The Path
| Type |
Amount |
Information |
Comfort |
Highway
|
1/20 |
Walking on the side of a paved highway (speed limit ~90 km/h)
- hard surface on feet, otherwise smooth
- cars driving by (may honk on pilgrims :)
- modern looking, naturally |
-1 |
| Small road |
1/4 |
Paved, quite few cars. Going through small villages, where road may be paved
with stones (a little hard to walk on, puddles when raining, nice-looking). |
0 |
| Dirt road |
1/5 |
Ok on feet, mostly nice views and serene surroundings. |
1 |
| 2-person path |
1/4 |
Two persons can mostly walk abreast. Nice surroundings - trees, fields, flowers etc.
Loose dirt mostly good on feet, sometimes stony. |
2 |
| Mud rut |
1/5 |
When raining, the small paths may turn to mud drains. Even the best hiking boots will get wet,
unless you tediously avoid all puddles (which is very slow). Cowshit as a bonus. :) |
-2 |
Orienteering
You cannot get lost. Really. There are (the famous) painted, yellow arrows on every crossroads.
Sometimes a little faded, you cannot go more than half a kilometer without seeing them. |
Transportation
| * about the bus lines around the way * |
The Alberques
| Type |
Price |
Information |
Public
("Municipal")
|
3e |
Always very clean. Toilets, showers, kitchens (may not have any pots!), coint-operated washing machines and dryers. Price includes disposable sheets (but no planket). |
| Commercial |
7-10e |
Extremely clean. Toilets, showers, kitchens, washing/dryed machines (extra pay).
Many have Internet computers (coin operated). |
Restaurants
Most alberques have restaurants withing a few hundred meters. All restaurants we visited had menus at 7-10e. Food metered from chop-house ("okay") quality to extremely tasty (the small pulperia at Portomarin).
Basicly, if the place is full of local people, it should have quite good food. |
Cooking by yourself
All alberques, public or private, had quite good kitchens - but most have very few dishes and some have none.
Some, but not all, alberques have fridges. |
Medical (supplies)
Most villages have pharmacy shops where you can buy almost any medicines. In some places, albergues advertise
nearby physicians, fysiotherapists or masseurs to help the wary traveller. |
Costs (as we did it)
| Day |
Lodging |
Dinner** |
Drink (alc.)** |
Breakfast |
Travel |
Total |
PrepDay*
|
30€ |
- |
- |
(hotel) |
15€ (bus), taxi (9€) |
54€ |
| 1 |
3€ |
8€ |
5€ |
2€ |
- |
18€ |
| 2 |
7€ |
9€ |
3€ |
4€ |
- |
23€ |
| 3 |
8€ |
8€ |
4€ |
3€ |
- |
23€ |
| 4 |
3€ |
10€ |
5€ |
3€ |
- |
21€ |
| 5 |
10€ |
9€ |
3€ |
4€ |
- |
26€ |
| 6 |
3€ |
8€ |
8€ |
2€ |
- |
21€ |
| 7 |
30€ |
18€ |
12€ |
5€ |
9€ (taxi) |
74€ |
| TOTAL |
94€ |
70€ |
40€ |
23€ |
33€ |
260€ |
* Note:
"PrepDay" and day 7 include a hotel night and travelling by taxi&bus (from/to airport & to O Cebreiro).
** Note: We wanted to enjoy the travel, so we ate dinners and most breakfasts in restaurants.
And drand beer/wine.
For your enjoyment, theoretical calculations with 1) no hotel nights, 2) no alcoholic drinks 3) no restaurant use:
| Day |
Lodging |
Dinner |
Drink (alc.) |
Breakfast |
Travel |
Total |
| NoHotel |
34€ |
70€ |
40€ |
23€ |
33€ |
200€ |
| NoDrink |
34€ |
70€ |
0€ |
23€ |
33€ |
160€ |
| NoRestaur* |
34€ |
27€ |
0€ |
9€ |
33€ |
103€ |
* Note: 3€ is calculated for each day for lunch/dinner and 1€ for breakfast.
Daily money usage
| Type |
What |
Daily € |
Ours
|
As seen on table above, including hotel nights (2 per hotel room) |
29€ |
| NoHotel |
No notel nights before or ofter the trip (there are alberques in Santiago) |
29€ |
| NoDrink |
No alcoholic drinks at all |
23€ |
| NoRestaur |
No restaurant usage. Self-made dinner, breakfast etc. Note: carry some pots/pans! |
15€ |
Internet
All private alberques and most municipal we visited had (coin-operated) internet computers. Otherwise,
you can always find one in a net cafe or in a commune-supplied tourist information centre.
Also, wireless connections (Wi-Fi) are available on most alberques and mobile wireless networks
(from GPRS to 3G) work on most locations along the way. |
People
We met people from: Spain, France, USA, Germany, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Korea, Poland, Israel, Australia, Danmark..
|
Langueges
In Spain, english is not very widely known. In smaller villages, no-one may speak it. In the alberques we visited (7), only one one staff person could speak more than a few words. Some people speak french or german. In short, you can assume that all persons over forty of age speak only spanish.
However, spanish is relatively easy to learn, expecially for people who know other roman languages. Buy a Berlitz tourist language guide or a similar small book, learn numbers 1-0, "please", "thanks", "how much" and "where" and you will be doing nicely. Also, sign language and mimics work well. :) |
The weather
In Galicia, 200 days from 365 are rainy! During the summer season (June-August) the lower temperatures
may be as low as +7oC, when the higher may be as high as +40oC. Part of the Camino goes quite high on mountains, so walking can be chilly/windy. When it rains, the rain comes horizonta... |
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