Camino primitovo with child

[Elh2o]

Hello Everyone

We are family with 3 year old daughter and we are thinking of doing camino primitivo in the middle of July for 14 days.

we are coming from Ireland to Bilbao by boat and if you know any better short Camino way to Santiago from this side of Spain, please advise.

thank you.

 

[Barbara]

Camino Ingles? Still a bit hilly but how far can your three year old walk? What happens when the child is tired? You need a donkey.

 

[Turga]

Check here for possible routes.
Bringing a young child could, of course, be a challenge, but I guess you are aware of that.
Anyway, buen Camino to you all.

 

[PadreW]

Primitivo is tough at the beginning. Lots of significant altitude changes. Though not impossible, maybe 2 weeks back along the Frances would be more enjoyable.

My training here on the flattest earth God ever made wasn't nearly adequate. But, I'll be giving the Primitivo another go in one month.

 

[Isca-camigo]

I have seen lone mums with a baby in a pram do the Camino Frances, and way back there was an American family came on here and talked about their experience of walking with a child being carried by the father in a child carrying hiking backpack, so it's definitely doable, but I would qualify that by adding in my own opinion it's more manageable on a route with a bit more infrastructure and less challenging sections than the Primitivo, which if you are coming in from the North and want to stay up there, this leaves you with the Camino Frances and most likely starting from Leon(300-310km), for which there is a daily train from Bilbao to Leon or take a high speed one to Vitoria and change for San Sebastian to Galicia train(s) and there is most likely busses as well.
The Primitivo is a stunning route, and some of the reasons why that is because it has very remote sections with less interference from the outside world, so that is a positive but in your case because you can't guarantee that you will be allowed in Albergues with a child, some will some won't, and this is what I picked up from previous pilgrims who have walked with children and that's even if there is space. You need more options to take private rooms than maybe the Primitivo offers , you do find them on the Primitivo, but the options to take them is less than the Camino Frances, + on the Frances there is more options to take a taxi to your accommodation if it becomes too much on any day for your daughter and she needs to be in a calm place in a room.
However I'm going to contradict myself here, it might not seem doable until someone actually does it, whatever you do...

Buen Camino

 

[Pelegrin]

You can do the Primitivo but starting in Lugo that allows to get the Compostela. Before Lugo this Camino is too hilly for your daughter.

 

[Tincatinker]

its all a bit tricky at the moment to find timetabling & tickets but if you are landing in Bilbao consider using the FEVE narrow gauge railway to Santander, Gijon & Oviedo to walk the Primitivo. Though you might need to find a baggage transfer company to shift most of your kit if you're going to hump a three-year-old. Alternatively you could FEVE all the way to Ferrol and hack the Ingles. It takes 3 days from Bilbao to Ferrol with careful planning on the FEVE but the scenery is great.

The FEVE website is here: https://www.renfe.com/es/es/cercanias/cercanias-feve but its not user friendly. As with RENFE's mainline website you need to know where the train routes run and which stations are the termini but if you have a few afternoons to spare (unlikely with a three-year-old) it is all doable.

Happy planning

 

[Vince Rollason]

Hello Everyone

We are family with 3 year old daughter and we are thinking of doing camino primitivo in the middle of July for 14 days.

we are coming from Ireland to Bilbao by boat and if you know any better short Camino way to Santiago from this side of Spain, please advise.

thank you.

Camino Ingles. Ferrol to Santiago is only 120k and much less strenuous than the Primitivo.

 

[lt56ny]

You could start in Porto and do the Coastal Camino. You could stay on the litoral and pretty much be walking on a boardwalk by the beach. It is about 2 weeks from Porto to Santiago. If you have time you can do the Spiritual Variant which adds a day or so but is really beautiful.

 

[Elh2o]

Hi Everyone,

thank you very much for all your replies!
It’s all very helpful to make a decision which Camino we are going to walk with 3 year old.
We have decided to walk Camino French from Leon to Santiago. We are starting 16th of July and will see how long will take us to get there with a child.