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Photo video and info Camino Catalán / Cami de Sant Jaume, El Port de la Selva - Montserrat

bjorgts

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
In Spain, France, Portugal, Germany since 2003
Last October/November we walked Camino Catalán/Cami de Sant Jaume from El Port de la Selva to Montserrat, and one day more. After 20 years of camino walking, I would rank this one high on my list. Of course, nice weather always gives a good impression, but ... There are nice landscapes, varied terrain, lots of interesting old culture, some nice, old towns (big and small) and then of course Montserrat. (See more details on stages and overnight stay further down in this thread.)
We walked the alternative up to Sant Esteve d'en Bas, Cantonigròs, L'Esquirol, Roda de Ter. Then we took a detour to Monestir Sant Pere de Casserres. Recommended! (Stayed at the Parador :) )
The marking is good in some parts, and not so good in other parts. We are not dependent on the marking anymore, may be one can mannage, but I would recommend GPS for some parts. The walk from Els Hostalets d'en Bas to Cantonigros has a lot of marking, and is not bad marked, but a bit confusing. I would not have walked that part without the GPS-route on my mobil.
Accommodation can be a challenge in late October, but we managed well even though we are 70 years old now and therefore don't walk long stages.
May be I can answer some questions if anyone have any.
This camino is recommended!
 
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This is a great photo montage! Did you blog your route? I would appreciate any more details you can provide. Thanks!
 
Brought back so many memories for me. It is indeed a wonderful route to walk, as you say with lovely varied scenery and pretty towns.
Where did you stay in Estany?
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
Well done to you both you are very brave and I agree it's an amazing camino and real quiet except in summer when you see the occasional mainly french group or pilgrim ! Thanks for posting, excellent video brings back a lot of memories must go back there and start in Port de la Selva. I took a lot of videos of the route too but they won't let me post them as I did them for a specialist travel agency.
 
This is a great photo montage! Did you blog your route? I would appreciate any more details you can provide. Thanks!
Sorry I have no blog. I can bring some more information here, of course. What do you want to know more about?
 
Brought back so many memories for me. It is indeed a wonderful route to walk, as you say with lovely varied scenery and pretty towns.
Where did you stay in Estany?
We asked at Restaurant Hostal Grau, but they did not have rooms, but they said we could try Casa Rural Cal Sabata. So we did, and we had a very nice stay there. ... and a good Menu at Restaurant Grau. :)
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
Sorry I have no blog. I can bring some more information here, Alof course. What do you want to know more about?


We're in our late 60's and planning on slow walking, whichever camino route we take. You are an inspiration to us, completing a camino this long. I'm interested in your daily walking distances and where you stayed, but only if it's easy to put together. Thanks!
 
A little more information.

We arrived by plane to Barcelona and took the train to Figueres. (NB! There are two train lines on either side of the city! We took the fast train that stops on the east side.) From there we took a bus to El Port de la Selva.

GPS: We always follow GPS tracks from Italian "Bruno" if he has walked the camino. He has done this one. Go to his blog (blogdibruno.blogspot.com), find the camino you are interested in.
http://blogdibruno.blogspot.com/2016/06/cami-de-girona-cami-catalan-camino-de.html There he has GPS tracks for all his stages on Wikiloc. Here is El Port de la Selva – Figueres. https://it.wikiloc.com/percorsi-esc...res-cami-de-sant-jaume-girona-5-2016-13712710

As we are now 70 and 71 years old, so we try to avoid day stages of more than 30 km. That gives us some challenges, but if you are willing to take a bus or taxi occasionally (something we NEVER did a few years ago 😊), and can stay in a hotel or Casa Rural, you can make it. After staying almost 200 nights in albergues, we are a bit done with that, so Pension/Hostal is what we prefer now.

El Port de la Selva: Hotel Agora
To Pau: We had to split the stage to Figueres, because we always try not to have too long stages on the first days of a camino, and also it was steep up and steep down again this day, so we spent the night at Casa Rural Pao Blau. 12/13 km.
To Figueres: Hotel Los Angeles. Ca 18 km.
To Bascara: Pension Fluvia. Just before you reach Bascara, there is a petrol station with a restaurant on the left. Restaurante Santa Anna had good comida. There were places to eat in town too, but they were all closed when we were there, so we were glad we had eaten at Santa Anna. The main street of the town is "ruined" by the N-II, but if you enter the town on the right, you - like us - will probably be pleasantly surprised. Ca 18 km.

To Medinya/Girona: The last few kilometers to Medinya I would not go without a GPS track. I had tried for a long time to get an overnight stay in Madinya, because that would give us a good division to Girona, but it didn't work out. When we got to Medinya, we ate comida at what is written as hotel/restaurante Medinya. Maybe it was possible to spend the night there, but I hadn't found anything online that gave signals that the hotel was in use. Therefore we took a bus from Madinya to Girona. We had a rest day in Girona, and stayed at Pension Viladomat. Ca 22 km to Medinya.

To Amer: We ate and stayed well at Fonda Giralt. Ca 25/26 km.
To Sant Esteve d'en Bas: I had trouble finding accommodation here. There are many Casa Rurals, but either they were closed for the winter, or they didn't rent out for less than two nights. Fortunately, we got a room at Casa Rural Mas La Coma, which is located a bit up on the hillside just outside the town. Very nice place to stay! I found them on Airbnb.Ca 23 km.

To Cantanigros: This was perhaps our finest day. It's not a very long day's leg, but be aware that it has a climb and is very varied (in a positive way), so it took a surprising number of hours to walk it. This day I would not go without a GPS track! (See my introduction.) In Cantonigros it is very good to stay and eat at Hostal Cabreres. I see that many go to L'Esquirol this day. As it was a day stage that were nice to spend some time on, we were glad we stopped in Cantonigros. Ca 16 km.

To the Parador de Vic-Sau: I wanted to see the monastery of Sant Pere de Casserres, so this was the day for our second overnight stay at a Parador in our lives! We followed the camino Catalán until a few kilometers after Roda de Ter, where the camino crosses the BV-5213 which goes to the Parador (about 7 km?). We ate comida in Tavernoles. (Cena at the parador was not that relevant. 😊) Ca 23 km.

To Sant Pere de Casserres and Vic: Great day out the narrow headland to Sant Pere de Casserres and back again! (4 km each way.) We had intended to take a taxi to Vic, but met some nice Spaniards on the way, and got a lift with them to Vic. Stayed at the Hotel Estació del Nord by the train station. If you are in that area, it is nice to eat at the restaurant just across the road there, El Celler d'en Miquel. We are very happy that we went to the museum with church art from the Middle Ages. It was fantastic! We should only be able to split it up into several visits, because there was so much great to see, Museu Episcopal de Vic.

To L'Estany: Overnight at Casa Rural Cal Sabata. Ate at restaurante Grau. If you have time, it is a "must" to see the monastery cloister! They open at 10 o'clock. We were going to walk very short this day, so we had plenty of time to take in the monastery garden, and are very glad that we did. Ca 22 km.

To Santa Maria d'Oló: Stayed and ate at Hostal d'Oló by the plaza. The town is two km outside the route. The road goes very steeply for about 2 km down to the town, and just as steeply up again, but for us it was a good way to split up the route. Ca 11 km.

To Navarcles: Stayed and ate at Pension Muntané. This was our longest stage, 26 km.

To Manresa and Sant Vicenç de Castellet: We wanted a shorter day to Montserrat than we could get from Manresa, so I tried to find accommodation on the route a little after Manresa. It wasn't that easy. We ended up taking a taxi from Manresa to Sant Vicenç de Castellet, where we stayed at Hostal Ca La Irene. The GR 4 passes through this town, so the next day we could follow the GR 4 back to the Camino Catalán. It was a good solution for us.

To Montserrat: There is quite a bit of road walking at the end up to Montserrat. It was narrow and with lots of traffic, so we thought we had ended up on a main road, but it was only traffic to and from Montserrat. We hadn't thought of the fact that it was a "puente" day and that it was All Saints' Day the next day. 😊 Montserrat has all sorts of accommodation. Ca 20 km.

To Castellolí: On the last day we followed the road along the mountains. Some will avoid the 'asphalt. We thought it was wonderful to walk along the mountain range. Then in Castellolí the walk was over... We took a bus to Igualada and on to Barcelona. Ca 22 km.
 
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We're in our late 60's and planning on slow walking, whichever camino route we take. You are an inspiration to us, completing a camino this long. I'm interested in your daily walking distances and where you stayed, but only if it's easy to put together. Thanks!
Hope this info is a help.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Thanks for the very useful information and experience! I am 70+ years old and adjusting to hotels instead of albergues, but I still found 60 or 80 euros a night a bit too much for the Camino!!

We have three weeks in February 2024 and thinking about doing this Camino, would any experienced pilgrims in this forum know if most hotels/pension are open? And not too cold to walk? I really appreciate any experience or advice! Thanks!
 

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