• Get your Camino Frances Guidebook here.
  • For 2024 Pilgrims: €50,- donation = 1 year with no ads on the forum + 90% off any 2024 Guide. More here.
    (Discount code sent to you by Private Message after your donation)
  • ⚠️ Emergency contact in Spain - Dial 112 and AlertCops app. More on this here.
This is a mobile optimized page that loads fast, if you want to load the real page, click this text.

Have the summer crowds started to diminish?

GerFol

Member
Time of past OR future Camino
2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018. Camino Frances
2014. Camino Portaguese
2016. Camino Primitivo
Hi all,
I'm due to begin my Camino from SJPP in two weeks. Just wondering if the numbers starting have now reduced and if there is less pressure on finding space in the albergues?
Regards,
Gerard.
 
3rd Edition. More content, training & pack guides avoid common mistakes, bed bugs etc
Last year the pilgrim numbers did not taper off at the end of August. August 24 had the most pilgrims of the year. September 1 saw a sudden drop. Weekends had the most arrivals (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), implying a burst leaving Sarria each weekend.

For departures from SJPdP the crowds probably are over by the end of September each year, which is the second busiest departure month for SJPdP.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I only found out at the airport that there is a certificate celebrating the 800 year anniversary for St Francis walking the camino. I walked from stJPDP to santiago finishing in July, is there any way to obtain one from the uk?
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
I think that the Spanish as a whole, not just those walking, head back home in the first week of September. Maybe some of us who live in Spain can confirm this.
 
Adding the reported daily figures from the Pilgrim Office for the last seven days, 13,329 compostelas have been issued (1,904 per day average). That is about 2 1/2 compostelas per minute.

Reports of difficulty finding a bed are supported by the reported number of pilgrims.
 
The summer crowds are fine, especially in the first half of the Camino Francis. Relax and go with the flow, Buon Camino!
 
Join our full-service guided tour and let us convert you into a Pampered Pilgrim!
The first edition came out in 2003 and has become the go-to-guide for many pilgrims over the years. It is shipping with a Pilgrim Passport (Credential) from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
According to my 'modelled' estimates we're just about to start the second annual peak in pilgrims leaving SJPP (the first peak is in spring before a lull during the heat of summer). The good news is that by the time you get towards the end there won't be so many pilgrims doing short Caminos from places like Sarria.

My modelled figures are available here: http://www.caminodesantiago.me/comm...e-the-busy-periods-on-the-camino-frances.114/ They look like daily figures but they're just based on the 2013 monthly published figures with a bit of statistical jiggery-pokery applied, so don't take them too literally on a day-to-day basis.

Buen Camino!
 
I think that the Spanish as a whole, not just those walking, head back home in the first week of September. Maybe some of us who live in Spain can confirm this.

Start of the school year. Anybody needing to send the kids back has to go back also .

Often you'll see airfare and hotel rates that vary by the school holiday schedule. The discount airlines do this. So it pays to check the holiday schedules.
 

Most read last week in this forum