July crowds and CF vs. VdlP

[Steve S]

Hola, peregrinos

My son and I have been intending to walk the CF from Leon or Astorga to Santiago from July 9-24. We want to be in Santiago for the feast day, and my son's birthday is the 24th. He'll turn 17, and we are hoping that this will be not only a spiritual/religious journey (at least for me) but also a father-son bonding experience.

After reading about the crowds, and anticipating that July will be the busiest time yet, we're seriously reconsidering our route. We're both Camino "babies," so we need advice from the experts. We're thinking about walking the Via de la Plata from Puebla de Sanabria to Santiago (about 250 km, same as Astorga-Santiago). On the one hand, I don't want to have a potentially special experience spoiled by the overcrowding on the CF, but on the other hand the CF has such a hold on the imagination because of the history and things like the Cruz de Ferro, etc.

Does anyone have any insight/advice about the pros and/or cons of walking the last 250 km of either the CF or VdlP in July? Just how crowded would you anticipate the CF being then? And how close does the VdlP come to the CF in terms of historical and cultural richness? Does any of that even matter?

Any and all comments would be appreciated.

Steve S

 

[Deleted member 397]

I too am worried about the crowds (I'll be walking from Le Puy to SDC starting late june). I walked the VDLP last year-my very first camino and found it challenging but great. The bloke I walked with had walked the CF 3 times and said the CF was much easier with regards to accommodation and frequent towns-and 250kms shorter. You will find it very picturesque from Puebla de Sanabria-and cooler than starting from Sevilla but I would recommend from Salamanca. This is a beautuful town and I walked from there to SDC in about 17 days.