To book or not to book (CF, end of May)

[JAMM]

Hello all and thanks for the very useful information everyone has been posting; this is a fabulous resource.

My husband and I are walking with our two children (8 and 5) from outside Sarria to SDC starting on 24 May. We will be moving slowly (10-15km per day max), carrying our own bags and hoping to stay mostly in albergues. When we walked in April 2008, we stayed in Xunta places throughout and found all of them perfectly fine; there was no rush and nobody seemed to go without a bed. While we are hoping to replicate (part of) the experience, the situation is a bit different now: we will be much slower (probably arrive about 3-4pm), need four beds rather than two and the CF seems to have got busier than the London tube at peak time...

Is it over-optimistic/too risky/downright irresponsible to simply hope for Xunta beds in places like:
Portomarín?
Hospital da Cruz?
Ribadiso da Baixo?
Arca (O Pino)?

Any wisdom/live reports on recent experiences in the CF will much appreciated!

 

[Deleted member 3000]

You cannot book xunta beds in Galicia, so your question is moot. Private albergues take reservations, so if you are nervous, book ahead. You are walking in a busy month on the busiest part of the Camino!!

 

[Annelies]

I am walking right now the last part and if you stay out of the well known stopping places it is very quiet!!!

 

[JAMM]

Thank you Falcon - I think I did not express myself very clearly: I am aware that May is busy, that the last stretch is crowded and that one cannot book Xunta albergues but was hoping to find out whether the public places get full daily. A lot of people seem to favour private places. My inclination is to take a chance at least on half of the days but wanted to know whether those on the ground now or those who have travelled on similar dates in the past have seen full Xunta albergues regularly. I am not feeling particularly nervous but wanted to sound out everyone's wisdom is case my calm optimism is misplaced.

 

[JAMM]

I am walking right now the last part and if you stay out of the well known stopping places it is very quiet!!!

Thank you very much Annelies and good luck over the next few days.

 

[Colopalm]

I will be in Ribadiso beginning next week and then may have a better sense of how things are. My guess is that the albergueras at the Xuntas would have an idea how crowded the next ones are. Buen camino to you and your family.

 

[naplesdon]

I would like to offer a repeat to the response from Falcon.
If I was walking with 4 people I would plan on arriving at public albergue by 1 or 2pm, crowds or not. I can't help but think the way between Sarria and Santiago late in May is going to be very busy.

 

[alhartman]

If I was walking with children 8 and 5 in a group of 4, I would book private accommodations--maybe one albergue night to get a feel for the experience. Gronze has a list as does booking.com
buen camino

 

[Deleted member 67185]

Thank you Falcon - I think I did not express myself very clearly: I am aware that May is busy, that the last stretch is crowded and that one cannot book Xunta albergues but was hoping to find out whether the public places get full daily.

I think the title of your thread, combined with the text, had me confused also, then. It sounded like you wanted to know how busy things were in order to help you to decide whether to pre-book, or to not pre-book.

 

[naplesdon]

Yup, EFL.

 

[anthikes]

I have just finished Astorga to Santiago after doing the Via from Sevilla. I would not book. It was busy but there were always empty beds. Never had a full dorm and used mix of privates and municipals.

One thing I discovered is that the popular privates that are booked out often had spare beds for walk ins. This happened in the popular Albergue Leo in Villafranca. The lady running it said she always keeps beds unreservable. I also got a bed in other popular albergues by just walking in.

 

[JAMM]

Thank you so much everyone for your helpful answers and suggestions and apologies for expressing myself unclearly.

I think we may try our luck in Xunta albergues for a couple of nights and book private albergues for the other nights. We really enjoyed the Xunta places last time but travelling with kids changes things (in all sorts of ways we are about to discover!).