sarahbtravel
New Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2022
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If you really want to know, there is only one way to find out - go and see for yourself.Hi peregrinos! I am a UK travel writer and keen walker. I am writing a piece about the Camino for a national UK newspaper and I am keen to know what it's like out there on the trail right now?
I've heard it's pretty crowded, and that some pilgrims are behaving disrespectfully, treating it more like a party than a walk. Is that the experience on the ground? Have you seen bad behaviour? Do the locals seen resentful? Or is it still an amazing experience?
I hope it's OK to post this here. I would love to hear your thoughts – which I would use to inform my article, if that's OK.
Thanks!
Better to go and walk yourself, even if only for a few day.Hi peregrinos! I am a UK travel writer and keen walker. I am writing a piece about the Camino for a national UK newspaper and I am keen to know what it's like out there on the trail right now?
I've heard it's pretty crowded, and that some pilgrims are behaving disrespectfully, treating it more like a party than a walk. Is that the experience on the ground? Have you seen bad behaviour? Do the locals seen resentful? Or is it still an amazing experience?
I hope it's OK to post this here. I would love to hear your thoughts – which I would use to inform my article, if that's OK.
Thanks!
Wish I could get out there in the next week, but alas no! Short deadlines are a pain! I have done stretches of Camino in the past, but several years ago. Really interested to see how things have/haven't changedIf you really want to know, there is only one way to find out . go and see for yourself.
So it seems that it's Spanish tourists that have massively increased in number, certainly in high summer? Is that the case? Perhaps they're the only ones suited to walk in those temperatures?! Us Northern Europeans have to wait until autumn! Do you get many pilgrims in winter months?There are a lot of Spanish pilgrims in Santiago these days... more than the international pilgrims. They will come in September... but from what I hear, it is busy.. but nothing dramatic. Had one in the office yesterday that just finished the Ingles and he said it was lonely... so I guess the answer is, it depends...
If you want to break down the arrival figures by month, route, nationality or a few other ways then the pilgrim office statistics page has a lot of filters you can use.Us Northern Europeans have to wait until autumn! Do you get many pilgrims in winter months?
What great stats. Fascinating. You must have seen it change a lot over the years, though?No, this is normal... August is the month the spaniards walk... it has always been their "top" month. Have a look here for some stats:
My first Camino was in 1990 and the cathedral recorded just under 5,000 Compostelas issued that year. Looks set to be half a million this year. So yes - it has changed a bit.What great stats. Fascinating. You must have seen it change a lot over the years, though?
My experience is right now. I am walking from Pamplona to Santiago ( having done Le Puy to Pamplona the past 2 years. I have found it to be friendly and hospitable and yes, amazing! It’s also quite quiet right now as the Albergues I have been staying in which are quite nice, have a number of empty beds. Tonight in Navarette, I am the only one in a 12 bed dorm. The people along the way have been multinational and lovely, Irish, Chinese, American, Australian, South African, and the list goes on. The days are hot, the nights are cool, the people are friendly, and the beers are cold! Buen Camino!Hi peregrinos! I am a UK travel writer and keen walker. I am writing a piece about the Camino for a national UK newspaper and I am keen to know what it's like out there on the trail right now?
I've heard it's pretty crowded, and that some pilgrims are behaving disrespectfully, treating it more like a party than a walk. Is that the experience on the ground? Have you seen bad behaviour? Do the locals seen resentful? Or is it still an amazing experience?
I hope it's OK to post this here. I would love to hear your thoughts – which I would use to inform my article, if that's OK.
Thanks!
Nope!"The days are hot, the nights are cool, the people are friendly, and the beers are cold!"
LOVE this! Is there anything better?
Could you share some of your previous articles, so people can judge the quality of your journalismHi peregrinos! I am a UK travel writer and keen walker. I am writing a piece about the Camino for a national UK newspaper and I am keen to know what it's like out there on the trail right now?
I've heard it's pretty crowded, and that some pilgrims are behaving disrespectfully, treating it more like a party than a walk. Is that the experience on the ground? Have you seen bad behaviour? Do the locals seen resentful? Or is it still an amazing experience?
I hope it's OK to post this here. I would love to hear your thoughts – which I would use to inform my article, if that's OK.
Thanks!
I’m inclined to agree with Wandalina. Please do not take a handful of observations covering 800 km (or 1000 or 100 or …) to be representative of how the Camino is at this time. If you follow conversations or this forum you will recognize that there is no one answer to your question. The Camino is fluid and fluctuating depending on where on the trail you are, which Camino you are walking, what day - and hour- you started, how you are feeling, what you ate, the weather, who you walk or don’t walk with, your mood, school breaks, holidays - one can go on and on. Please don’t write an article that describes what the Camino is like right now. It will be as wrong as it is right.So it seems that it's Spanish tourists that have massively increased in number, certainly in high summer? Is that the case? Perhaps they're the only ones suited to walk in those temperatures?! Us Northern Europeans have to wait until autumn! Do you get many pilgrims in winter months?
Yes, and they often result in misleading or inaccurate articles in the news media.Wish I could get out there in the next week, but alas no! Short deadlines are a pain!
Amen Anhalter!! I also walked CF in April/May this year, and every year since 2016 (except 2020) and my pilgraged varied through 3 seasons. Additionally I walked the del Norte, Portuguese and Ingles. News reports tend to be embellished and exaggerated. A reporter's job is to enhance stories to increase readership, and not necessarily tell the truth.My experience is from May this year, a month that is quite busy, but not the busiest month for the most problematic section. Here's my thoughts:
- The Xunte de Galicia has been promoting the final stretch of the camino heavily for years, especially so the last 100km.
- The last 100km, especially from Sarria are very popular for all kind of different groups
- A very large portion of those groups are spanish citizens
- Not all walk that stretch for religious or spiritual reasons. While i was told, that the rumor about people wanting a compostela for their CV is indeed a rumor, theres lots of school classes or assosciations that walk the 100km and i am bold and say: not every participant is doing so voluntarily.
- Having travelled to spain for around 35 of my 42 years, i would be so bold to say that in a very general term the Spanish are not the quietest of folks out there, specially the younglings. There also seems to be some difference between what the law says and how it is interpreted in daily use.
So now, those yearly reports of "pilgrims" behaving "badly" and "large groups" walking into SdC making "a lot of noise"... they somehow always emerge in, or following, the months of July and August. Somehow its also almost always reports from Places within 100km of Santiago. Has there been a similar repoprt from Pamplona? Burgos? Leon? Not that pilgrims would not go out drinking in those places and celebrate. Done so myself more than once. And for sure theres one behaving badly there once in a while as well.
But the major problem, the one those people keep writing about every summer, is (imho) a homemade one and has very little to do with pilgrims from abroad. In germany we have this saying to "sweep in front of your own house" before critisizing someone, not sure if that translates well into english.
August is holiday time in Europe for both workers and students. It is the one month when a lot of people have a lot of time off, the Spanish included. For Spanish people also there is a certain overlap between the romería and the pilgrimage (a fact a lot of disgruntled contributors to this forum have noticed). Therefore August is a time of year where there is likely to be a lot of exuberant groups of Spanish people walking into Santiago, not necessarily from much further than 100km away.So it seems that it's Spanish tourists that have massively increased in number, certainly in high summer? Is that the case? Perhaps they're the only ones suited to walk in those temperatures?! Us Northern Europeans have to wait until autumn! Do you get many pilgrims in winter months?
Yep!I live on the camino an oversee three municipal albergues. Midsummer sees a spike in group travel, but most of those are hitting only the final stretches of the Way. Out in Castilla y Leon, La Rioja, and Aragon, numbers DROP in mid-summer down from the springtime peak. Pilgrims in summer are well-behaved, well-fed and rested, some are lucky enough to enjoy a small-town fiesta or two. Things will start getting crazy again in September and into October, when the North Americans come flooding back.
Yep, I have found in August (including this year) that if you start later than 7.30am you see few pilgrims. Most are getting up between 5am and 6.30am (some even at 4.30am!!) in order to "get half of the kilometres done" before the sun starts getting hot: which can be around 10am or even at about 9am or 9.30am.Yesterday I walked from La Virgen del Camino to Villar de Mazarife and saw zero pilgrims. Albeit I started late (11:30) due to phone troubles that I wanted fixed first. In Leon at my albergue, the people I heard where young Spanish fellow's. Several quiet seniors, so quiet I don't know what language they were most fluent in.
By "crazy", do you mean busy? I assume you aren't referring to behaviour because every North American I have met on the Camino in 18 years has been polite and friendly. Maybe just one exception...I live on the camino a oversee three municipal albergues. Midsummer sees a spike in group travel, but most of those are hitting only the final stretches of the Way. Out in Castilla y Leon, La Rioja, and Aragon, numbers DROP in mid-summer down from the springtime peak. Pilgrims in summer are well-behaved, well-fed and rested, some are lucky enough to enjoy a small-town fiesta or two. Things will start getting crazy again in September and into October, when the North Americans come flooding back.
Hi, I apologize for the replies that are snooty and discourteous. I was a journalist for a short time in the past and it's not easy, especially with the prejudice around. And everyone without exception in this world merits respect and basic courtesy.Hi peregrinos! I am a UK travel writer and keen walker. I am writing a piece about the Camino for a national UK newspaper and I am keen to know what it's like out there on the trail right now?
I've heard it's pretty crowded, and that some pilgrims are behaving disrespectfully, treating it more like a party than a walk. Is that the experience on the ground? Have you seen bad behaviour? Do the locals seen resentful? Or is it still an amazing experience?
I hope it's OK to post this here. I would love to hear your thoughts – which I would use to inform my article, if that's OK.
Thanks!
"Crazy" does not refer to nationality, it refers to the sheer volume of people that floods the Way. It is the feeling I get behind the registration desk at a municipal albergue when the doors open at 2 pm and there are 40 pilgs lined up to pour in and grab a bed. 90 percent are orderly and patient. The other 10 percent charge the atmosphere with their Fear Of Missing Out. Tthey want to wander into the dorm before they are signed in, they shout questions from the back of the room, laugh at your language skills, put their backpacks on the furniture, insist they MUST have THIS kind of bunk, and then they want change for a 50-euro bill. Crazy.By "crazy", do you mean busy? I assume you aren't referring to behaviour because every North American I have met on the Camino in 18 years has been polite and friendly. Maybe just one exception...
I’m familiar with Sarah’s travel writing and it’s excellent. Unfortunately I’m not presently on any of the Caminos (Sarah seems to be asking particularly about the Frances). If you are on your way to Santiago, I don’t think you can go wrong by opening up and giving your insights.Hi peregrinos! I am a UK travel writer and keen walker. I am writing a piece about the Camino for a national UK newspaper and I am keen to know what it's like out there on the trail right now?
I've heard it's pretty crowded, and that some pilgrims are behaving disrespectfully, treating it more like a party than a walk. Is that the experience on the ground? Have you seen bad behaviour? Do the locals seen resentful? Or is it still an amazing experience?
I hope it's OK to post this here. I would love to hear your thoughts – which I would use to inform my article, if that's OK.
Thanks!
Hello! Thank you for that post. I start walking the CF in about 10 days (my first). What's the weather like? Any rain? I did not want to book too much in advance but so many places were booked and I got cold feet and booked all through!I’m in the Camino Francés right now. I wouldn’t say it’s crowded, but that how many people you see at any given time varies on several factors. I started at SJPDP and I’m currently at Santo Domingo de La Calzada. At first (SJPDP, Roncesvalles. etc), I saw lots of pilgrims, but after Pamplona it had thinned out. Typically I see more pilgrims in the morning. Since I’m slow, many pass me by, and by the afternoon it can be quite lonely as I could go long time without seeing anybody. I also met lots of people that were only planning to do a segment of the Camino, say all the way to Logroño, then go back home due to work reasons or whatever, so they drop off after that. I can’t speak for the later stages, much less about Sarria onwards.
I was advised to make reservations everywhere all through Santiago, because “everybody in Europe goes on vacation in August”. I thought was unnecessary, so I just reserved all the way to Zubiri, and I never saw hordes of vacationing tourists cramming up albergues.
Since my walking has gotten better, this morning I saw a pleasant flow of pilgrims, I could see them in the distance, spaced apart, not crowded.
Some pilgrims may want to start in places like. Burgos, Astorga, etc so it might be different, but I imagine some pilgrims quit or go back home at those places.
So, for me, it hadn’t been crowded, except possibly the first few days.
It's not far. Why don't you go take a look?Hi peregrinos! I am a UK travel writer and keen walker. I am writing a piece about the Camino for a national UK newspaper and I am keen to know what it's like out there on the trail right now?
I've heard it's pretty crowded, and that some pilgrims are behaving disrespectfully, treating it more like a party than a walk. Is that the experience on the ground? Have you seen bad behaviour? Do the locals seen resentful? Or is it still an amazing experience?
I hope it's OK to post this here. I would love to hear your thoughts – which I would use to inform my article, if that's OK.
Thanks!
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