Del Norte - October 1st start from Irun

[Deleted member 56069]

My wife and I have booked airfare to Madrid for late September. Our first day of walking from Irun will be October 1st. We plan to walk as far as Oviedo. Time constraints prevent us from completing the entire route this year.
This will be our seventh Camino.

 

[Shinobi42]

Don't forget your ear plugs from the start, the quite new albuerge in Irun is quite noisy because it is situated directly beside a roundabout. Buen Camino!

 

[Iriebabel]

Don't forget your ear plugs from the start, the quite new albuerge in Irun is quite noisy because it is situated directly beside a roundabout. Buen Camino!

I stayed in the hotel not far from the bridge to the French side i will post the name in a few minutes


update. hotel Alcazar Irun Centro Cuidad...

some additional info below. From my walk last year

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/live-from-irun-pre-start-to-camino-del-norte.60967/

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/iriebabel-walks-from-ir%C3%BAn-on-the-norte.61072/post-725594

 

[Deleted member 56069]

Don't forget your ear plugs from the start, the quite new albuerge in Irun is quite noisy because it is situated directly beside a roundabout. Buen Camino!

We typically stay in private rooms (if available), pensions or hotels. Bunk rooms in albergues are the last option always. Our overall camino experience became much better once we put this into practice. Not anti-social, but I find I can't really ever get any decent sleep in a bunk room. I get cranky...my wife hates it when I get cranky...

 

[Iriebabel]

We typically stay in private rooms (if available), pensions or hotels. Bunk rooms in albergues are the last option always. Our overall camino experience became much better once we put this into practice. Not anti-social, but I find I can't really ever get any decent sleep in a bunk room. I get cranky...my wife hates it when I get cranky...

I used booking to book up to 2 or 3 days ahead...no issues I only stayed in 2 albergue on the Norte, I walk too slow by the time I would get someplace it would be full. And I was more comfortable in the pensions and or hotel check out my blog (although im still working on the bugs in the links). if you need a list of places maybe I can try to get a list together

 

[Deleted member 56069]

I used booking to book up to 2 or 3 days ahead...no issues I only stayed in 2 albergue on the Norte, I walk too slow by the time I would get someplace it would be full. And I was more comfortable in the pensions and or hotel check out my blog (although im still working on the bugs in the links). if you need a list of places maybe I can try to get a list together

Thanks, but part of the Camino experience for us is figuring it out ourselves each day when we arrive somewhere. Adds some unpredictability, which adds to the adventure! As a result we rarely pre-book any accommodations on any of our Camino's except maybe Santiago if it is our endpoint or airport hotels in Madrid.

 

[Iriebabel]

Thanks, but part of the Camino experience for us is figuring it out ourselves each day when we arrive somewhere. Adds some unpredictability, which adds to the adventure! As a result we rarely pre-book any accommodations on any of our Camino's except maybe Santiago if it is our endpoint or airport hotels in Madrid.

Sure I understand ...well I found when I was walking in spring I had to book ahead due to my injury,Easter and other spanish national holidays. A lot of acomodations were either closed for the winter season or booked up over the national holidays and weekends or booked with other pilgrims although fewer on the Norte.
Buen camino ! Enjoy it it was totally amazing in terms of views and experience on the camino...i still can’t believe I did it and with injury!

 

[Deleted member 56069]

Sure I understand ...well I found when I was walking in spring I had to book ahead due to my injury,Easter and other spanish national holidays. A lot of acomodations were either closed for the winter season or booked up over the national holidays and weekends or booked with other pilgrims although fewer on the Norte.
Buen camino ! Enjoy it it was totally amazing in terms of views and experience on the camino...i still can’t believe I did it and with injury!

We think as well, a October 1st start should put us past the regular peak Camino season. Part of the reason we picked a later fall start date as we understand this is now a busy route in Camino 'prime time.'

 

[Jbirk]

We walked the Norte Aug-Sept last year and stayed in hotels the entire time. We used Booking for reservations and had no issues. We did have to book a couple days in advance in some of the more tourist towns.
We started in Irun and only saw 5-10 pilgrims a day all the way to Santiago and this was considered prime time.
Buen Camino

 

[FSP]

Congrats on your next Camino. I did the norte in 2018 starting on Sept 3 from Irun. Good weather but for a few short lived squalls off the ocean. I would have stayed in the new albergue in Irun but I arrived quite late on the train from Paris and got a little lost in the dark on the way to the pensione I stayed in. I stayed in albergues where there was one. In the first half of the norte I found on most occasions they were full by mid afternoon. It is just not peregrinos vying for space. You will find a large contingent of surfers also booking in for exended stays. You are experienced trekkers so the only piece of advice I can offer is to spend some time on this forum researching the many off road alternatives, they are spectacular and pretty well marked as GR trails and easy to follow. Really, with these well documented alternatives there isn't much reason for some of the complaining you hear about road walking on the norte.

 

[Shinobi42]

There are some really good alternatives to the official camino marked with a white and red strip. This is the coast path. The sign looks like the national flag of Poland. So my companion from the Czech Republic and me joked often "let's do it the polish way!" The first nice piece I know is between Ulia and San Sebastian.
Some impression from there:

https://rheinmainhajk.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/20180910_092820.jpg