Kettles and kitchens on the Norte

[nickymd1]

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone can comment on the current availability of kettles (and/or stoves) in albergues on the Norte?

I'm on a very strict budget since I am currently only flexibly employed (hence the time to walk) and I have some dietary requirements to be considerate of, and I'm wondering how feasible it is to expect to brew my own coffees/teas and possibly boil a few eggs most days for breakfasts and snacks.

Anybody have any insights here? I'm dreading the thought of going day after day without coffee

 

[Anemone del Camino]

You will love the Norte.

To plan your stages in relations to your need for a kitchen, take a look at the Eroski website for the Norte. It is broken up in suggested etapas, and for each etapas it lists all the albergues. Scroll down to the "Equipamento" section where you can see if the albergue has a kitchen or not.

http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es/mobile/los-caminos-de-santiago/del-norte/

 

[Terry aka Tex]

enjoy your camino nickymd1 but just be aware a kitchen does not equate to pots n pans as on the Galica section of frances camino most alberque kitchens have no equipment.take your own small pot/billy.
bon camino

 

[Anemone del Camino]

enjoy your camino nickymd1 but just be aware a kitchen does not equate to pots n pans as on the Galica section of frances camino most alberque kitchens have no equipment.take your own small pot/billy.
bon camino

The lack of pots and pans in albergues in Galicia is only true in Xunta albergues. Other albergues that say they have a kitchen of some sort will have at least minimal equipment.

 

[HeidiL]

I'd bring a heating coil - see the cultish thread where we all praise them...

Mine won't let water boil for long enough to boil an egg, but has provided me with plenty of tea, hot chocolate, soup from packets and noodles.

 

[Tia Valeria]

This year we actually invested in a small travel kettle in Spain - cost €16. It came complete with 2 tiny cups with mini spoons. (I would add that we were travelling by car not walking the Camino) My feeling is that the kettle does not weigh much more than the coil and cup combined, which we have needed to carry on the Camino for various reasons. The kettle cuts out fairly quickly on boiling,but an egg left in the hot water would cook I would think. Kettles are not a big thing we found in Spain, our self-catering had a coffee machine and plenty of other equipment - but no kettle.

 

[poogeyejr]

I carried a small ultra light pot for my second northern Camino - there were many places to use it and we had boiled eggs for most lunches.
Groceries are VERY reasonable in Spain so eating meals you prepare yourself will save you a lot!

 

[jerbear]

You can get cheap metal cups pots at the China stores. Grat for cooking.

 

[J F Gregory]

We found that coffee is much less expensive there than here in the US I think about 1 euro and it usually served with a cookie of something like that. My wife does not drink coffee purchased tea bags after we arrives and ordered hot water for her tea.

 

[josephine upton]

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone can comment on the current availability of kettles (and/or stoves) in albergues on the Norte?

I'm on a very strict budget since I am currently only flexibly employed (hence the time to walk) and I have some dietary requirements to be considerate of, and I'm wondering how feasible it is to expect to brew my own coffees/teas and possibly boil a few eggs most days for breakfasts and snacks.

Anybody have any insights here? I'm dreading the thought of going day after day without coffee

I

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone can comment on the current availability of kettles (and/or stoves) in albergues on the Norte?

I'm on a very strict budget since I am currently only flexibly employed (hence the time to walk) and I have some dietary requirements to be considerate of, and I'm wondering how feasible it is to expect to brew my own coffees/teas and possibly boil a few eggs most days for breakfasts and snacks.

Anybody have any insights here? I'm dreading the thought of going day after day without coffee

 

[josephine upton]

I carrried the very smallest of camping gas. Not really for cooking just to boil water, for coffee, for tea or to sterilise it. I think boiling eggs would count!
I found it a great help when, for example, waiting for a coffee would have delayed my start or where there was a long stretch without any facilities.

 

[Cybermum]

Not found a kettle yet and am on day 12 of France's route. But we boilnwater in pans so no problem

 

[Delphinoula]

You could do the Camino version of a sun tea. Add some tea bags to your drinking bottle , carry it in the sun and it turns into tea. Same for frappe add some Nescafé envelopes in a bottle of cold water and shake it. It tastes good. That tea comes from the South and the coffee from Greece.

 

[lt56ny]

I too found a black hole when it came to kitchen/kitchen supplies on the Norte. I too walk on a budget. I thought I was having incredibly bad luck. It seems like everywhere I wanted to lay my head (and into October more and more albergues were closing) there was no kitchen or a very inadequate and under equipped kitchen, When the camino turned southwest away from the coast the facilities in the municipals seemed to get worse and worse. Good luck and Buen Camino

 

[nickymd1]

We found that coffee is much less expensive there than here in the US I think about 1 euro and it usually served with a cookie of something like that...

Hey all, I originally posted back when I was planning my first camino. I will be doing my third camino, the second in Spain, in April/May so am happy to share some experiences on this topic.

The fact that a cafe con leche cost about 1.20€ on average when I walked in 2017 was a life saver! Particularly as the costs of accommodations went up and the infrastructure improved (after Bilbao/Basque country), I found that I was stopping every 2 hours or so for a coffee and that gave me a good excuse to take a proper break. I chose NOT to carry the water heater with me on the trip, although I did take an aluminium cup (that I stuffed my first aid kit into to save space) and a collapsible silicone 'Tupperware' that I could use to store food in. I will never do a Camino again without the Tupper; the cup was helpful a few times but I'm not sure it was worth it for me to carry it. It was more cost effective for me to buy a small knife at a chinese shop than to check my baggage, so I did that and then left my knife + poles in the hostel in Porto just before my flight out. Cheap coffee and tortilla were probably the reason I made it through my Way, tbh.

I too found a black hole when it came to kitchen/kitchen supplies on the Norte. I too walk on a budget. I thought I was having incredibly bad luck....

I didn't have much luck with kitchens on the Norte generally, never mind ones that were equipped. As poogeyejr mentioned, groceries were very reasonable so I saved money by eating at restaurants very little (communal meals on the Norte are rare and for the most part entailed pasta, which I can't eat without suffering the consequences of numerous grain intolerances) and I instead stocked up with cheeses, fuet, fruit, salads and slabs of chocolate. I made a decision that it wasn't necessary for me to have a hot meal every day - a slice or two of warm tortilla had to suffice most days.

From what I remember and where I stayed, I had access to a kitchen/kitchenette where I could make my own food only at the Albergues in San Esteban, Mondonedo, Aviles, Cadavedo and Vilalba.

 

[lt56ny]

Hey all, I originally posted back when I was planning my first camino. I will be doing my third camino, the second in Spain, in April/May so am happy to share some experiences on this topic.

The fact that a cafe con leche cost about 1.20€ on average when I walked in 2017 was a life saver! Particularly as the costs of accommodations went up and the infrastructure improved (after Bilbao/Basque country), I found that I was stopping every 2 hours or so for a coffee and that gave me a good excuse to take a proper break. I chose NOT to carry the water heater with me on the trip, although I did take an aluminium cup (that I stuffed my first aid kit into to save space) and a collapsible silicone 'Tupperware' that I could use to store food in. I will never do a Camino again without the Tupper; the cup was helpful a few times but I'm not sure it was worth it for me to carry it. It was more cost effective for me to buy a small knife at a chinese shop than to check my baggage, so I did that and then left my knife + poles in the hostel in Porto just before my flight out. Cheap coffee and tortilla were probably the reason I made it through my Way, tbh.



I didn't have much luck with kitchens on the Norte generally, never mind ones that were equipped. As poogeyejr mentioned, groceries were very reasonable so I saved money by eating at restaurants very little (communal meals on the Norte are rare and for the most part entailed pasta, which I can't eat without suffering the consequences of numerous grain intolerances) and I instead stocked up with cheeses, fuet, fruit, salads and slabs of chocolate. I made a decision that it wasn't necessary for me to have a hot meal every day - a slice or two of warm tortilla had to suffice most days.

From what I remember and where I stayed, I had access to a kitchen/kitchenette where I could make my own food only at the Albergues in San Esteban, Mondonedo, Aviles, Cadavedo and Vilalba.

Your comment about the scarcity of communal meals is spot on. Although I did have a few communal meals and if I remember when there was pasta there was also an alternative. I eat pasta a lot on my own as it is so easy to make. Had a lot of tortillas. Just about every morning when I could.