To book or not to book?

[JZA]

I have done a number of Caminos and have always held that booking accomadation ahead is a bad thing. It locks you in, reduces the freedom I feel walking without a schedule, etc. But….
My wife wanted to walk the Camino Portuguese from Porto to celebrate (?) a special birthday and we booked ahead and used the excellent Top Santiago to move our luggage. I struggled with this at first but told myself it was her Camino and to embrace the new experience. Which I eventually did.
Then I realised that my not booking, just seeing where I got to was a bit of an illusion. One of the effects of NOT booking ahead was that I almost always ended up at the bigger towns where there were more options so how “free” was I really being? I was just following the guidebooks section by section. So, for my next Camino I will NOT be taking luggage but I will be more flexible about booking. That way I can choose my own stops.

 

[JesperK]

Excellent choice. I went through the same deliberations - although I've never used any of the numerous luggage transports. On my last two caminos I ended up in smaller towns staying at albergues & hotels I've never before considered because I relied too much on the brierley guide.

 

[kelleymac]

We used the brierly guides and just didn't pay attention to the daily stops. We usually walked longer than suggested, and so ended up somewhere in the middle of brierly's planned day.

 

[BrianLCrabtree]

I’m on day 42 from Le Puy to SJPdP to Irun to Bilbao, starting the Olvidado tomorrow. I understand both viewpoints of the booking question. I’m booking a few days ahead as I go and have stayed at a few gîtes and albergues that were full. A particular example was the albergue at Pozueta on a chilly, muddy, rainy day. So many people were turned away and had to continue in a slanting rain after climbing 7 km from Guernica through a quagmire created by heavy logging machinery. I was grateful to be inside, warm, dry, fed, and they have a washer and dryer.