July & August on the camino
Hola Monica,
If you are a good, strong walker you can do St Jean to Finisterre in a month but it really is pushing it! I walked my first camino in 2002 from Roncesvalles to Santiago in 27 days - averaging 28kms per day. My walking buddy was 74 years old. It takes another 3 days to walk to Finisterre but we didn't have time to do that so we caught a bus there instead. You still walk the last 2½ to 3kms from the village up to the lighthouse at the "End of the World".
In 2004 the refuges were pretty full - due to it being a Holy Year - but we were never turned away from an albergue. The authorities found extra places in gymnasiums, school halls etc for the overflows. I don't know if these places will be available this year.
If you have to book ahead in hotels of fondas, you can order the book "Guia Oficial de Hoteles y Campings del
Camino de Santiago". It is available free of charge in French, German, Spanish and English and lists all accommodation authorized by the appropriate municipal and national tourism authorities You can obtain the booklet free of charge in any tourist office or from TOURSPAIN (The last E-mail contact we had was:
manuel.jurado@tourspain.es. )
As for the advice of guide books, the 2006 CSJ guide book has this to say:
Traditionally the best time to arrive in Santiago was a day or two before 25th July, the feast of St James. The problem is that over the past few years there has been a massive upsurge of interest in the camino and a corresponding increase in demand of the facilities along the way. The problem gets more acute the nearer you get to Santiago. It reaches its first peak in the two weeks leading up to 25 th July when the whole route is inundated with large numbers of high0-spirited noisy groups from schools, scouts and the like, some on bikes, some on foot. This in turn means that space is at a premium in any of the pilgrim refuges in Galicia and even if you can get in a quiet night's rest is remote. August, the traditional holiday month in Spain is as bad and, without any specific date to aim for, the problem lasts longer starts further back along the camino. In addition there may be water shortages in some of the villages along the way. If you still want to/have no choice but to go in this time the advice is to try to avoid the refuges in the larger towns on the route and to carry at least a tent or to use hotels and fondas.
Good luck dear pilgrim!