Necessity of a tent?

[Caminobd]

My husband and I are flying into Bilbao in mid July and want to walk the Camino Norte. We walked the Camino Frances together and loved it so much that we want to walk another pilgrimage and along the ocean coast sounds wonderful. Can anyone tell me whether packing a tent on this route is a necessity or a preference. If a tent is necessary are there lots of places to put it up. I understand this is a broad question but would appreciate any experiences or opinions on this subject. Thank you!

 

[AJ]

I walked this route in September 2009, took a tent and never used it. Don't walk this route in August as the pilgrim infrastructure cannot cope with the numbers as I found in 2012.

 

[mikevasey]

I took a tent in June/July 2010, I used it 3 times and probably could have found alternatives if I had tried for those nights. The minuses of carrying a tent is the weight of it and all the other things which go with it such as the stove. On the positive side is it gives you a freedom from the usual stages- not that any really exist on the Norte, and a different experience which for me on one of the evenings felt really beautiful. But weight is king so I would (probably) not take one again.

 

[MKalcolm M]

I wondered about taking a tent, but was very glad I didn't, as I always found somewhere to stay, and the extra weight would have made for akward carrying.

 

[Caminobd]

Thank you so much for your advice. I think that we will leave the tent behind. Also, we will probably cut down to the Camino Frances before the tourist rush in August. Again thanks.

 

[Kyle32]

I did the camino frances a few years ago, brought a tent and used it almost every single night, with the exception of around 4 nights. The only times we could not use a tent were when we stopped in major cities and there was no realistic opportunity, like Pamplona, Leon and one other place where the town wasn't being particularly accommodating to camping. On many occasions you will find that a town has only an alburgue and they will clearly say "there is no camping" and ordinarily this will mean you will have to pay them the 5-10 euro to stay there for the night. However if you tell them you want to camp and really push them they will often let you camp for a reduced price, like 2-3 euro for the night, and will let you still use the showers. Other towns have no alburgue in which case we went to find the town hall (ayuntamiento), told them we were hiking the camino, and asked if there was a park where we could set up tents. Again, you will need to be able to speak a good bit of Spanish in order to negotiate this because there is no pre-existing camping structure for hikers on the camino and in many cases they will actually tell you "there is no camping" even if it is technically possible. Other times in the small towns we found town pools or little restaurants with medium to large sized plots of land next to them and asked if we could set up tents there after they closed their business, with the agreement that we would spend money at their business beforehand and be packed up early in the morning. So like the others said, camping is not readily possible in almost all places, however if you are willing to go walk around town and talk to places you think might be okay with you setting up tents on their property or negotiating a much reduced price for camping on an alburgue property, you are definitely likely to find it possible in almost all places