VdlP via Ourense or Astorga

[Andrewere]

I leave the UK for Sevilla on 13th October but havn't decided whether to go to Santiago via Ourense or Astorga. I'm slightly inclined to go via Astorga so that I can meet more pilgrims as there probably wont be that many on the VdlP. I'll make my decision en route but has anyone here done both routes?

Andrew.

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, Andrew,

I have only walked the Vdlp via Ourense, but I have walked the Camino Frances, so the only part I don't know is the part between Granja de Moreruela and Astorga. According to some people I have met along the way, that stretch is not anything to write home about. One guy I met described it to me as four days of penance, but my impression is that it's not difficult, and that there's just not much of anything along the route, so it's kind of boring. But it's just a few days.

I think you might want to leave the decision till you are actually close to it (the bifurcation is well marked in Granja de Moreruela), depending on what you may know about upcoming weather and the people you've been walking with. In my experience (but I've only walked this route once), everyone I met on the Vdlp took the Ourense alternative. Astorga to Santiago has a lot of those iconic places on the Camino -- Rabanal, Cruz de Hierro, O Cebreiro, but the Ourense alternative is quite beautiful as well. If you think you might be going back to walk the Camino Frances, you could leave it all for the next time.

Though it may be a tough choice, there's no bad answer! Buen camino, Laurie

 

[lynnejohn]

Andrew -

I have walked the Ourense route and will do so again this spring. I love that stretch - the landscape and the cities and towns on it. This route between Zamora and Santiago is called the Sanabrese and you can look it up at mundicamino.com to help with your decision.

If you are looking for more peregrinos, however, you are correct that you will find more from Astorga to SDC.

My view is similar to Laurie's - no choice of caminos is wrong, because you can always go back and walk them all!

Best of luck with your planning and Buen Camino.

lynne

 

[lovingkindness]

Hello, Andrew. In the past 12 months I have walked all three routes from Zamora -the via Sanabres (Oct-Dec, 2010) , the route from Astorga down to Fuenterroble de Salvaterre (Via de la Plata backwards, March, 2010), and also the Portuguese option from Zamora via Braganca to Ourense (July 2010, with a tent, very few alberques). Unless you are a hardy soul and like sleeping in a tent at winter time, or can afford hotels and guests houses and love total solitude,I would cross off the Portuguese option. The Astorga route I found flat and tedious, being basically a Roman road running parallel or close to a motorway much of the way after Granja de .... It does, however,ive you a quick jaunt up to an instant social life and much company if you are feeling lonely. That leaves the Via Sanabres which I found beautiful but cold. You may (or may not ) care to read a little of what I wrote about these routes elsewhere on this site:

-see 'Walking in Winter' for my walk along via Sanabres in Nov/Dec and comments on the Astorga route ( '7 April').

Buen Camino, Lovingkindness.

 

[skilsaw]

Hi Andrew,
I walked the Astorga route in May 2006, and the Ourense route in May 2010.

If you have walked the Camino Frances already, then the Ourense route is the only choice.
The hills are challenging and beautiful. I took the way through Astorga the first time because I had met an Italian man and the two of us became buddies... staying at the same place each night. While I hoped for some of the magic feeling again on the Camino Frances, it didn't happen. That is not to say the CF again a letdown. Just that it is nolonger new. The way through Ourense is new and the Albergues in the little villages are quaint.

Good luck. And know that you can't loose, whichever way you go.

David, Victoria, Canada.

 

[hel&scott]

Having walked both options I'd go with the Ourense route, its more interesting and the numbers of pilgrims start to increase and you get closer to Santiago. Sadly the route to Astorga is as earlier commented disappointingly dominated by heavy road traffic. Astorga itself is lovely, but the Camino Frances is pretty backed from here on in and it gets more competitive.

 

[Andrewere]

Thanks for your help everyone. It will probably be via Ourense then. I will arrive in Sevilla next Wednesday morning and will probably start walking on Thursday. I'm hoping to get my credential from the tourist office near the Cathedral , where I got my previous one in November 08. If not I'll try the Amigos in Triana. I'll be writing a live blog and will put the address here before I go. I'm not much of a writer so it will be mostly photos.

Andrew.

 

[lynnejohn]

Go well and safely, Andrew.
Looking forward to your pictures (and hope a few words!)

lynne