Suggestions for 10-11 days to walk the Norte route in late S

[Glenman]

Hello all, my fiancee an I have been talking about holidays. With an upcoming wedding in 2014 and plans to build a house our budget is tight! We are thinking of spending 10 or 11 days walking the Camino Norte. We plan to fly in to Spain on Mon 23rd Sept and depart for Dublin on Sunday 6th Oct. Unfortunately we know very little about the Camino but a friend of mine suggested the Norte route. We plan to begin walking on Tuesday the 24th Sept to Fri/Sat 4th/5th Oct, this will give us about 10 days. We don't want to finish in Sangiago as we want to avoid the busy cities. However we do need to begin and finish close enough to an international airport or at least somewhere where we will have train/bus access to an airport.
Has anyone any suggestion for a start and end point for a 10 day time-frame? Once we sort flights do we need to do much further planning? Would we need to have accommodation organised for every night or would it be easy enough to organise that as we walk, I would imagine that the hostels would not be full at that time of the year?
Thanks in advance

 

[Tia Valeria]

Can you get flights into Santander or Airport of Asturias (between Oviedo/Gijon). If so you could walk from Santander and if you run out of time catch the FEVE (train) either back to Santander or on to Oviedo and then bus to airport.
Buen Camino

 

[mikevasey]

You could also start from Aviles, which is about 15km from Asturias airport. The albergues are then usually around 16-24km from each other, there is some asphalt walking but there is options if you decide on doing it, of going along coastal paths to miss these out or in one case taking a higher level (little used cattle trail from soto de luina to cavedeo), places to jump out would be Ribadeo bus and train links to Santiago and A Coruna, Lourenza and Vilalba, the latter 3 with bus links. This is perhaps my favourite part of the camino del norte and you have the quieter entry into Galicia.

I am also thinking of doing 10-12 days later in the year so I am thinking of the other less populated routes. The Camino de Madrid, the people who do it usually go back and do it again so that says a lot about it. The Portugues Coastal Route, the disadvantage would be the large population areas you would keep walking through, at least with the Madrid you can take 20km out of it by getting a train to the outskirts and starting from there. The Camino Vasco, starts in Irun and either finishes in Santo Domingo de la Calzada or Burgos. Another option is starting at Leon and taking the San Salvador Route to Oviedo 5/6/7 days(120Km) through quiet mountain routes with albergues then continuing up to Aviles (30km) and either finishing in Cudillero or Luarca, both incredibly picturesque fishing villages on the Camino del Norte, there are Feve links to Aviles and to Ferrol from both places.

Mike

 

[Glenman]

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated

Tia: How far between Santander and Aviles? How long would it take to walk it?

Mike: How far between Aviles and Ribadeo? How long would it take to walk it?

Would you need to reserve/book accommodation in the albergues in advance? I would imagine it would not be as busy in late Sept, early Oct.

 

[Glenman]

I have been looking at some flight which would suit us. I have a flight arriving in Pamplona on Monday the 23rd Oct. We plan to get the bus to Irun and begin the Camino on Tuesday morning the 24th Sept. We then plan to arrive in Santander on Saturday evening the 5th Oct and fly home from there on Sunday. That gives us 12 full days to walk from Irun to Santander. Is this plausible? Should we be able to get a Credencial in Irun? Do you need the Credencial to get accommodation in the Albergues?
For this time of the year would we need to book the Albergues in advance or would we be Okay just arriving in the evening with no booking?

 

[Tia Valeria]

Others can answer your question ove time from Irun to Santander, it is not a section we have walked. You can get credenciales in many places, again others will know where in Pamplona/Irun. You do need a credencial to stay in an albergue and you cannot book ahead but check in on arrival. You can of course book private accomodation ahead, which would include private albergues if there are any on this route.
Buen Camino

 

[mikevasey]

Have a look at this website http://www.caminodesantiago.consumer.es, go on to the camino de norte section.From there there are details of each etapa(stage), details of the albergues within it, details of when they are open from and to within the year, prices, contact details if it is possible to book ahead. There is also a section for getting to Irun from various places in Spain, I dont know if it includes Pamplona. You should be able to get get a credencial from the various albergues around Irun, they know people usually start there, most places along the way will want to see it for you to sleep there, some private albergues will not need it, but they may charge you more ie. the tourist rate rather than the pilgrim rate.

This section of the norte is very busy, a lot of people walk 1 week sections to Bilbao or go for the 2 week option and walk too Santander, it does not get as busy again untill you get into Galicia. August is the busiest month, and I think September can be very busy as well, you should be ok.

Mike

 

[MikeJS]

Irun to Santander took me 11 days. You can see the details at http://mikesroaming.blogspot.co.uk/2012 ... chive.html starting 16 Sep. For the credencial look here - miscellaneous-topics/topic11789.html it is the link at the bottom of this page just below the Pilgrim Forum Badge notice.