Cheap at half the price.

[Steve.Belfast]

A travel feature in the Daily Telegraph mentions a 15 day escorted journey along the Camino. Prices start at £3,655 pp. Seems a great bargain.

 

[sillydoll]

Phsew!!
Cheap?
You could get a cheap airfare to Spain and then spend a max of £ 27 a day X 15 days = £405.
Or, if you prefer you can stay in hotels for about £855 on a 15 day camino.
For £2 500 I'll come over and escort you for 15 days!!
Please........

 

[Steve.Belfast]

Sillydoll,
my posting was a bit tongue in cheek. :roll:
But it may seem cheap to Telegraph readers.

 

[sillydoll]

Awe ..... shucks!! I was starting to pack. I would've bargained with you and escourted you for a paltry £2000.

 

[Steve.Belfast]

For £2000 I'd expect to be carried on a palinquin from SJPP to Santiago.

 

[sillydoll]

Indian or Japanese?

 

[Steve.Belfast]

I'm a humane man. Whichever was most comfortable for the bearers. I have no preference.

 

[FatmaG]

Well, Steve,
if I count right, you'll still have plenty of money left...

So, for only 1000 Euros (!!!), I propose my service on your Camino as personal employee (translations from and into Spanish, German, English, French, personal writings, chambermaid service, supplying coffee 'con leche', purchasing food, newspapers, looking for a massage therapist etc) - (excluded these expenses of course).

And you will still have plenty of money economised compared to the 3,600 £ and something of Daily Telegraph.

A really good affair!
I wouldn't hesitate too long...

 

[rbq]

A travel feature in the Daily Telegraph mentions a 15 day escorted journey along the Camino. Prices start at £3,655 pp. Seems a great bargain.

Additional fees for bed bugs. This will impress the "authentic" pilgrims.

 

[Priscillian]

I'll do it for 500! But will need to be supplied constantly from Logroño onwards with Pacharan, Caldo Galego, Orujo, Tarta de Santiago, Ribeiro, Estrella Damn, indecent cheese, Chiperones and Pimientos de Padron, Gallego bread, Pulpo (note: no leftover spaghetti!), and finally, Albariño and those little sticky things they give for free on the Rua do Vilar. On second thoughts perhaps Sil's offer is cheaper!
Does no-one have anything to say, critically, about these "ready-made" Caminos? I find it all very sad.
TS

 

[FatmaG]

All the bed bugs you want - and all of them just for you!
Promise!

My "offer" was just additional to sillydoll's - didn't mean to outplay her...
You will still 'gain' +- 600 £ like this.

And, Priscillian, isn't irony and humour the best critique ???

 

[Priscillian]

Quite right, but I do feel sorry for those people who will lose some of that "unprepared and don't care anyway" feeling that I certainly had. The fun was never knowing what was round the next bend; wondering where you would lay your head that night. Paying someone else to take all the risks for you seems such a waste of money and opportunity. Give your self &500 for two weeks plus Ryan Air and give the rest to charity! Doesn't that make more sense in terms of "Pilgrimage" whatever that may mean?
T

 

[Steve.Belfast]

I'm overwhelmed by these offers from ladies offering to act as dragowoman, and such reasonable fees too...
If I was more a Don Quijote than a Sancho Panza I'd be tempted to take up one of the offers for my next peregrination. But, sadly, I've never been comfortable around servants. I feel as though they're looking down their noses at me.
Seriously, an escorted Camino would seem to me to be like low-alcohol beer or decaffeinated coffee. It would have the appearance of the real thing but something essential would be missing.
For me the real pleasure of the Camino is not knowing what the day will bring. The journey is more important than the destination.

 

[FatmaG]

Steve,
of course this is the best way to be on the Camino- doing every single step oneself, stopping whereever you want, listening to your rhythm...!
(after Sillydoll's post, I was just tempted to join in these surrealistic plannings of 'luxury camino'-proposals; it made me laugh a lot...)

About the decaffeinated coffee, I am not sure - I guess, people who (for medical reasons) can't drink 'normal' coffee might appreciate to drink an 'ersatz'... so, although I don't drink neighter beer nor coffee 'without', we should not judge on people enjoying this...

I might understand that some people cannot (or wish not) do the camino alone (although, to me, they miss a lot of essential experiences), but an offer as the one you talked about makes of a deep, great, unforgetable journey into yourself towards Santiago, spirituality and knowing more from yourself a simple touristic travel (some sort of 'Club Med' for pilgrims)

But what can we do?
In our society everything becomes business - even pilgrimage...

Priscillian, of course you are right with the charity - I am just sceptical, "they" will do it...

 

[sillydoll]

I am planning on going to Russia next year, but, not being an Alexandra David-Neel or Freya Stark, I will take a guided cruise down the Volga.
Perhaps Spain is just as exotic for some as Russia will be for me so we can't knock them for wanting to be escourted on their journey. I know of many people (inlcuding the Dominican nun who walked with me in 2007) who did a guided tour of the camino first before deciding to take the plunge and walk it.

 

[FatmaG]

guided tour is not guided tour...

3,600 etc is far too much and makes me think of Club Med and luxuary tour and everything organized into the details (of course it should be perfect given the price). It is business. Nothing more.

But to find someone to guide you : why not, of course.
(I met someone on my Camino, who in fact had his travel paid to accompany another person who didn't want to do the camino alone - it proved to be quite complicated but this is another story)

Person would ever 'condemn' these people...