A slow Camino Mixto May 2025

[Donna Sch]

It's been a long time between Caminos with the last effort being the Levante and Invierno in 2019. Barrie and I are older and fatter, and he has had some health issues in-between so if I am going to plan a slightly hilly Camino (Madrid/Salvador/Primitivo) *cough, cough* then short stages are the go.
The current plan is to spend a week in Madrid playing tourist before heading off. All because the old rodeo bull-rider in him is determined to see a bullfight and has bought tickets for Las Ventas. So we officially will start the actual Camino on the 5th May.
But I'm starting a thread to have somewhere to ask questions.
So for our stint in Madrid, has anybody ever been there due the public holidays on May 1/2 and are there any specific events for those days (parades, concerts?) worth seeing? Also do the usual tourist attractions get busier on public holidays or do the locals prefer to stay at home? If the Museums are super busy I'm happy to spend a good chunk of the day in Retiro but not if every local is also going there.
And has anybody been to the Madrid zoo? Barrie is a zoo tragic. Opinions of it?
For anyone going around the same time, the accommodation that is currently available in Madrid is fairly pricey.
I've booked ahead for the first few stops because there is not much available that is cheap ( and the Aussie dollar is only worth about 60 cents so the currency is not in our favour. And I have been emailing directly as well as using booking.com.
El Chiscón in Tres Cantos has a pilgrim rate of €60 for a doble and breakfast with no cancellation fees.

 

[J Willhaus]

I love the three art museums in Madrid which could take at least 5 days!

 

[David Tallan]

It's been a long time between Caminos with the last effort being the Levante and Invierno in 2019. Barrie and I are older and fatter, and he has had some health issues in-between so if I am going to plan a slightly hilly Camino (Madrid/Salvador/Primitivo) *cough, cough* then short stages are the go.
The current plan is to spend a week in Madrid playing tourist before heading off. All because the old rodeo bull-rider in him is determined to see a bullfight and has bought tickets for Las Ventas. So we officially will start the actual Camino on the 5th May.
But I'm starting a thread to have somewhere to ask questions.
So for our stint in Madrid, has anybody ever been there due the public holidays on May 1/2 and are there any specific events for those days (parades, concerts?) worth seeing? Also do the usual tourist attractions get busier on public holidays or do the locals prefer to stay at home? If the Museums are super busy I'm happy to spend a good chunk of the day in Retiro but not if every local is also going there.
And has anybody been to the Madrid zoo? Barrie is a zoo tragic. Opinions of it?
For anyone going around the same time, the accommodation that is currently available in Madrid is fairly pricey.
I've booked ahead for the first few stops because there is not much available that is cheap ( and the Aussie dollar is only worth about 60 cents so the currency is not in our favour. And I have been emailing directly as well as using booking.com.
El Chiscón in Tres Cantos has a pilgrim rate of €60 for a doble and breakfast with no cancellation fees.

There was an albergue in Tres Cantos. They required 48 hours notice, if I remember correctly. Or you could sleep at Mision Emmanuel for €60 less, than what you have booked, but it would be a little more spartan. Food was included in the €0 price, though.

My next stage led me to Manzanares el Real where Ray and Rosa operate a wonderful little albergue/acogida. It is donativo, so not free. But also not more expensive than you want it to be.

From Manzanares, I went to the youth hostel just past Cercedilla. This was less than €20.

So I didnt find my first few stages too expensive. All of this was before the really hilly part started.

 

[Donna Sch]

Our first week will be incredibly slow ie
Centro->Fuencarral ->Tres Cantos -> Colmenar Viejo ->Manzanares--> Navacerrada ->Las Deshesas -> Valsain. But we have the time to do it that way as we have 60 days up our sleeve. Barrie is a snorer so I'm sticking to smaller albergues where possible. And I just want to get a feel for the area and how busy it is likely to be.

 

[Jim Porter]

Hi Donna and thanks for your post. If you have one, could I have a sense of your stages and stops list from the Invierno? My wife and I (also older and fatter) will do a reverse Camino in 2026 and look to take the Invierno west to east from Santiago to Ponferrada. Any resource would be very helpful, and enjoy your walk this spring!
Pastor Jim

 

[peregrina2000]

Sounds like a great camino! And with the gift of time, so much the better.

There can’t be an official holiday in Madrid without some activities, concerts, markets, etc going on. I’m sure there will be lots of schedules and general information on the internet as we get closer to the date. Since May 1 is a national holiday and May 2 is a Madrid holiday, that makes for a very long weekend. Lots of people leave town, but many of those that stay will have a lot of free time, so I would expect things to be hopping. The Retiro Park will probably be mobbed, but you can usually get away from the crowds if you head off away from the main attractions. People watching in a mobbed Retiro is a lot of fun, plenty of cafés and benches for that purpose. Just a heads up for pickpockets!

In addition to all the standard tourist destinations in Madrid, I’ll throw in three that are probably not on anyone’s top three list but are all exceptional, IMHO.

Sorolla Museum - If you like impressionists this is the place to go, but (edited to add) unfortunately it looks like it’s closed for renovations. The museum is located in Sorolla’s home in a residential neighborhood of Madrid. The closing took place in Oct. 2024, so I’m guessing it won’t be open by May.

But that still leaves climbing/taking the elevator to the top of the Cibeles Palace, which used to be Marid’s central post office and has now been repurposed and a few tourist attractions added. The view from up there is great, down the Gran Vía, nice café too.

And the National Archaeological Museum, which was closed for renovations for 4-5 years in the 90s-2000s, bears no relationship to its former self as a dusty, dark, series of rooms with rows and rows of artifacts. It was a total transformation, and the place is open, airy, excellent displays, it’s just really an incredible museum with priceless artifacts from over the millenia.

Buen camino!

 

[TuiMarie]

Hi Donna. We might cross paths at same stage. We are kiwis so I totally relate to the money side. We are even worse at around 54-55.

I'm doing the Madrid with my aunt and we are starting from Colmenar Vieja on the 12th. It's our first ever Camino so I'm trying to plan for shorter to medium length days. We are hoping to stay at RayyRosa's in Manzanares, then a youth hostel in Las Deshesas, and then Granja, before heading into Segovia for a rest day.

I'm trying not plan too much. That's really hard for me because I love travel planning but I'm not sure how far or how little we can actually walk in a day. So far the only accommodation I have booked is in Uruena. We are doing a side trip here. I heard about it from someone here and when I looked into it I knew I had visit, but there's limited accommodation.