Luggage Transfer on Camino Frances

[Sandrapf99]

Hello everyone,
What company do you recommend for luggage/backpack transfer on the Camino Frances?

 

[C clearly]

This thread has now been tagged with "luggage transport/storage". If you click on the tag under the thread title, you will get all of the threads that have the same tag. You should find some good information there.

 

[trecile]

As @C clearly said there are a number of threads on the topic. Here's one https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/luggage-transfer.73431/#post-1002714

And my response on that thread.

There are a number of companies.

Three major companies are
Correos (Spanish Post Office)
Jacotrans
Caminofacil

 

[Sandrapf99]

This thread has now been tagged with "luggage transport/storage". If you click on the tag under the thread title, you will get all of the threads that have the same tag. You should find some good information there.

As @C clearly said there are a number of threads on the topic. Here's one https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/luggage-transfer.73431/#post-1002714

And my response on that thread.

thank you

 

[sebastian606]

I used JacoTrans in September 2022. I had great service.

 

[Rick M]

I actually carry my pack, but have travelled with people using most of the services, including my wife. They ALL provide a reliable and easy to use service, so in many ways it doesn't matter which one you pick. For myself, I would suggest Correos based upon their very slick web-based scheduling service, and the fact that they respond to emails, in english, in a matter of hours. Jacotrans is very popular, but for the first time this year, a guy I was walking with gave up trying to call them because there was nobody that spoke english on the other side of the phone. Best to use Whatsapp to communicate with Jacotrans via text, or ask your hospitalero to call on your behalf. Either way, your bag will get picked up and delivered, and if one goes astray, or your plans change, your bag will always find its way to you.

 

[trecile]

I actually carry my pack, but have travelled with people using most of the services, including my wife. They ALL provide a reliable and easy to use service, so in many ways it doesn't matter which one you pick. For myself, I would suggest Correos based upon their very slick web-based scheduling service, and the fact that they respond to emails, in english, in a matter of hours.

I also always carry my pack, but if I were to use pack transport for my entire Camino I would probably choose Correos. When you pay them in advance for the complete Camino they charge by the route - not the number of stages that you end up walking. So the cost is the same whether it takes you 30 days or 50.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Things are shifting in the luggage delivery business, you will likely see some outcomes in 2023, especially on the Camino Frances, especially in places staffed by volunteers.
Many public and donativo albergues will charge a fee for storing/handling bags sent ahead by people who are not staying there.
They will only accept backpacks. People who ship suitcases, duffle bags and carry-on type luggage along the camino will not be able to send them to public/donativo albergues dedicated to serving pilgrims.
I am not sure how medical devices and electronic toys (like drones) will be handled... way too many of these delicate items are damaged in transit, and the albergue takes the heat when the problem is discovered.
Lots of great people run luggage services, and lots of good people use them. But there's a lot of abuse going on, and volunteers should not have to provide free luggage handling and public relations for private businesses.

 

[trecile]

Many public and donativo albergues will charge a fee for storing/handling bags sent ahead by people who are not staying there.

This sounds more than fair.

 

[Cindy McGuire]

Hello everyone,
What company do you recommend for luggage/backpack transfer on the Camino Frances?

Jacotrans.

 

[JabbaPapa]

Things are shifting in the luggage delivery business, you will likely see some outcomes in 2023, especially on the Camino Frances, especially in places staffed by volunteers.
Many public and donativo albergues will charge a fee for storing/handling bags sent ahead by people who are not staying there.
They will only accept backpacks. People who ship suitcases, duffle bags and carry-on type luggage along the camino will not be able to send them to public/donativo albergues dedicated to serving pilgrims.

I have seen quite a few changes already in 2022 in comparison to 2021.

Sending and getting your packs increasingly is from bar to bar, rather than between Albergues.

As to suitcases and so on, there have been far fewer of them visible these two years than the numbers I saw in 2014 - - if I had to guess, I would suppose that the pilgrims who travel with such luggage might increasingly be using organised Camino companies and the private hostelry and luggage transport provided rather than staying in the Albergue network, or using the JacoTrans etc.

The 2010s were perhaps more hybrid, so that the "proper" foot and bike pilgrims more often shared space with the organised tour pilgrims, leading to some unnecessary tensions.

Not criticising anyone, for me, everyone visiting the Tomb of the Apostle in Santiago is a pilgrim, no matter how or how far or with what means he travels, just that when the various networks overlap too much, it creates problems for all.

 

[Bradypus]

They will only accept backpacks. People who ship suitcases, duffle bags and carry-on type luggage along the camino will not be able to send them to public/donativo albergues dedicated to serving pilgrims.

@Rebekah Scott I'm a bit puzzled at this. What is the rationale for accepting backpacks but not suitcases? If neither of them is being carried by the walker then both are simply "luggage". Is the shape significant? I don't use luggage transport services so I am not directly affected anyway but it does seem an odd position to take.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

It's called "mission creep." It's not about the shape of the bag.
Pilgrims have for a thousand years carried their stuff on their backs. I guess if you're a pilgrim who can't or won't carry your backpack for yourself, you should at least TRY to act like the traditional pilgrim. It's agreed among most involved that someone shipping luggage for non-health reasons isn't taking this very seriously... they're tourists, not pilgrims. And donativo albergues serve pilgrims. You want to ship luggage, ship it to a hotel.
Also, luggage often weighs a whole lot more than a backpack, and isn't as easy to move around. It's OK for a guy who's making a living shlepping luggage for people, but asking albergue volunteers to shift and store this stuff, and to use up their free time waiting for the transporter to show up or take it away? Nope. No mas.

 

[JillGat]

And to really be a "traditional" pilgrim, leave your ATM card at home.

 

[JabbaPapa]

And to really be a "traditional" pilgrim, leave your ATM card at home.

Bring lettres de change instead ?

A good source for understanding Mediaeval banking systems, including finances while travelling, is the French book series Les rois maudits, by Maurice Druon.

Apart from the most impoverished, pilgrims would typically get cash out in town, then use it going through the villages. Same old, same old ... Just from a banking comptoir rather than from an ATM machine.

 

[RRat]

@Rebekah Scott I'm a bit puzzled at this. What is the rationale for accepting backpacks but not suitcases? If neither of them is being carried by the walker then both are simply "luggage". Is the shape significant? I don't use luggage transport services so I am not directly affected anyway but it does seem an odd position to take.

It is puzzling. I never recall any albergue "accepting" any items. Items were simply dropped off and piled up in a corner. It was up to the. travel to sort through the pile.

 

[JabbaPapa]

It is puzzling. I never recall any albergue "accepting" any items. Items were simply dropped off and piled up in a corner. It was up to the. travel to sort through the pile.

As far as I have seen in recent years, the bigger problem has arisen with people with multiple items of luggage treating hospitaleros like cut-price luggage transport employees, so cut-price that in fact it's free.

Pilgrims with backpack, daypack, large suitcase, small suitcase are clearly abusing the system ; and yes, I have seen such excesses.

 

[JabbaPapa]

I have seen pilgrims transporting actual trunks via JacoTrans and expecting others to just deal with it for them.

 

[grayland]

I wonder what the ratio of plilgrims who use pack transport to those who choose to carry their pack is now?

The wheeled suitcases are a bit of a new phenomenon in the past years. It is easy for many of us to remember when there was very little transport of any kind.

Then.. the providers seemed to grow and the number of posts here and on Facebook grew to high numbers and many new pilgrims seemed to see it as the "normal" way to walk a camino.

Then..the name of the service changed from "pack" transport to "luggage" transport and the wheelies seem to grow more numberous. I always think of suitcases when the word "luggage" is used. You seldom hear backpacks described as luggage anywhere.

The camino apperars to have taken some irreversible changes. I miss the old days.


The system that @Rebekah Scott describes above makes sense to me. I have worked as a volunteer hospitalaro and dealing with peoples "luggage" is a very unwelcome part of the job.
It is amazing how some people have the idea that the 10 euro bed fee (or donotivo) includes management of their shipped luggage. The complaints about misshipped or handled suitcases and packs does not go down well with volunteers.

 

[JabbaPapa]

I wonder what the ratio of plilgrims who use pack transport to those who choose to carry their pack is now?

Hard to tell over a whole year, nor over the Camino routes as a whole, but what I saw within about a 150K radius from Santiago during high pilgrim season this Autumn was suggestive of about a 3:2 ratio, increasing the closer you are to Santiago itself.

There were occasional days when I would see virtually nobody carrying a full backpack.

 

[grayland]

Hard to tell over a whole year, nor over the Camino routes as a whole, but what I saw within about a 150K radius from Santiago during high pilgrim season this Autumn was suggestive of about a 3:2 ratio, increasing the closer you are to Santiago itself.

There were occasional days when I would see virtually nobody carrying a full backpack.

Wow....I no idea that the non-pack carrying had become the majority or norm.
I guess I should have worked that out due to the continuous threads and posts that seem dominate the forum and Facebook camino sites.

 

[JabbaPapa]

Wow....I no idea that the non-pack carrying had become the majority or norm.
I guess I should have worked that out due to the continuous threads and posts that seem dominate the forum and Facebook camino sites.

Special mention to the twenty-somethings on their electric bikes and sometimes not even a daypack sending all their stuff through JacoTrans or similar.

 

[trecile]

Wow....I no idea that the non-pack carrying had become the majority or norm.
I guess I should have worked that out due to the continuous threads and posts that seem dominate the forum and Facebook camino sites.

It sounds like pack/luggage transport is more prevalent closer to Santiago.

Hard to tell over a whole year, nor over the Camino routes as a whole, but what I saw within about a 150K radius from Santiago during high pilgrim season this Autumn was suggestive of about a 3:2 ratio, increasing the closer you are to Santiago itself

 

[kelleymac]

Carrying my own stuff taught me a lot.

 

[Albertagirl]

I sent my backpack forward with the Maille Postale for the two weeks that I walked in France in the fall. I needed more than usual because I brought items to defend against covid: tests, masks, medications in particular. It was a real nuisance: having to make bookings before I could arrange for pack pickup, trying to do everything a day longer in advance before Sundays, the towns that seemed to have no accommodation, when I knew that I could find something if I just walked through. I left behind what I could with a friend in Rabanal del camino, where I had been called on to serve as a hospitalera, and carried my pack for the rest of my pilgrimage. Now I am considering walking shorter caminos, beginning this year at around Easter, as I have never walked a spring camino. It would be interesting celebrating my 75th birthday on pilgrimage in Easter Week. I might like to spend several days in ancient cities to visit churches and monuments: Zamora is one possibility for such a stay, then walking on to Santiago.
What I am trying to say here is that luggage transport can be one way that older pilgrims can continue to walk the pilgrim routes: good for our health, wonderful for our spiritual life. I can still walk with a pack, if I leave behind a great deal and ignore the pain in my shoulders, or medicate heavily. For now, I prefer not to use luggage transport again, if I can avoid it. But pilgrims do not use such a service just for convenience.

 

[JabbaPapa]

What I am trying to say here is that luggage transport can be one way that older pilgrims can continue to walk the pilgrim routes: good for our health, wonderful for our spiritual life. I can still walk with a pack, if I leave behind a great deal and ignore the pain in my shoulders, or medicate heavily. For now, I prefer not to use luggage transport again, if I can avoid it. But pilgrims do not use such a service just for convenience.

Nobody is saying that people with such problems should carry their packs in that way, as a matter of fact, I myself can remember coming across a somewhat elderly English lady in 1994, actually crying not just from pain but also frustration, from thinking she wouldn't be a proper pilgrim without carrying her pack every step of the way, which she was not physically capable of.

I made an effort to reassure her, and it actually helped that it came from someone who had walked from Paris, and warmly advised her to use the JacoTrans.

BTW probably not the exact same company of that name operating today, advertised as "founded in 2006", but there was a JacoTrans in the early 90s - - though IIRC there were several such companies, each operating only on a portion of the Francès.

 

[kelleymac]

I sent my backpack forward with the Maille Postale for the two weeks that I walked in France in the fall. I needed more than usual because I brought items to defend against covid: tests, masks, medications in particular. It was a real nuisance: having to make bookings before I could arrange for pack pickup, trying to do everything a day longer in advance before Sundays, the towns that seemed to have no accommodation, when I knew that I could find something if I just walked through. I left behind what I could with a friend in Rabanal del camino, where I had been called on to serve as a hospitalera, and carried my pack for the rest of my pilgrimage. Now I am considering walking shorter caminos, beginning this year at around Easter, as I have never walked a spring camino. It would be interesting celebrating my 75th birthday on pilgrimage in Easter Week. I might like to spend several days in ancient cities to visit churches and monuments: Zamora is one possibility for such a stay, then walking on to Santiago.
What I am trying to say here is that luggage transport can be one way that older pilgrims can continue to walk the pilgrim routes: good for our health, wonderful for our spiritual life. I can still walk with a pack, if I leave behind a great deal and ignore the pain in my shoulders, or medicate heavily. For now, I prefer not to use luggage transport again, if I can avoid it. But pilgrims do not use such a service just for convenience.

Hi Albertagirl-- I am aware that many pilgrims need help with transport for health reasons. I know heroic pilgrims who simply cannot carry their stuff. But I am also aware that there are some healthy walkers that assume that transport is necessary and it's necessary to have a set of clothes and shoes for the evening. As one friend of mine exclaimed "I'll be in Spain, I need to dress in the evening. "Ok then", I thought to myself as I handed her my pack which I was lending her for her pilgrimage, "A different Camino than mine."

I posted this a few years ago-- here it is again for you and those who might be interested.

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/carrying-my-stuff.55857/

 

[Albertagirl]

Thank you. The only occasion on which I had my pack carried before my experiment in luggage carrying in France was on the third day of my walk on the Via de la Plata. Most of those who travelled the 29 km to Almaden de la Plata took a taxi along the road for the first 16 km, with their luggage carried on to an albergue in Almaden while they walked the rest of the way. I sent my luggage on with theirs for the day, but walked the 29 k along the road and through the park, carrying just my lunch and some water. At that stage in the vdlp, I think that was a wise choice. I walked the rest of that route alone, with my pack, including a long day's walk when the albergue at the Embalse proved to be closed. I was in my late 60's then. Since, I have walked a camino most years, always with my pack until this past fall, when I tried luggage carrying. I did not enjoy that experience and later in the fall walked with my pack through part of the Salvador towards Oviedo and all of the Primitivo, on to Santiago. My joints are deteriorating, which makes it an increasing challenge to carry a pack. Now, I think that I can carry my pack with a few changes: buy a new, smaller and lighter pack, carry only one change of clothes, rain gear and a light sleeping bag, walk in warmer weather and stay in hotels when practical; take a generous quantity of naproxen tablets and not be too reluctant to take them. My body is wearing out, but I still want to walk caminos. Now I can afford to stay in hotels, and I frequently do. I am too much an experienced backcountry hiker to take any chances. I shall put my health and safety first and I encourage other pilgrims to do the same.

 

[Robertorocha]

I used jacotrans in almost all the strechs(legs) of the Camino, last september. They delivered a goos service. In every accomodation they had a list of other campanies. In the Galicia I used a local company that I don´t remember the name.

 

[trecile]

BTW probably not the exact same company of that name operating today, advertised as "founded in 2006", but there was a JacoTrans in the early 90s - - though IIRC there were several such companies, each operating only on a portion of the Francès

Looking at the Jacotrans website it looks like those different regional companies may have joined up. Possibly for marketing or other reasons.

 

[Sandrapf99]

I actually carry my pack, but have travelled with people using most of the services, including my wife. They ALL provide a reliable and easy to use service, so in many ways it doesn't matter which one you pick. For myself, I would suggest Correos based upon their very slick web-based scheduling service, and the fact that they respond to emails, in english, in a matter of hours. Jacotrans is very popular, but for the first time this year, a guy I was walking with gave up trying to call them because there was nobody that spoke english on the other side of the phone. Best to use Whatsapp to communicate with Jacotrans via text, or ask your hospitalero to call on your behalf. Either way, your bag will get picked up and delivered, and if one goes astray, or your plans change, your bag will always find its way to you.

Thank you for the info. Question, do the transports stop all along the Camino, not just the predefined stages? And which ones transport people as well?

 

[trecile]

Thank you for the info. Question, do the transports stop all along the Camino, not just the predefined stages? And which ones transport people as well?

They stop on every town along the Camino. I don't know of any that transport people as well. You would have to ask about local taxi services.

 

[Rick M]

Thank you for the info. Question, do the transports stop all along the Camino, not just the predefined stages? And which ones transport people as well?

@trecile has it. And by the way, there are no predefined stages, just guide book authors making suggestions.

 

[JabbaPapa]

Thank you for the info. Question, do the transports stop all along the Camino, not just the predefined stages? And which ones transport people as well?

The only ones that will transport people as well are the taxis providing backpack transport services.

The standard ones like JacoTrans etc cannot transport people.

 

[Anamiri]

@Rebekah Scott I'm a bit puzzled at this. What is the rationale for accepting backpacks but not suitcases? If neither of them is being carried by the walker then both are simply "luggage". Is the shape significant? I don't use luggage transport services so I am not directly affected anyway but it does seem an odd position to take.

On our last Camino we stayed at a place in Lestedo, it was very new, and very nice.
When we walked back through to the reception area on the way to our room after dinner, I was shocked at the size of luggage pieces there. The place had only a few rooms, it wasn't a hotel or a large place, so the amount of luggage must have meant around 3 pieces per person.
We could barely get past the huge pile - large wheeled suitcases, many of them hard sided.
So if this is more common place, I can quite understand the reluctance of albergues to handle it free (or at all).
The volume and size of the large cases take up so much space, I imagine many albergues dont have the room for that type of luggage.
In most other places, you'd see a pile of backpacks (a ration of 1:1) waiting for collection.