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Hi all! I am walking my first Camino in late May and would love some advice or thoughts on the best route for a beginner. I am trying to decide between the Portuges or the more popular Frances route; although I am a very social person, overcrowding does concern me and I want a journey that balances social interaction and solitude. Can anyone advise me? Thanks in advance!
It was also my first time and I walked the Camino Frances. I had a great balance of social interaction and solitude. It was a beautiful journey. Buen Camino!Hi all! I am walking my first Camino in late May and would love some advice or thoughts on the best route for a beginner. I am trying to decide between the Portuges or the more popular Frances route; although I am a very social person, overcrowding does concern me and I want a journey that balances social interaction and solitude. Can anyone advise me? Thanks in advance!
Why do you need nightlife on a camino ?I found the Portuguese very quiet. No night life. Walked alone a lot of it. Late from Lisbon.
I am for the Portugese. Kind people , excellent food and wines. Moderate landscape. This year I go for the second time !I am also in the Frances camp.
Why nobody tells about the crowds and the bedraces on the camino Francès ?Yeah, I think the Camino Frances is your best choice. Also, it's very user friendly for a first time pilgrim.
I can't say I found it to be too much of a factor in either Camino I walked, especially the stretch before O'Cebreiro. I stayed in one albergue where there was only one other peregrino besides myself in the whole place.Why nobody tells about the crowds and the bedraces on the camino Francès ?
I cycled CF last year fro m PAM and now wish to walk it from SJPdP...can't stop thinking about my 1st camino and dreaming about my 2ndI have only walked the Frances route although I have extensively researched other routes. If your Spanish or Potugese is weak you will have many more people to communicate with on the Frances where the common language among pilgrims is English. I think there are more landmarks with 'wow' value on the Frances. The hordes on the Frances have spawned an infrastructure to support them. So the Francis has more cafes, more albergues, more non-roadside paths, more guide books and more prolific trail marking. So for a first Camino I would suggest the Frances. It's even better the second time.
Likewise for my husband and me.. We returned from our Camino Frances last Oct. and talk about returning to walk the part we missed. We found the way seemed much busier mid-Aug. at SPPdP and less crowed from Sarria to Santiago. We could be surrounded with company on one day and walking alone on other days. We were usually the last ones to check in, and had the showers all to ourselvesFor many people the pilgrimage to Santiago is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, especially if we travel halfway around the world to get to Spain, so many of us that start out at the typical starting points together will begin our walk along the Camino as beginners! I was drawn to a route that I'd come to understand through my reading was very traditional, the Camino Frances. Although I was aware that people returned to the various Camino routes again and again, I thought that my circumstances might only allow me to do this journey once in my life so I wanted to walk the Camino Frances beginning in St Jean Pied de Port. In spite of my pre-Camino plans to walk shorter daily distances, I got caught up in a group that adhered to the "Brierley stage" model. These people were a lovely "Camino family" for me to have but their endurance and goals turned out to be more ambitious than I could keep up with. It took several days of pushing myself too hard and then lagging behind before I found my own Camino pace which was slower than that of most people, although occasionally I would meet pilgrims from earlier on who had also found a slower pace to be better or who were taking a rest day or were recovering from assorted maladies. I stayed at many lovely albergues between the "official stops" along the route. I wish I'd listened to the advice of the policeman in SJPP in the movie, "The Way," who recommends that Martin Sheen's character take 60 days to walk to Santiago. My vacation time did not stretch to walking all of the Camino in one go; however, to my enormous delight, after the train ride to Sarria where I began walking the final stretch (and completed it in seven days) I encountered many of the people I'd bonded with in Orisson, Roncesvalles and Zubiri and at many other points along the way. During my 2-1/2 days in Santiago I met up with many people I'd met along every part of the way including my first day en route to my overnight at Orisson. Having been there and walked about 5/8 of the route from SJPP to Santiago, that is the one I recommend for a first timer. In reading accounts of people walking the other routes, lack of amenities and less direction signs, larger distances between places and less fellow pilgrims make them less appealing to me. Also I believe in making a reservation if possible for the next night's bed, especially if your arrival time will be later than noon during peak seasons. Also, I can't stress strongly enough about finding your own pace and making the pilgrimage your own and walking shorter daily distances, even if your new friends are bound and determined to do it at a more rapid pace. Prior to my trip to Spain to walk the Camino in Sept-Oct 2013 it never occurred to me that I'd ever contemplate going back there to continue walking. My revised bucket list now includes returning to the Camino Frances to walk the parts that I missed out on my first time when I moved ahead by bus or train.
not that crowded in late may, go for the french one in my opinionHi all! I am walking my first Camino in late May and would love some advice or thoughts on the best route for a beginner. I am trying to decide between the Portuges or the more popular Frances route; although I am a very social person, overcrowding does concern me and I want a journey that balances social interaction and solitude. Can anyone advise me? Thanks in advance!
I found the Portuguese very quiet. No night life. Walked alone a lot of it. Late from Lisbon.
Hmmmmm, I read 'no night life' as a plus on a camino, not a complaint.Why do you need nightlife on a camino ?
Have not walked the Portuguese, but have done parts of the CF twice, first in late May (7 years ago) and again 2 years ago in the fall.
While time passes a lot faster when you have people to chat with, if you are looking for introspection and quiet, I would head to Portugal: the 2nd time on the Camino I could not escape the noise - people yaking away, scaring birds along the way when I was trying to observe them. I did get to tape frogs signing though at some point. Just lovley.
This being said, perhaps if you don't do the traditional stages, do not aim to stay where Brierly and al suggest you sleep, you will have more quiet time, and the option to push forwards, or hang back if you want more social interaction, on the CF - the best of both worlds? And CF is the "brand" of the Camino, isn't it?
Have I missed somewhere in this thread how much time you have available to do your "Camino" to Santiago, and when exactly from where you intend to start? We do have some statistics (half lies?) on the volumes of trodden paths during May and June from various classical starting points of the Francés. Just so as to avoid the probableWow, thanks everyone - such comprehensive information! You've all convinced me - I'll definitely be doing the Frances. If you'll be walking in May - hope to see you on the Way! xo
@Albertinho are you being selfish here? You cannot keep the CP to yourself, at least, not for long!If you all walk the CF we have peace and quietness on the CP
Buen camino Francès
@Albertinho are you being selfish here? You cannot keep the CP to yourself, at least, not for long!
I've been thinking for some time to actually walk back from Santiago. (on the Francés). I must admit that I tried a stretch two years ago and promptly got lost, since there are no arrows going East. I now expect that there will be so many pilgrim hordes going West that it might not happen again!?Walk the Camino Frances against the wave ;-)[...]
I can't say which is best but know that we did the portuguese from porto to santiago last year and it was a great balance. We had ample time for solitude and met many people each day. We started may 1. We did meet some pilgrims who had walked from Lisbon and they said they had not met very many pilgrims in the first stretch, and the infrastructure was definitely not as established. We are this year doing from Leon to santiago.Hi all! I am walking my first Camino in late May and would love some advice or thoughts on the best route for a beginner. I am trying to decide between the Portuges or the more popular Frances route; although I am a very social person, overcrowding does concern me and I want a journey that balances social interaction and solitude. Can anyone advise me? Thanks in advance!
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