surya8]

Also I understood that municipal albergues could not be booked in advance. Is this the case and would I be ok for accommodation later in the year in say September/October? Many thanks. Dave

It's not possible to book the municipal albergues, you are right here. Sepetember and begining of Oct is still a high season on the Portuguese, at least on the ways from Porto, Coastal or Central. There is more infrastructure available on the Central though, at least close to the end of the season. If you walk from Lisbon though you might be all right withot booking: there is enough infrastructure there now and no crowds of pilgrims. If you want the off the beaten Caminos where you don't need to book anything in the mid of summer then head to Portgues Interior from Viseu: we haven't met a single pilgrim for 9 days till we reached Verin in Spain, I posted about it here https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...port-from-portugues-interior-june-2018.56758/ Or to Camino da Geira e dos Arrieiros from Braga.
All the Portugues routes from Porto are popular throghout the year, we walked the Coastal mid Jan and it didn't look totally deserted either.
Bom Camino!

 

[Thomas1962]

... but I understand that this is a Holy year and people are already booking accommodation for this year.

This is just not true. Hardly any booking can be made for that year already, especially not in albergues. In our albergue we did not get any request, and if we would get any, we would not accept it.
For a short period there was a message here from a commercial tour organisation that 'places were filled up quickly', luckely this message was taken away.
Don't let yourself get carried away with any of these messages.
In the end of the day everyone will find a bed, also in 2021.

 

[Walkingboy]

This is just not true. Hardly any booking can be made for that year already, especially not in albergues. In our albergue we did not get any request, and if we would get any, we would not accept it.
For a short period there was a message here from a commercial tour organisation that 'places were filled up quickly', luckely this message was taken away.
Don't let yourself get carried away with any of these messages.
In the end of the day everyone will find a bed, also in 2021.

Hi thank you for your reply. Its looks promising for a walk in 2021.

 

[Walkingboy]

It's not possible to book the municipal albergues, you are right here. Sepetember and begining of Oct is still a high season on the Portuguese, at least on the ways from Porto, Coastal or Central. There is more infrastructure available on the Central though, at least close to the end of the season. If you walk from Lisbon though you might be all right withot booking: there is enough infrastructure there now and no crowds of pilgrims. If you want the off the beaten Caminos where you don't need to book anything in the mid of summer then head to Portgues Interior from Viseu: we haven't met a single pilgrim for 9 days till we reached Verin in Spain, I posted about it here https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...port-from-portugues-interior-june-2018.56758/ Or to Camino da Geira e dos Arrieiros from Braga.
All the Portugues routes from Porto are popular throghout the year, we walked the Coastal mid Jan and it didn't look totally deserted either.
Bom Camino!

This looks very interesting as I prefer the quiet and not too many other walkers. I had intended to walk from Lisbon so am wondering if there is a route from there to Viseu. Also are there any guide books you could recommend for this route similar to Brieley's guide for other Camino's.

 

[surya8]

This looks very interesting as I prefer the quiet and not too many other walkers. I had intended to walk from Lisbon so am wondering if there is a route from there to Viseu. Also are there any guide books you could recommend for this route similar to Brieley's guide for other Camino's.

Well, the Central route goes all the way from Lisbon via Santarem, Tomar and Coimbra to Porto, so you can walk to Coimbra or even further to Agueda, then head off to Portugues Interior in the direction of Viseu if you wish. Not so sure about the connections there, you can try asking Via Lusitana people, they might know of that. I vaguely remember seeing the line on the map leading to Viseu somewhere but can't be sure. There is a Brierley's guidebook to Camino Portugues Central covering the route between Lisbon and Santiago but there is nothing of the sort for other Caminos. There are informative groups on Facebook though, at least I saw one on Portugues Interior now. I also blogged about it here, you could google translate but pics are international https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...-portugues-interior-from-viseu-my-blog.62881/

 

[Kathar1na]

I'm currently acquainting myself with the Numbers app on iPad, and my aim is to learn without having to resort to the manual . I now have a few quite useless tables and graphs as a result of practicing. One of them is an extrapolation of pilgrims numbers throughout the year 2021. This is an extrapolation based only on numbers and travel patterns in the past, it is not a proper prognosis. But I'm sharing it anyway.

The graph for 2010, the last Holy Year, was also typical for other non-holy years in the sense that it shows a clear peak in August. Since then the graph has become "fatter" because now relatively more people walk in May and September than in earlier years. It is a snapshot of the sections of the Caminos close to Santiago, in particular in Galicia. The corresponding graphs for other sections, for example close to SJPP, would look very different. The impact of the Holy Year 2010, ie increase in numbers compared to the previous year and the following year, was strongest close to Santiago and much much less pronounced close to SJPP.

This extrapolation would indicate that May, June, July and September 2021 would be as busy as August 2019 was. August 2021 would be in a category of its own. I'm predicting 493,509 pilgrims for 2021 .

 

[Bradypus]

I'm predicting 493,509 pilgrims for 2021 .

You and the Xunta are coming up with much the same prediction. But in their case it is also a target and they are working hard at trying to drum up interest and boost numbers. In 1982 there was a Holy Year and a visit by the Pope and they still recorded under 2,000 Compostelas that year. Imagine what a papal visit might do for 2021 numbers! Even without +Francis I think I will be looking elsewhere that year until the fuss blows over