Is O Cebreiro - SdC in 8 days doable?

[azjulia]

Hi! I'm planning my Camino for around May 2024 and I only have about 2 weeks off of work. Flying from a US city-MAD. I was thinking of bookending my journey with 2 days in Madrid at the beginning and also 2 days afterward before my flight home. One or two nights in Santiago after my walk.

1. How difficult is it to get from Madrid to O Cebreiro?
2. I have not done a Camino before but I ride mountain bikes and after this summer when it cools down, I will start training by walking longer distances (and also to break in my shoes!) Do you think this amount of time is possible to finish in SdC from O Cebreiro?

Many thanks!

 

[koknesis]

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Buen Camino!

 

[trecile]

Do you think this amount of time is possible to finish in SdC from O Cebreiro?

If you can do the stages on Gronze it will be enough.

Camino Francés | Gronze.com

El Camino Francés es el Camino de Santiago en el que confluyen la mayoría de las vías medievales de peregrinación europeas, siendo por tanto el camino de mayor relevancia histórica y el más seguido por los peregrinos. Su punto de inicio, hoy en día, tanto puede considerarse Roncesvalles como...

www.gronze.com

 

[Walkerooni]

Yes. I comfortably walked from before O'Cebreiro to Santiago in 7 days, as a very fit 64 year old with a lot of pre-training, who had started in SJPdP. Just as for me the most important thing I could do for my Camino prep was to stop running and up my walking, the most important thing you can do is get off your bike and onto your feet. Train for that which you plan to do. I see you are from US. You will lose a travel day. One thing I would recommend is to book a multi-city flight. Perhaps fly into Madrid and spend 2 days as planned. But instead of returning to Madrid for 2 days at the end, book a flight home from Santiago. It gives you a buffer in case you can't, or choose not to walk quite as far as you'd planned each day. You can always find something to do with an extra day but where people seem to run into problems is when they have to rush to meet a deadline. Bottom line--it should be enough time, but there are things you can do to ensure it IS enough time. Happy planning and enjoy every step!

 

[azjulia]

Thank you for the links! And thank you Walker for your insights about training and suggestion of flying different route home. Not going back to Madrid means I could take a bit more time on the trail.

 

[Anhalter]

Being an enthusiastic hiker i have done it in 6 and 5 days. I guess most should be able to do it in 7 and pretty much all in 8 days. There are some hills after O Cebreiro, but the serious climbs are before that. Also infrastructure is really good.
Would recommend taking the variant over Samos. The path there is absolutely stunning and the monestary in Samos is incredible.

 

[JabbaPapa]

Being an enthusiastic hiker i have done it in 6 and 5 days. I guess most should be able to do it in 7 and pretty much all in 8 days.

For me, 5 days in 1994, and 4 days on the 2005.

Last year from Santiago to O Cebreiro by absolute contrast took me about 3 weeks -- though I did have some extremely slow and short days during the first week or so out of Santiago.

I'd say those are the extremes of super fit hiking in youth and super slow walking with a disability.

But yeah, it's about 150K, and average Camino hiking speed for an average, healthy walker is ~25K/day, so that 8 days even if you're a little slower than that should be OK.

Even with the disability in 2014, though not as bad as it is now, it took me 9 days.

 

[markie6]

Variables like weather , injuries arriving and fitness, pack carrier or sender etc

yes manageable

 

[lt56ny]

It is an average of 20.25km per day. WIth all the albergues along the way you can pretty well break your stages down to about 20km per day, give or take a couple of kilometers

 

[Derek Booth]

I did it in 7 days in 2019 as a wrinklie 69yrs old.
I reckon I could repeat that 4yrs later and I would still have a silly grin on my face. (and I don't ride mountain bikes!)

 

[Bogong]

Hi! I'm planning my Camino for around May 2024 and I only have about 2 weeks off of work. Flying from a US city-MAD. I was thinking of bookending my journey with 2 days in Madrid at the beginning and also 2 days afterward before my flight home. One or two nights in Santiago after my walk.

1. How difficult is it to get from Madrid to O Cebreiro?
2. I have not done a Camino before but I ride mountain bikes and after this summer when it cools down, I will start training by walking longer distances (and also to break in my shoes!) Do you think this amount of time is possible to finish in SdC from O Cebreiro?

Many thanks!

In my 70th year I left Trabadelo on 21March 2014 and arrived in SdC at 9 am morning of 26 March. Maybe I could have made it the day before but I was wet through and feeling a bit stuffed so I overnighted in the San Paio hostal in Lavacolla. So what you’re suggesting should’t be too hard if you’re reasonably fit.

De Colores

Bogong

 

[John Crawford Howell]

In May of 2017, I did it in 9 days. I was purposely going slow during my entire Camino Frances experience. I was 75 years old. You will have no problem.