Advice for Camino Primitivo
Mar 12th, 2024, 06:36 PM
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Advice for Camino Primitivo
My wife & I are looking at doing the Camino Primitivo from Oviedo to Santiago de Compostela. Most of the companies that I’ve seen on the internet that specialize in the Camino walks have people doing the Camino Primitivo in 14 days walking (16 days total) but a lot of these days are 25+ kms. We are a bit “on in age”, so I think 25+ km/day will be a bit too much for us and we’d like to add about 4 additional days to this walk but can’t seem to find a company to “tailor” this walk to our wishes. We like the idea of a company organizing our accommodations & transporting our luggage each day; especially, the latter which is a must. Anyways, I’d appreciate any suggestions that people out their may have……. Thanks - Bruce
Mar 13th, 2024, 02:17 AM
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Are you aware of this helpful forum for the Caminos: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/
It covers th various caminos and has questions posted by walkers and answered by fellow travelers. We walked the Camino Frances. We did some bookings thru Booking.com in advance. We ended up using a luggage transfer service because of some health challenges. The luggage services are all fairly similar and reliable and easy to set up on your own. I think Correos and Caminotaxi service the Oviedo route.
If you do not have a book yet, I would get a guide that covers the Camino Primitivo (available on the forum website I linked to). You can estimate the mileage you are willing to walk. You could book a few days out or commit yourself to walking the amount you believe is comfortable. It is not too difficult to set this up on your own.
It covers th various caminos and has questions posted by walkers and answered by fellow travelers. We walked the Camino Frances. We did some bookings thru Booking.com in advance. We ended up using a luggage transfer service because of some health challenges. The luggage services are all fairly similar and reliable and easy to set up on your own. I think Correos and Caminotaxi service the Oviedo route.
If you do not have a book yet, I would get a guide that covers the Camino Primitivo (available on the forum website I linked to). You can estimate the mileage you are willing to walk. You could book a few days out or commit yourself to walking the amount you believe is comfortable. It is not too difficult to set this up on your own.
Mar 28th, 2024, 01:09 PM
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Hi there.
I was supposed to be doing the Camino Norte on horseback but it fell through very recently. I just spent a week replanning my solo ten days in Spain. My husband and I will be traveling around Spain for three weeks, then he goes home and I go hiking.
I had the same issue. I found an outfit to do a one day horseback ride, and am walking the rest of the way from Sarria to Compostela. There are accomodations all along the Camino trails, and you can split up the stages any way you want. I was going to walk the Sarria to Palas de Rei in three days instead of two, but am now doing half on horse, and splitting the other day on foot.
I've also split up two other longer days into three. The upside is I'll be staying in a smaller town so miss the party atmosphere. Downside it's a smaller town. I was able to make reservations for a private room at all of the private albergues and pensiones. I'll be using the Correo service to do luggage transfer, it's very easy to set up on the internet before you leave home. The albergues and hotels can help you with it as well, but I'd get it arranged ahead. There's another private service Pilbeo, and others as well. Just google it.
A free phone app you might find useful is WisePilgrim. I have it on my Android phone. You can choose the Camino route, and it will give you the usual stages with all the things in between, distances, and services. For Example Oviedo to Grado (Stage 1- 27 km) shows Escamplero 12km with loding, food, shopping, Paldin 19.5 km lodging, food then Grado. You just click on the town to get a list of places to stay and eat. Once you play around with the distances and figure out where you'd like to stay, make the reservations ASAP. They're evaporating rapidly for this year, and most of the places are really small. You don't want to be competing for a bed with younger hikers, and you need a reservation to send luggage ahead. Pilbeo and the other private transfers will often have somewhere they can leave your luggage if you are staying somewhere without a reservation (but I wouldn't recommend doing that).
The Camino Primitivo has some stretches that are less supported than the other Caminos. Be sure to have a 2L water bladder and some food in your pack in case you can't find anywhere to get breakfast or lunch.
I was able to book most of the places on Booking.com, and the others I just emailed and got a prompt response. I used Google translate to make sure I was saying the right thing in my emails and to check the responses even though I do speak a little Spanish. It works pretty well, just gets some words and phrases off a little. Download Whatsapp if they have a phone# as it's probably a cell and try texting them if there's no email address.
You can book it all yourself, it will take a few days of time and research. There's plenty of info out there to help you, and you can get just the trip you want.
I was supposed to be doing the Camino Norte on horseback but it fell through very recently. I just spent a week replanning my solo ten days in Spain. My husband and I will be traveling around Spain for three weeks, then he goes home and I go hiking.
I had the same issue. I found an outfit to do a one day horseback ride, and am walking the rest of the way from Sarria to Compostela. There are accomodations all along the Camino trails, and you can split up the stages any way you want. I was going to walk the Sarria to Palas de Rei in three days instead of two, but am now doing half on horse, and splitting the other day on foot.
I've also split up two other longer days into three. The upside is I'll be staying in a smaller town so miss the party atmosphere. Downside it's a smaller town. I was able to make reservations for a private room at all of the private albergues and pensiones. I'll be using the Correo service to do luggage transfer, it's very easy to set up on the internet before you leave home. The albergues and hotels can help you with it as well, but I'd get it arranged ahead. There's another private service Pilbeo, and others as well. Just google it.
A free phone app you might find useful is WisePilgrim. I have it on my Android phone. You can choose the Camino route, and it will give you the usual stages with all the things in between, distances, and services. For Example Oviedo to Grado (Stage 1- 27 km) shows Escamplero 12km with loding, food, shopping, Paldin 19.5 km lodging, food then Grado. You just click on the town to get a list of places to stay and eat. Once you play around with the distances and figure out where you'd like to stay, make the reservations ASAP. They're evaporating rapidly for this year, and most of the places are really small. You don't want to be competing for a bed with younger hikers, and you need a reservation to send luggage ahead. Pilbeo and the other private transfers will often have somewhere they can leave your luggage if you are staying somewhere without a reservation (but I wouldn't recommend doing that).
The Camino Primitivo has some stretches that are less supported than the other Caminos. Be sure to have a 2L water bladder and some food in your pack in case you can't find anywhere to get breakfast or lunch.
I was able to book most of the places on Booking.com, and the others I just emailed and got a prompt response. I used Google translate to make sure I was saying the right thing in my emails and to check the responses even though I do speak a little Spanish. It works pretty well, just gets some words and phrases off a little. Download Whatsapp if they have a phone# as it's probably a cell and try texting them if there's no email address.
You can book it all yourself, it will take a few days of time and research. There's plenty of info out there to help you, and you can get just the trip you want.
