Dormitory size & single vs mixed sex

[simeon]

After a recent unsatisfactory experiences I have come to the conclusion that generally as a man a larger mixed sex dormitory with no pre booking leads to a more civilised experience.

 

[trecile]

Care to expand on those thoughts??

 

[VNwalking]

I too am curious, @simeon .
As a woman I have to say that I vastly prefer the (all too rare) gender segregated dorms. Sorry guys, nothing personal, really...but...I can relax, knowing I won't have to constantly avert my eyes from male bodies that I'd rather not see so much of.

 

[C clearly]

Also, I'm curious how the "no pre-booking" improves the experience.

 

[cher99840]

The larger puzzles me. Mixed dorm is OK with me but 80 new best friends is a bit too chummy for my taste.

 

[trecile]

The larger puzzles me. Mixed dorm is OK with me but 80 new best friends is a bit too chummy for my taste.

I also prefer the larger rooms, because when there are just a few people in the room it seems a bit more "intimate". I feel more anonymous in a room with more people.

 

[SabsP]

I too am curious, @simeon .
As a woman I have to say that I vastly prefer the (all too rare) gender segregated dorms. Sorry guys, nothing personal, really...but...I can relax, knowing I won't have to constantly avert my eyes from male bodies that I'd rather not see so much of.

I for one was very happy that I was in a same sex dorm in 2011 at Leon's Carbajal albergue.From my bedbunk I could easily have touched three other persons ( did not do this of course !! )
No sleepingbag was needed because the closeness of all the peregrinas gave body heat enough....
There was a male dorm, one for women and then one for couples.

 

[trecile]

I for one was very happy that I was in a same sex dorm in 2011 at Leon's Carbajal albergue.From my bedbunk I could easily have touched three other persons ( did not do this of course !! )
No sleepingbag was needed because the closeness of all the peregrinas gave body heat enough....
There was a male dorm, one for women and then one for couples.

View attachment 36353

Yikes! That looks like one to avoid!

 

[SabsP]

Yikes! That looks like one to avoid!

In the end I just gave myself over to the fact that it would probably be a tiring night... I was able to sleep though...very surprisingly.The service and the blessings at the adjacent monastery are beautiful.

 

[cher99840]

I also prefer the larger rooms, because when there are just a few people in the room it seems a bit more "intimate". I feel more anonymous in a room with more people.

That makes sense. I am just real uncomfortable in clutter and my experience has been that the larger spaces are more cluttered while the people sharing smaller quarters seem more polite about not cluttering. I'm mostly private room tho so I shouldn't even be in this conversation.

 

[KinkyOne]

The larger puzzles me. Mixed dorm is OK with me but 80 new best friends is a bit too chummy for my taste.

Then you should avoid this one in Najera
https://www.gronze.com/rioja/najera/albergue-peregrinos-najera
The site says it has 92 beds but I remember I counted 100 in 2009:

 

[SabsP]

@KinkyOne so did you count them and fell asleep?
Ah well the windows were at least open.

 

[KinkyOne]

@KinkyOne so did you count them and fell asleep?
Ah well the windows were at least open.

Hehehe, I counted them in the morning because I'm always the last one to leave the albergue. But the air during the night was something I just don't want to remember or experience again. Windows opened or not, absolutely gross... And I have spent a fair amount of nights in mountain huts dormitories in my early years!

 

[cher99840]

Then you should avoid this one in Najera
https://www.gronze.com/rioja/najera/albergue-peregrinos-najera
The site says it has 92 beds but I remember I counted 100 in 2009:

View attachment 36354

Thanks for the heads up for next time. You are correct that I would want to avoid that.

 

[HedaP]

Does depend on how mixed. Lovely big dorm in Pereje, all single beds and as the first to arrive, I had the pick of beds. Alas I was to be the only woman in a room full of men. And even worse it was yet another rainy day in a series of rainy days plus there were a few cyclists. There's nothing quite like the smell of wet pilgrim and long unwashed socks combined with a good whiff of sweaty lycra. I apologised politely to my neighbours, packed my stuff and moved up to a mattress in a beautifully timbered and airy attic. One of my best nights sleep.

 

[KinkyOne]

Lovely spot for sleeping @HedaP !
If you will again walk through Vilar de Mazarife and consider staying at Refugio de Jesus try to take this room which is meant for couples but also for snorers. Not much space beside the bed but still perfect choice:

 

[HedaP]

Lovely spot for sleeping @HedaP !
If you will again walk through Vilar de Mazarife and consider staying at Refugio de Jesus try to take this room which is meant for couples but also for snorers. Not much space beside the bed but still perfect choice:

View attachment 36359

Oh what bliss that would be. And having complete control of a window!
I suspect better chance of learning how to snore than acquiring a partner. I will begin practising immediately!

 

[KinkyOne]

Oh what bliss that would be. And having complete control of a window!
I suspect better chance of learning how to snore than acquiring a partner. I will begin practising immediately!

You don't need to learn how to snore, you can just say a little lie. Very silently

 

[HedaP]

You don't need to learn how to snore, you can just say a little lie. Very silently

@KinkyOne you cannot lie on the camino...well maybe if it is a holy year and you keep your fingers crossed!

 

[KinkyOne]

@KinkyOne you cannot lie on the camino...well maybe if it is a holy year and you keep your fingers crossed!

Believe me that you can and should for the sake of your Camino. But those are just little, tiny, microscopic lies, Heda!!! One visit (a Pagan being smart right now) to a Cathedral makes it all gone. Isn't that so?

 

[MTtoCamino]

Then you should avoid this one in Najera
https://www.gronze.com/rioja/najera/albergue-peregrinos-najera
The site says it has 92 beds but I remember I counted 100 in 2009:

View attachment 36354

OMG I would sleep in the dirt first

 

[HedaP]

OMG I would sleep in the dirt first

Depends on what your options are, how tired you are and how late in the day it is. In Burgos I was given the choice of sharing a "double bed" with a unknown man or a top bunk. I have no shame. I chose the "double bed".

PS I followed the best advice of @mspath and introduced myself to my nice Canadian bedmate before setting up my sleeping bag. And in the morning I thanked him for being such a good bedmate. Poor fellow said he hadn't slept a wink because he'd frozen all night as he only had a fleece bag and there were no blankets!

 

[Laluna]

Wow Heda, I think that would be a little too close for comfort for me!! Maybe he was hoping you would share your blanket?? :O

 

[MTtoCamino]

Depends on what your options are, how tired you are and how late in the day it is. In Burgos I was given the choice of sharing a "double bed" with a unknown man or a top bunk. I have no shame. I chose the "double bed".
View attachment 36361
PS I followed the best advice of @mspath and introduced myself to my nice Canadian bedmate before setting up my sleeping bag. And in the morning I thanked him for being such a good bedmate. Poor fellow said he hadn't slept a wink because he'd frozen all night as he only had a fleece bag and there were no blankets!

When I walked there was a flu bug going around everyone was getting sick & I did leave one over crowded alburgue & I slept on a bench. I did not get sick. Sometimes you move on even if you do find a bed.

 

[HedaP]

Wow Heda, I think that would be a little too close for comfort for me!! Maybe he was hoping you would share your blanket?? :O

I know. I sometimes wonder what I'd have done in his place. I did have a very nice sleeping bag opened up to a quilt.

 

[HedaP]

When I walked there was a flu bug going around everyone was getting sick & I did leave one over crowded alburgue & I slept on a bench. I did not get sick. Sometimes you move on even if you do find a bed.

You've braver than me! I think I'd be calling a taxi and doing booking.com.
Mind you facing fears is quite high is on my list of things to do and one of my fears is being without a bed on the camino. Hasn't happened yet but if it does I have a sleeping bag and plenty of warm clothes. Just don't want to be out there by myself. Do they do double benches?

 

[MTtoCamino]

You've braver than me! I think I'd be calling a taxi and doing booking.com.
Mind you facing fears is quite high is on my list of things to do and one of my fears is being without a bed on the camino. Hasn't happened yet but if it does I have a sleeping bag and plenty of warm clothes. Just don't want to be out there by myself. Do they do double benches?

I think life experience has a large part in dealing with fear. The nice thing about the Camino is you have options simply by having a phone, or the ability to walk to buildings with power/ phone. A simple light weight emergency blanket is something to carry & roll up in if you end up on the ground in the rain. Funny thing how the human body needs no mattress, only the ability to stay warm.

 

[LTfit]

Nájera municipal is actually not the biggest. My first acquaintance with pilgrim life was in the old albergue in Roncesvalles - 120 people in one room! Having never lived with a snorer, it was also an introduction to an amazing chorus. I never knew that people could produce so many different sounds in their sleep! After that initiation every other albergue was luxury, even Nájera.

By the way, being a hospitalera in Nájera was quite enjoyable and the Amigos running it are lovely people. And just a mention about the accommodations there: when I asked one of the Amigos what the average donation was my jaw dropped: 3 euros!!! Be thankful for a roof over your head and a hot shower. Ok enough preaching for the day.

Now @simeon please enlighten us on your OP.

Ultreia!

 

[long trails]

I agree with the OP. I actually prefer large dorm rooms with mixed. The worst experiences I have had in terms of others snoring are small private albergue rooms for men. This is another reason I head straight for municipals, even if they do put younger looking people on top bunks, regardless of their state.

 

[simeon]

Wow. What a thread... The reason for mixed as a male is that from my experience the presence of females in a dorm usually results in males being more considerate. Obviously I don't have any experience of female only dorms. Regarding unprebooked Bigger dorms result there been a less of a chance of a larger groups feeling they own the place and been extremely inconsiderate. 5:10am turning the lights on and talking like it was a train station...... There are usually more people to let them know their behaviour is unacceptable..... I think they learned a few new words from me as I switched the light off again......

 

[CdnDreamer]

In 2015, Portomarin was full, but I was told that Albergue Ferramenteiro still had beds. I rushed there and put down my money and was so happy until a nice woman with a clipboard took me to the beds and booked me into bed #100 and something. It was one room with 130 beds, with just some curtains splitting up the room. I felt like I was in a war zone hospital. The place filled up and I wondered how I would sleep with so many people. At 9 pm the kitchen filled up with huge groups making meals all speaking Spanish. I was really dreading that night. But it was lights out at 10 pm and everyone went to bed and slept silently. It was the end of the first day for all the people from Sarria and I had a great night's sleep. You just never know.

 

[Stivandrer]

Good Simeon, you had everyone guessing, but get your point.
Consideration is everything, Thanks.
This Year I had a night in Punta La Reina where 12 people in a tightly packed room got up, quiet as mice, everybody weaving in and out in passing in the narrow room, no rustling of bags no loud speaking..nice six nationalities, mixed gender, mixed ages, no problemo
- after that a large room in Estella where 20 people coming in late, wined and dined had a large room pinned down with giggles , loud talk, lights on, even after curfew.
Consideration IS everything on the Camino...

 

[camino-david]

Thanks for the heads up for next time. You are correct that I would want to avoid that.

And at Najera Municipal the toilets, showers and kitchen are totally inadequate, and it looks like a transportable from the outside-horrible

 

[ranthr]

Hehehe, I counted them in the morning because I'm always the last one to leave the albergue. But the air during the night was something I just don't want to remember or experience again. Windows opened or not, absolutely gross... And I have spent a fair amount of nights in mountain huts dormitories in my early years!

Stayed there once in 2005 and never since.

 

[simeon]

Excepting of course when the "dormatory" is a single room with a ensuite with a bath and fluffy white towels!

 

[Paladina]

Does depend on how mixed. Lovely big dorm in Pereje, all single beds and as the first to arrive, I had the pick of beds. Alas I was to be the only woman in a room full of men. And even worse it was yet another rainy day in a series of rainy days plus there were a few cyclists. There's nothing quite like the smell of wet pilgrim and long unwashed socks combined with a good whiff of sweaty lycra. I apologised politely to my neighbours, packed my stuff and moved up to a mattress in a beautifully timbered and airy attic. One of my best nights sleep.
View attachment 36357 View attachment 36358

I was also grateful for the absence of bunks in this splendid albergue, but my choice of bed was restricted by prebooking pilgrims who never showed up, so the dorm remained fragrant. Incidentally, are cyclists of either sex any dirtier and smellier than walkers? Lycra lends itself more easily than cotton to washing and wearing again the following day. The only really malodorous pilgrim I encountered (in another albergue) was a middle-aged female walker in in urgent need of a shower. Either from chivalry or self-interest, the men graciously ceded their place in the queue for the only functioning bathroom.

 

[Gillyweb]

Believe me that you can and should for the sake of your Camino. But those are just little, tiny, microscopic lies, Heda!!! One visit (a Pagan being smart right now) to a Cathedral makes it all gone. Isn't that so?