I am considering a pilgrimage along the Camino Frances from St. Jean de Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela. Apparently, it is an old and well traveled path with plenty of amenities along the way.
As the trek is 500 miles, I do accept that I will have to look to achieving 20 miles or so a day to complete in 30 days or so but I am still most concerned about the time to do this.
My plan is to camp out and tent it as much as possible, which means carrying an extra change of shirt, socks and underwear, not terrible and use a refugio perhaps once every 3 or 4 nights, getting a good washing and laundry done at the same time.
I found a very good article about the Camino, i think it was called Tips on the Path to Saint James, but it dd not get into best times to go as, I suppose, everyone has their own parameters for that.
My preferences are to enjoy the path first and foremost, meet people but not to many, and do so in a temperate clime, not too hot, not too cold.
Has anyone done this pilgrimage in March / April / May or September / October / November and when would be my Best time to go?
Camino de Santiago de Compostela
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I've collected a lot of information about the Camino but have not walked it. There are 2 recent threads that have lots of good info. One is called something like "has anyone walked the camino de santiago" and the other is a trip report called "my camino". Do a search for these. You should join the Society of St. James for excellent information on walking the Camino. BTW - you can walk as much or as little as you want to walk. There are several different routes and you can start from wherever you want. Some people walk 1,000 miles or more. Traditionally you need to do the last 100 KM for a pilgrim certificate.
I would avoid November in northern Spain unless you are ready for cold, rainy weather and are used to it.
Why don't you want to stay in a refugio every night? Won't you get lonely always camping? I would think that the community of other pilgrims would be part of the experience.
If you google Camino do Santiago you will find tons of information.
Buen Camino!
The ONLY place for information is this forum
http://www.caminodesantiago.me/board/
Read through 1000s of posts written . There are also one or two members here who have done the Camino.
Go too early or too late in the year and you can get snow on the mountains which the Camino passes through.
I had forgotten about Laurie Reynolds wonderful reports on walking the Camino. Great link to that forum.
ribeirasacra - I see you live in Galacia - have you walked the Camino?
I was told that that September is the busiest to walk the camino according to hotels in Santiago.
Perhaps you wwould enjoy the movie The Way-it's out on DVD.
I've been in Santiago in April and October and Galicia was just rainy, day after day-not showers,just downpours all day!
Not much fun in a tent!
You'll also find that there are not a lot of places to pitch your tent along the way, which is why there are Albergues. You'll also need reservations at most campsites.
We always see a lot of pilgrims passing through Navarra in April-July, September and early October, but the newer coastal route is nicer during the summer months.
www.santiago-compostela.net/cdn/index_cdn_en.html
If you haven't already watched "The Way", the Martin Sheen movie, you should. It gives you a good idea of what conditions are like, especially on the French route (the most popular) in the Pyrenees and Galicia (theway-themovie.com).
You can also check out the following:
www.caminodesantiago.me.uk
www.caminosantiagocompostela.com
www.caminosantiago.com
adrienne no I have not walked the Camino- I am too busy working and now Due to ill health walking long distances will is no longer possible. I actually live nearer the Camino de Invierno.
Going back to the Camino Frances. Whist it is reasonably busy at the momnet it does seem the statistics show that there are less pilgrims over the year (so far).
Is the film a true representation of a pilgrimage?
chapla getting rain all days in April and October...you were just unlucky.
Mrs Adu made the walk from St Jean to Santiago and they started in May and it took them 10 weeks. They are older than most pilgrims and some distances were dictated by where they could stay for the evening.