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The majority of dorms are co-ed.

Usually washrooms are separate. The places with co-ed washrooms usually have curtains. Some washrooms that are single sex, may not have shower curtains.

Europeans have a much more free attitude towards nakedness than North Americans. Generally though, in the dorms, people keep their eyes on their own business.
 
The norm for shower and toilets is not coed. There are some that are but you generally have the choice of finding another place, you will get the vive from other pilgrims as you are walking. There is one place in Calzadilla that get a particularly bad rap.
Dorms are generally coed. Some albergues make and effort to put the same sexes in rooms but that is not always the way it ends up.
 
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Hallo Janine,

welcome in this forum.

I´m German and not so good in English, so I don´t know what "coed" is, but I can imagine.

I would say, in 95% of all Albergues you have you privacy in the shower. Many times there are extra little rooms, not bathrooms, only with shower you can lock. Used from both peregrinos and peregrinas. In the other 5 % it´s like in a sport hall, splitted rooms, but a few showers inside each without privacy.

But the sleepingrooms are normaly mixed. There could be extra rooms for "snorers", but it´s a self-assessment;)
 
Hallo Janine,

welcome in this forum.

I´m German and not so good in English, so I don´t know what "coed" is, but I can imagine.

I would say, in 95% of all Albergues you have you privacy in the shower. Many times there are extra little rooms, not bathrooms, only with shower you can lock. Used from both peregrinos and peregrinas. In the other 5 % it´s like in a sport hall, splitted rooms, but a few showers inside each without privacy.

But the sleepingrooms are normaly mixed. There could be extra rooms for "snorers", but it´s a self-assessment;)
Thanks Michael, Coed = co-educational, basically mixed male and female.
 
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Bunking with fellow travelers is a bit like having your brothers and sisters around. The don't always smell good; they have the same gas as the rest of us; occasionally make too much noise and are quite comfortable running around in their underwear. It does not take too long to get used to the spectacle. In my trek, there were always separate toilets/showers and coed dorms. Of course, the too-tight Spandex, on some of the stylish types, left little to the imagination...
 
Hallo Janine,

welcome in this forum.

I´m German and not so good in English, so I don´t know what "coed" is, but I can imagine.

I would say, in 95% of all Albergues you have you privacy in the shower. Many times there are extra little rooms, not bathrooms, only with shower you can lock. Used from both peregrinos and peregrinas. In the other 5 % it´s like in a sport hall, splitted rooms, but a few showers inside each without privacy.

But the sleepingrooms are normaly mixed. There could be extra rooms for "snorers", but it´s a self-assessment;)
Hi Michael, Coed comes from the word and is short for Coeducation(al) or universities that admit both male and female students. Coed also referred to a female student attending a coeducational university. Coed can also refer to facilities, such as dormitories that students sleep in or sports team that have both male and female students. As you can imagine this term has lost favor and I have heard it rarely the last few years with young university age students. My daughters never used this term when they were in university. To say the least it is politically incorrect now. If you or I used the term coed in front of my daughters they would probably rip our heads off!!! But it is still acceptable (I think) talking about facilities like bathrooms or sleeping areas.
This is just my impression. I have no idea how correct I am about this.
 
Here a shower story. At the Albergue de Peregrinos Sao Joao dos Caminhos in an old monastery I guess former there were two showers with a door but both showers were adjunct. So we told the guys to sing so we would know if it was save to go in. So what does this gentleman do he puts his iPod on and plays music and of course the whole point of the singing was gone.
My friend and me we were just shacking our heads and tried hard not to laugh 😂.
Well he was willing was he not?
 
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Well I must have been lucky because the only time I didn’t get privacy was in O Cebreiro. I just showered VERY late that evening when everyone had pretty much gone.
 
Well I must have been lucky because the only time I didn’t get privacy was in O Cebreiro. I just showered VERY late that evening when everyone had pretty much gone.

Cannot speak for the ladies facilites, bu tthe mens showers in the municipal albergue in in O Cebreiro had private shower cubicles (curtains) but a 'communal' changing area.
 
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Cannot speak for the ladies facilites, bu tthe mens showers in the municipal albergue in in O Cebreiro had private shower cubicles (curtains) but a 'communal' changing areaa.
Really? When I was there in 2016 there were partitions in the women's shower, but no curtains.
 
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Really? When I was there in 2016 there were partitions in the women's shower, but no curtains.

March of progress? Insitutional sexism? or maybe dementia is setting in and my memory is off with the pixies...

In any case, CF 2018 I stayed elsewhere - sleeping with 60 of my closet friends in not forgotten in a hurry (so my memory cannot be all that bad).
 
This is one of the examples of an occurrence in one albegue years ago that is still circulating in this forum.
It can and it might be a surprise to newbies to be amongst total strangers.
But it must be tried out because it also has its merits.

Everyone has the right to make his or her own mix of accomodation. If private offers seem too pricy, two or more pilgrims can share a room at a better cost and find common ground in the quest for privacy and comfort.

On the CF there is usually an ample choice, seasonal demands and time of day concidered , naturally...
 
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Really? When I was there in 2016 there were partitions in the women's shower, but no curtains.
In September 2018 in the ladies' showers there were 'squeletons' of partitions (like, poles or something) but no actual partitions or curtains.
 
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Cannot speak for the ladies facilites, bu tthe mens showers in the municipal albergue in in O Cebreiro had private shower cubicles (curtains) but a 'communal' changing area.
That's new, then. When we were there in 2016 they didn't have curtains. It made my teenage son quite uncomfortable. It was the first time on that Camino we came across that. After that, he wasn't so interested in the Xunta albergues.
 
Cannot speak for the ladies facilites, bu tthe mens showers in the municipal albergue in in O Cebreiro had private shower cubicles (curtains) but a 'communal' changing area.
When I passed through O'Cebreiro (Sept 2017) we stayed at the municipal albergue; at the time there were separate shower stalls. The male stalls had no curtains. My wife also mentioned that the ladies stalls had no curtains either. But it was no biggy; no problem.
 
When I stayed at o’cebriero in May 2018 I found that the shower stall doors had actually been removed, possibly because to allow the larger pilgrims to fit in !! But it seems that the Galician authorities have real problems with showers since the doors were also missing in the municipal albergue at Melide! Amusing at the time as I thought the same builders had got it wrong again !! The showers were unisex in both towns with a communal changing area! Privacy was ensured as I was among the late afternoon arrivals !
 
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When I stayed at o’cebriero in May 2018 I found that the shower stall doors had actually been removed, possibly because to allow the larger pilgrims to fit in !! But it seems that the Galician authorities have real problems with showers since the doors were also missing in the municipal albergue at Melide! Amusing at the time as I thought the same builders had got it wrong again !! The showers were unisex in both towns with a communal changing area! Privacy was ensured as I was among the late afternoon arrivals !
The showers are not unisex in the Xunta albergue in O Cebreiro! And though I haven't stayed in the municipal in Melide I doubt that their showers are unisex either. Also, doors were not removed - they were never there to begin with.
 
We arrived after 4 0’clock in the afternoon and my companions ( all male ) used the showers in the basement next to laundry room ! I think I was following the crowd and never realised they weren’t unisex !
 
Mid-May 2018: no shower curtains (or hot water!) in gender-separate restrooms of municipal albuergue in O Cebreiro. Other showers in other Galician munis had them, but overall were VERY basic. In the end, I was just so grateful for a shower of any sorts that I really didn’t mind
 
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In the dozens and dozens of albergues of all types I have stayed in on the Frances I cannot think of a single one where bathroom/shower privacy was an issue. If there were unisex/coed/whatever showers in one I stayed in I don't remember it. I do vaguely remember a couple with shower stalls with no door, but that would be about it.
 
I don't remember any showers without doors or curtains in co-ed bathrooms. There were some co-ed bathrooms, but toilets and showers were in stalls, so you had privacy. It was sometimes a little bit of a hassle to change clothes in the little shower stalls though. In those cases, after my shower, I usually just put my bra and panties on, then finished getting dressed outside the shower stall. No one is oogling anyone else, and if they are...well, have a good look son. There were some bathrooms without privacy, but IME, they were all in single-gender bathrooms.

Co-ed dorms were never an issue for me - I thought it was a good set up because we had friends of different genders, and it was nice not to have to split up. My husband and I were walking together, and we walked with other mixed-gender groups (spouses, siblings, friends). it would have been less-than-ideal to have been in separate dorms. Just basic logistics like who has the laundry soap or who has the 1st aid kit with the ibuprophin.
 
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