central route from porto to santiago august 1 advice

Hola Jimmy - I'm on this route at the moment and there are lots of other pilgrims around. Imho there are sufficient Albergues for you to find a bed and if one is full you can walk onto the next. You can't book municipal Albergues in any event. If you are staying in hostels I'd advise booking.

Buen Camino

John

Do stay at Casa Fernanda it is one of the best examples of hospitality to pilgrims that I have encountered. As so many people want to stay there you will need to 'phone ahead to reserve a place. See the many posts by @Albertinho about Casa Fernanda. Buen Camino/Bom Caminho!

JohnnieWalker said:

Hola Jimmy - I'm on this route at the moment and there are lots of other pilgrims around. Imho there are sufficient Albergues for you to find a bed and if one is full you can walk onto the next. You can't book municipal Albergues in any event. If you are staying in hostels I'd advise booking.

Buen Camino

John

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That means if one albergue is full you will have to walk onto another 10 to 15 kms to the next anyway on the Porto to Santiago leg.
If you start in Lisbon ,count on 20 to 25 kms to find your next albergue.
On the Lisbon leg you will find allmost everywhere a bed so that will not be an issue.
Only the Santarèm hostal could be complete because lots of Fátima pilgrims use this place too. Very popular place. !
On the Porto leg normaly you will find a place.
Concerning Casa da Fernanda. You can reserve a bed but do this on beforehand because it is very popular with pilgrims .it can be very busy there tel.+351 914 589 521. Fernanda speaks english.
Another becoming popular place is o refúxio de la Jérezana in Cessantes, 3 kms after Redondela. Lots of pilgrims forget the noisy,smelly municipal in Redondela and walk a little bit further to this refúxio
Give the name of this refúxio in on Facebook and you'll see why this place is so popular now.

Bom caminho

Albertinho said:

That means if one albergue is full you will have to walk onto another 10 to 15 kms to the next
Bom caminho

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Hola Albertinho - don't be confused you know better than me the growth in accommodation available from Oporto to Santiago - often you may only have to walk a short distance to an alternative if an albergue is full. Gronze and others have comprehensive listings. Of course there are stretches where some forward planning is necessary. I'm just finishing the route and it is great to see the development of the pilgrim infastructure.

Best wishes

John

jimmyd said:

hi all

walking the central route from porto to santiago from august 1 ,have bierleys guidebook ,just puuting it out there do i need to pre book accommodation for the stages ,will the route be very busy at that time ..

thanks

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Did that hike 2 months ago. Plenty of places in larger towns but not so many in smaller ones. You must call well ahead to reserve a spot at Casa Fernanda and it is a must stop albergue.