Seeking guidance on becoming a hospitalera on the Camino Frances

[Deyanira]

Hello, fellow travellers!

I am creating this thread because I am interested in becoming a hospitalera on the Camino Frances, and I apologize in advance if this already exists. I searched for similar threads with no luck.

This summer, from the end of July until mid-August, I fulfilled my dream to walk the Camino Frances. I started from Pamplona and did 713 km of walking to Santiago de Compostela. I am in love with this experience!

That's why I am interested in becoming a hospitalera or helping in an Albergue if needed. I speak English, Bulgarian, and conversational Spanish. (I also have a NIE if it matters.)

Could someone please tell me how I can fulfil this? Is it possible for this year in September/October?
If yes, how much time can I be a volunteer / hospitalera? I would appreciate it if you'd like to share any tips or experiences related to the topic.

Thank you for your time! Buen Camino!

 

[alexwalker]

Search more: (see the search icon on upper right), There are many threads about this subject on this forum. But you can also PM (se letter icon on top right of your screen) @Rebekah Scott in here directly: She knows everything about the subjet.

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

@Deyanira , I contacted HosVol at manuelhosvol@caminosantiago.org
at somebody's suggestion to the same question. You have to complete a short training first.
There are other options, what Rebekah doesn't know probably isn't worth knowing...
Incidentally it's normally for two weeks, either the first two weeks or the last of any given month.
Good luck, and enjoy!

 

[J Willhaus]

We volunteer for both FICS (contact Rebekah) and HosVol (in the US American Pilgrims on the Camino does the training). HosVol has more albergues on the CF. In Spain contact HosVol directly as there are many trainings in Spain.

 

[puttster]

The APOC wants you to pay $50 to join and then $650 for a training/motivation session before they will find you a place to work for no pay from 5AM to 10PM for a minimum of two weeks.

Is there a better way to volunteer than this?

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

That's crazy! Here in Germany the equivalent of the apoc does it for free. I do have to pay for food and accommodation for the two days but that's it. (Less than half of what you're paying).

 

[J Willhaus]

The APOC wants you to pay $50 to join and then $650 for a training/motivation session before they will find you a place to work for no pay from 5AM to 10PM for a minimum of two weeks.

Is there a better way to volunteer than this?

We happily paid the cost of membership and training and have volunteered for no pay many times. Its much more rewarding than you make it sound.

Maybe consider volunteering at the Pilgrim office in Santiago or St Jean if you feel it is too expensive?

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Puttster, you malign good people doing good work. There are other places you can train for less money. The Canadian program is second to none, the Australians and South Africans and English also offer great training sessions, but I don't know what they cost. It is a good idea to be trained. Hospitalero-ing is not brain surgery, the work is hard and hours are long, and some people are completely unfit for it. And some are utterly gifted. Training helps you determine where you fall on the spectrum.
In the tradition of many years, there are some albergues on the caminos where you don't have to undergo a training session to volunteer, you only have to have finished a camino and be somewhat sane and able-bodied and willing to work. For two weeks. With no pay.
But if you have a bad attitude, please find something else to do with your spare time.

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

Puttster, you malign good people doing good work. There are other places you can train for less money. The Canadian program is second to none, the Australians and South Africans and English also offer great training sessions, but I don't know what they cost. It is a good idea to be trained. Hospitalero-ing is not brain surgery, the work is hard and hours are long, and some people are completely unfit for it. And some are utterly gifted. Training helps you determine where you fall on the spectrum.
In the tradition of many years, there are some albergues on the caminos where you don't have to undergo a training session to volunteer, you only have to have finished a camino and be somewhat sane and able-bodied and willing to work. For two weeks. With no pay.
But if you have a bad attitude, please find something else to do with your spare time.

How is he maligning people? He is simply querying the cost of the training. The membership fee is one thing, a $650 training cost is ridiculous. Bearing in mind that as hospitaleros we are then going on to not only work for 2 weeks as volunteers, but also funding our own travel and food costs I don't think it's an unreasonable question. We are volunteering our time, why cannot the trainers volunteer theirs, or alternative funding for their time be sought. (Edit : you state that there are other places where he can train for less but then fail to list them - which would have been a better answer to his question.)
And as to questioning his attitude??
I can but presume that for some reason this has hit a nerve with you. I normally highly value your comments - this is not one of them.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Yes I am very tired. I am still in the middle of recruiting volunteers for 2024. I still need about 16 good people willing to give two weeks of their time to care for a scruffy albergue in the middle of the Frances.
It's hard work, hospitalero-ing. It's hard work training hospitaleros, and recruiting quality people to do the job. It is exhausting and sometimes expensive. And it is unpaid. We are volunteers. Full-time.
Having uninformed people slanging volunteer trainers, and questioning the worth of traning courses? Yes, that really does touch a nerve with me. If this person took the time to look into the USA courses, he'd see there is financial aid available to those who can't otherwise attend.
If he would like to train with the other national organizations listed, it's not hard to find their websites.
Step up and volunteer. We need good people to make this wonderful place work. Without traditional camino hospitality, this is just another walking trail.

 

[J Willhaus]

How is he maligning people? He is simply querying the cost of the training. The membership fee is one thing, a $650 training cost is ridiculous. Bearing in mind that as hospitaleros we are then going on to not only work for 2 weeks as volunteers, but also funding our own travel and food costs I don't think it's an unreasonable question. We are volunteering our time, why cannot the trainers volunteer theirs, or alternative funding for their time be sought. (Edit : you state that there are other places where he can train for less but then fail to list them - which would have been a better answer to his question.)
And as to questioning his attitude??
I can but presume that for some reason this has hit a nerve with you. I normally highly value your comments - this is not one of them.

The trainers are not paid, but sometimes the facilities where the training is conducted is rather expensive for meals and housing. APOC and the trainers are not making any money, but facility rental for an appropriate place to house and train is not cheap in the US.

In Spain they are often able to use albergues in the off season. People sleep on mats on the floor and are able to use the communal kitchen to train. Its not quite the same cost as a private room with bath in the US.

 

[J Willhaus]

Ok, I just checked and the training coming up in Texas is $295 and not $650.

 

[DoughnutANZ]

Hello, fellow travellers!

I am creating this thread because I am interested in becoming a hospitalera on the Camino Frances, and I apologize in advance if this already exists. I searched for similar threads with no luck.

This summer, from the end of July until mid-August, I fulfilled my dream to walk the Camino Frances. I started from Pamplona and did 713 km of walking to Santiago de Compostela. I am in love with this experience!

That's why I am interested in becoming a hospitalera or helping in an Albergue if needed. I speak English, Bulgarian, and conversational Spanish. (I also have a NIE if it matters.)

Could someone please tell me how I can fulfil this? Is it possible for this year in September/October?
If yes, how much time can I be a volunteer / hospitalera? I would appreciate it if you'd like to share any tips or experiences related to the topic.

Thank you for your time! Buen Camino!

I see from your bio that you list your residence as Madrid. If you have strong Spanish language skills then you could look further afield rather than just looking at volunteering on the Camino Frances.

Before going much further it is best that I make clear that my knowledge of this area is very surface and so what I say may well be inaccurate and contain large gaps.

There seems to be a bunch of different organisations that manage different albergues on different Caminos and they are all looking for volunteer hospitaleros and they have differing rules and requirements.

Some of the bigger ones and those that target "western peoples" such as people from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia have already been mentioned above. As well as these and others from Germany, Netherlands and other European countries there are a number of smaller organisations within Spain (and probably Portugal) that look after specific albergues often on less popular routes.

For example, this year while walking the Camino Madrid I stopped in Albergue de peregrinos de Puente Duero, just out of Valladolid. This particular Donativo albergue is managed by Asociación Jacobea Vallisoletana (AJOVA).

When I stayed there in June there seemed to be a long term live in hospitalero and in addition a representative of the association travelled out from Valladolid while I was there.

That night I prepared a shared meal and the three of us ate it outside in the evening sun. I was a little surprised that the Association rep. was openly critical of the live in hospitalero for not making the albergue more inviting and invited me to come back as a hospitalero once I had finished my Camino. In this case that was not possible as I already had fixed plans but it was clear that the Association rep. thought that the long term live in hospitalero was using the position more to get free accommodation rather than being in the spirit of a host towards guests.

Anyway, there seems to be a bunch of these smaller organisations who need volunteers and often they don't seem to be linked up in a way that helps. They seem to rely on local networks and I suspect that anyone wanting to volunteer would probably need to be a fluent Spanish speaker and know how to find these organisations or stumble onto them as I did.

As an aside, being a hospitalero in one of these tiny albergues on a less popular route can be quite lonely. Further along on the Madrid I talked to a short term volunteer hospitalero and he said that during his two week stint there were only 3 or 4 pilgrims staying over the entire 14 days and so many days were either a bit boring with not much to do or else you need to be able to amuse yourself in what can be a tiny village without many resources and sometimes even without a store or shop for food.

 

[puttster]

In the tradition of many years, there are some albergues on the caminos where you don't have to undergo a training session to volunteer, you only have to have finished a camino and be somewhat sane and able-bodied and willing to work. For two weeks. With no pay.

I am looking to volunteer, but in an alternative to the big organizations. If you (or anyone, really) know of a way to accomplish this, in the words of the OP of this thread: "please share any tips or experiences related to the topic."

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Thanks for being patient with my peevishness, Puttster.
Exactly what kind of volunteer service did you have in mind? What do you mean by "big organizations?"
"The Camino" is not really a very big place. It is made up of dozens of little places and small groups and individuals, and thousands of pilgrims, all of them constantly turning over, growing, and changing. It defies all attempts to package, define, and rationalize it. It is not a tame animal.

There is only one "big" group that oversees many camino volunteers, It's called HOSVOL, it's the albergue arm of the historic Federation of Amigos founded in the 1980s. Its training programs, albergue administration setup, recruiting and structure are all models for everything that came after. It was all evolved via trial and error, using volunteer labor, and somehow it keeps rolling along. It is a miracle, really. At one point I understand HOSVOL oversaw about 27 donativo albergues, which is pretty mind-boggling.

Anyway, times have changed, and sadly, the Federation is struggling these days. HOSVOL (IMHO) is the backbone of the whole organization, or what remains of it -- many of the regional Amigos groups that originally formed the Federation have, for many reasons, pulled out of the HOSVOL and Federation and are trying to run their local albergues on their own. (HOSVOL still trains volunteers via national pilgrim groups all over the world, and it continues to staffs albergues -- but only those with strict Donativo policies.
So there's a scramble for volunteers, and a lot of inconsistency in training and standards. There's also a lot of albergues closing their doors, as quality volunteers are getting harder to find, and seasoned hospitaleros are realizing they can pick and choose and make demands. (Up to a point.)

If you want to be a hospitalero, you no longer must take a course beforehand, at least not in a FICS albergue. You do have to be an experienced pilgrim, have an acquaintance with spoken Spanish and fundamental hygeine and integrity, be reasonably sound in body and mind, and willing to work long hours alongside people very different from you. Once you've finished out your first two-week term, and if you don't blot your record, you're qualified to be a hospitalero anywhere in the camino network.

I have slots left for 2024 at Albergue Municipal de Najera. If you are qualified and interested in volunteering, get in touch.

 

[dick bird]

Ok, I just checked and the training coming up in Texas is $295 and not $650.

And I believe the US courses are residential so the cost covers 3 nights accommodation and meals. Our courses in Australia for HosVol are now full. But anyone interested in training for 2025 can get information from the AFOTC website.