Hi Steve - I think this a much better way of doing your research than just coldly searching through the forum for old posts - this way you get genuine up to date recommendations - and whether you take them up or not seems to me is irrelevant .. all part of the planning - way to go! (and it is fun for us too
).
So - my two for you ..... well, three - Pamplona - as said above, Calle San Nicholas .. get yourself into the old narrow alleyways where there are bars and restaurants and Spaniards and tourists, students, young, families, and pilgrims - a delight!!
(Eat where you see Spaniards, not tourists!!).
In Estella - if you fancy to treat yourself and take a private room instead of a refugio, go to
Pension Buen Camino
Calle San Nicolas, 27, Estella
small pension, rates 9.7 on Booking.com! - immaculately clean and comfortable and well prepped. Delightful husband and wife to look after you - they are kind, warm, cannot do enough to help you .. if you arrive as a pilgrim the moment they open the door to you they put a bottle of chilled sealed water into your hand - is a jewel .. and is on the Camino itself as you walk along in Estella. Think it is 30€ for single but can't quite remember - I slept sooo well!!!! I stayed there as was early in last year and I was freezing cold all the time and realised it was because I was getting ill ... oh!! They have brilliant hot central heating .. gave me the respite to heal a bit and carry on (as well as to wash and dry my smalls).
https://www.booking.com/hotel/es/buen-camino.es.html
Is small and also very popular so this is one of the few times I would say - get on booking.com a frew days before if you fancy it.
Many people stop just as they enter Puente La Reina ... but if you walk through and cross the medieval bridge there is a lane directly opposite and 100 metres or so up there is the refugio Santiago Apostol. Now, is a new build and the architect seems to have learnt a lot from late 30's German designs (!) so it isn't pretty - but is big and warm and friendly, staff are lovely ... very good firm beds, four to an alcove .. two-bed privates rooms to rent, upstairs area for heavy snorers, big communal area with great meals and wine - both really cheap, free wifi that actually works! - great bathrooms - gender separated - gardens (tenters welcome, including with dogs) and = and here is the thing - it has a swimming pool!! One of the hospitelaros, a huge strong genial smiling man with a teenage son now taller than him, from Columbia I think, is named Stalin ... how often is that going to happen?
http://www.alberguescaminosantiago....regrinos-de-santiago-apostol-puente-la-reina/
Enjoy your Camino - enjoy it all!!!
oh - ok, four ... in los Arcos you Must go to the evening Mass - doesn't matter if you are religious or not - inside the plain exterior is the most Extraordinary church .... and the priest there is a young man (well, young to me) who has learnt some simple sentences in a number of languages and after Mass calls pilgrims to one side of the altar, hands out pilgrim prayer cards in many languages and chats and then blesses you all ... 8pm.