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Hi, and welcome to the forum! In order to help with this, we need to understand the problem better, so I'll ask a lot of questionsI am rarely successful in the smaller towns and villages
I see more and more people are refering to booking.com or even apps for making reservations. Just know that hardly any albergue is on booking, it is NOT! the place for booking albergues.Booking.com can help. There are other similar apps.
Just checked, looks like a great site. Thanks!Another good booking site is Only Pilgrims. He specializes in private albergues and visits each one to make sure they are good. I am not sure if you can book the same day because I have never done that but I have emailed him and he makes recommendations. Last year he gave me his cell phone number in case I had any problems and I used it when an 78 year old woman was frantic because all the albergues in the town she needed to go next were full and she needed a place to send her backpack. I called and he found her a bed at the very albergue that she had called and was told it was full--and this woman pilgrim spoke Spanish. He even arranged luggage transfer for her.
You can reserve bunks and even some private rooms on the Only Pilgrims website. When you go on the website you don't have to log in. Just pick a locality. He is good about answering email questions too.
I don't know when you last checked but many private albergues are on Booking.com.I see more and more people are refering to booking.com or even apps for making reservations. Just know that hardly any albergue is on booking, it is NOT! the place for booking albergues.
Hi, and welcome to the forum! In order to help with this, we need to understand the problem better, so I'll ask a lot of questions.
How have you tried, and what results in the lack of success? Is it a problem just of your Spanish, or are you stressing because you are rolling together all the questions of distance, crowds, next village, indecision, schedule? Do you telephone? Use booking,com? Ask others to call for you? What type of places/albergues do you want to use? What source do you use to identify places to try?
Sorry for so many questions, but I am trying to start the problem-solving.
When I walked my first Camino it was very early in the year so quite a few times I found that refugios were closed, especially in France. What did I do? Had a break and then walked to the next place - once I did a 'two-day' walk. I don't think the problem is bed space, I think it is choosing to be stressed about it.
Possibly you need to be less organised rather than more. But I may be wrong, this only my attitude and we are all different.
I plan ahead using Booking.com so that I know where I’ll be staying every night. If I get tired before reaching my destination, I catch a cab. No muss. No fuss.Booking.com can help. There are other similar apps. If necessary, a taxi or bus to the next village, then a bus or taxi to return to where you were the next morning.
In my early Camino experiences, I made a written lexicon using Google Translate to convey questions. At first it was a list of standard questions in Spanish. I had this prepared for accomodations, and a separate one for shopping and farmacia uses. Basically, I printed one piece of paper double-sided.
Another good idea, is to identify the NEXT place you might like to stay at, using gronze.com. Ask the proprietor where you are now staying, or someone you met who does speak good Spanish, to call ahead and make a reservation for you.
If you do not speak Spanish, prepare a printed, standard dialog. For example, you might have a note that asks the reader if they would mind calling ahead to (X property) located in (Y village/town) to make a reservation for you, for the next night. You can point to or jot down the 'up he road' property for them to call.
This usually works every time.
My longer term solution, as I KNEW I would return to Spain until age, health or finances forced me to stop walking Camino, was to learn enough Spanish to be able to fend for myself. I am finally just about there...
Hope this helps.
There are many albergues on booking.com. In fact if you use Gronze it even supplies the link to booking.com for many of them, as do the Buen Camino and Wisely apps.I see more and more people are refering to booking.com or even apps for making reservations. Just know that hardly any albergue is on booking, it is NOT! the place for booking albergues.
I see more and more people are refering to booking.com or even apps for making reservations. Just know that hardly any albergue is on booking, it is NOT! the place for booking albergues.
Ton anglais est très bien en passant!To reduce the stress, perhaps you should write the questions in spanish in advance for the reservation on piece of paper. This way you could say that you dont speak spanish well and ask the person to talk to you slowly and check for your dates.
You know, i am french and i am here to practice my english on this site....
I used booking.com and the El Camino app (which links you to booking.com anyway). Twice i had to phone (no online booking) and asked an albergue owner and a coffee shop owner to phone for me, which they did very happily and for free.Over the last three years I have been walking the Camino Frances in stages 7 or 8 days each time. I had a bad experience not finding accommodation in Zubri and needed walk much further to find anywhere for the night. I have tried to book along the way but with my poor Spanish skills I am rarely successful in the smaller towns and villages. I find this occupies too much or my thinking through the day and stresses me! Any advice how I can be better organised would be appreciated!
Booking.Com can be useful even in small places and does include some Alburgues. Also when I walked it I used google translate to work out a few sentences saying my name, I only speak a little Spanish and I am English, what I want to book and when and quite often they would start speaking English. Then I would book about two or three places ahead to take the worry out of where I would stay next. The John Brierly book has lots of accommodation options and phone numbers. Good luck and buen CaminoOver the last three years I have been walking the Camino Frances in stages 7 or 8 days each time. I had a bad experience not finding accommodation in Zubri and needed walk much further to find anywhere for the night. I have tried to book along the way but with my poor Spanish skills I am rarely successful in the smaller towns and villages. I find this occupies too much or my thinking through the day and stresses me! Any advice how I can be better organised would be appreciated!
Over the last three years I have been walking the Camino Frances in stages 7 or 8 days each time. I had a bad experience not finding accommodation in Zubri and needed walk much further to find anywhere for the night. I have tried to book along the way but with my poor Spanish skills I am rarely successful in the smaller towns and villages. I find this occupies too much or my thinking through the day and stresses me! Any advice how I can be better organised would be appreciated!
Very sensible advice. Thank you!Booking ahead in itself was inducing the stress for me. I learned to start each day at daybreak since that's when everyone else was up and moving. My routine was to call it a day at around 1:30. Using my guide I would walk a little more or less, usually a little more, to a town with accommodations. This approach never failed me.
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