As this topic just came up: How much did you spend, in Euros, per day on the Camino? To make it as realistic as possible, choose your last Camino and how much you spend then on average per day.

Read all the good comments and see the results of the Poll on the topic of How much did you spend, in Euros, per day on the Camino? here on the Camino Forum.

I’m interested in what kind of training do those of you who routinely walk 30-40km stages do?

I have about 5 weeks until I begin my Camino on the San Salvador and then continue on to Santiago on the Primitivo.

I’m strongly considering walking the San Salvador in 4 days since that would give me a little more flexibility with the Primitivo. It seems the way to do that is to add about 9km to day 1 and walk to Pola de Gordón instead of stopping in La Robla. But, that makes for a very long 36km first day! (And 32km into Oviedo on day 4).

I’m completely comfortable with my shoes and equipment. I have my pack down to 13lbs. without food or water – down from about 17lbs on my first Camino. I’m also fairly fit, and have the cardio part down.

But, my practice walks are all in the 10-15km range. I do these without stopping and at a fairly good pace (6km/hour), and I’m fine. On previous Caminos, 20km was a short day, 25km typical, and 30+ long. Of course, some long days were great, and some short days were slogs – you never know. I’m just trying to figure out how to reduce the slog days and prepare myself for potentially a few 30-35km days! Thanks!

Read all the responses to the question Long distance walkers – how did you train? here on the Camino Forum.

We’re newbies, starting next September from Oporto. Could someone outline what are the “dos” and “don’ts” of staying at an albergue?

Read the hundreds of responses to the question What are the Do’s and Don’ts of Albergue Etiquette? here on the Camino Forum.

I’m in the office just between 10 and 12 today just for people to come pick up suitcases and luggage because usually pilgrims when they arrive in Santiago they have no idea what day it is, if it’s a holiday, if it’s a weekend, so I have to be here. So here I am. I’m recording this just about nine o’clock just so I have time to record it before people arrive at 10.

So I thought I’ll give you a little bit of an idea what’s going on in Santiago and also this video I wanted to talk a little bit, I looked through a little bit the statistics from the pilgrim’s office just to get you an idea of how this year is going pilgrim-wise. A little bit of statistics, a little bit of my feeling of what this year is going to be like. So far we’ve had 80,063 composteras as of I think as of yesterday.

So we’re finishing off April with 80,000 pilgrims which is up 7% compared to last year. So for those of you thinking now it’s going to be a slow year, I’m not sure. Although there are conflicting informations.
Let’s see, I’ll show you the… Since it’s early we’re cleaning up. The night before May 1st usually is a night where people go out and have a good time and of course that generates a little bit of trash so it needs to be cleaned up. So they’re doing a good job with that in Santiago I have to say.

You can even smell that they have a little bit of soap in that water that they use to clean the streets which means it actually is a good smell after they finish cleaning it up. Anyway I was saying I talked to some people that are working with pilgrims as well as I do and it seems like for some people things are down compared to last year. For me it’s kind of more or less the same compared to last year but it’s very difficult now to predict anything.

I used to be able to predict the year’s numbers based on how many people visit the forum and so on and so forth but of course with AI and everything you don’t really know which visitors it’s about and who is a real person so it’s very difficult to know. Some people say it’s going to be a down year some people say it might be a good year. So far it’s up up seven percent and let me have a look at the various Caminos.
For example Camino Frances so far this year up five percent. Camino Portugues up nine percent. Camino Portugues por la Costa they split this up at the podium.

Camino Portugues I guess is the interior and then that’s up nine and then Camino Portugues por la Costa is up twenty percent so that’s growing fast. Countries. Where do pilgrims come from? So far this year Spain down nine percent.

Why is that? To be honest not sure maybe because the beginning of this year was a very we had very bad weather at the beginning of this year after when it turned we’ve had amazing weather so I don’t know. United States up 24 percent and you’ll be thinking that’s that’s weird because I was thinking maybe they would not travel so much after what’s going on in the world but it seems like that’s okay they’re they’re traveling. Canada up 12 percent.

Australia down 15. I guess that makes sense especially now after the Iran war maybe it’s difficult for them to fly over. I had someone in the office the other day that were flew into Spain three days before the war started and she had a ticket back in a couple of weeks and she wasn’t sure if it was going to happen or not that flight because she was going through I think to Dubai I think.

She hadn’t heard anything from the airline yet but we’ll see. So that makes sense. Italy up 35 percent.
I think that’s because of the movie. There’s a movie I think it’s called Bon Camino that I think is going to be remade into like a Spanish version of it. It seems like in Italy there was a movie last year Bon Camino that was very popular that I think have brought a lot of Italians this year.

So for example so I said Camino Frances up five percent. 76 percent of walkers that said they walked Camino Frances walked from Soria. 76 percent.

Six percent of people that walked the Camino Frances walked from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. So that’s not a lot. I think and I’ve heard from people that I walked in a couple a week ago I talked to a couple that walked in and they said they made no reservations before Soria.

They walked the Camino Frances no reservation. It was great. So I think the Camino Frances is it’s actually a good option for people that were relatively quiet Camino at least at least now.

Of course May, June, July probably going to be different but I think the overcrowded sections of the Camino Frances that’s something that happened before. Now there’s a lot more people on the Portuguese. People are spread out a lot more so if it’s your first Camino and you want to do a long one I would I would try the Frances because I think that’s what people usually say the Frances has something special that the other ones don’t have.

And if it’s your first one I think it’s a good good starter. Let’s see on the Portuguese 34% that walked the Portuguese walked from Tui. 34% so not as drastic as the as the Soria one.

76% of walking walkers that walked the Frances walked from Soria. 34% that walked the Portuguese walked from Tui. 28% walked from Porto and 22% walked from Valença.

Of course Valença is just across the bridge from Tui so I guess Tui and Valença is pretty much the same starting point. So I don’t know so far this year it looks like it’s numbers are up that doesn’t mean of course it’s going to stay like that the rest of the year but but at least after when was the switch of the weather like in the beginning of March mid-March before that we had a lot of rain and after that it’s been amazing we barely had days of rain since mid-March more or less so so that so if you’re about to walk which I think there’s a lot of you because usually May is a big month I think you have your time I think the weather is going to be good as you can see today it’s a little bit grayish but it’s not it’s not it’s not bad I don’t think it’s going to maybe it’ll rain a little bit this weekend but nothing to nothing to talk about nothing no hailstorm or nothing very very bad as you could see here there are crowds of people coming in but probably there’s a there’s a blue flag at the end there there’s probably someone coming in with a bus and then a tour group and they have some pilgrims taking a picture here up front of the cathedral contemplating anyway so yes and also as you know from the couple of last videos that I’ve made the airport is still closed of course May 27th is when it opens up and I saw a photo of it the other day on social media somewhere someone took a photo of what the runway looks like right now and you could see that put up a picture here you could see that it they’re definitely working on it and they should because it really has created a little bit of problem for people traveling in and out of Santiago I haven’t heard a big upcry more than it’s just a little bit more complicated a little bit more of a pain to travel in and out of Santiago because you have to do it through Coruña.

All right, so I’m going to go back to the office.

Hope things are good where you are. Stay safe.

A couple of articles today reporting on a conference for the Camino Francés Federación. A proposal to establish an albergue within the final 100km exclusively for those walking long distance. The reporting is very vague: no mention of where, when, or how “long distance” is to be defined. Sounds like a controversial idea to me. One of the articles also mentions plans to have items discarded by pilgrims in Santiago transported back down the line for reuse. Again very vague but at least a statement of intent.

Read about the Albergue exclusively for long-distance walkers here on the Camino Forum.

I’m planning to walk the Primitivo in 2027 – not sure exactly when but either early May or early October. I generally wear trainers/shoes like the Merrell Women’s Moab Speed 2 (GoreTex). I’ve read many posts about expecting to walk in some mud on the route, so my question is whether to go with a mid-size (boot) or with the low trainers. I think overall I’d be more comfortable in the trainers. Is the mud bad enough to worry about walking in it and getting it in my shoes?

See all the good responses on the topic of Shoes or Boots for the Camino de Santiago.

Travelling mid April, I was only going to take a silk liner with me and use blankets provided. Coming from Australia, we aren’t acclimated to the cold, so everyone thinks I’m mad not taking a sleeping bag.
I just don’t think I’ll need it if blankets are provided.

See all the good answers on Sleeping bag or no sleeping bag on the camino.

It’s, pilgrim-wise, we’re up about 12% now compared to last year. 67,715 pilgrims came in, has come in so far as of yesterday, this year, which is 12% more than last year, same dates. I think we passed Easter last year now, because Easter last year was very late, so I think now the number that we see now is more or less correct compared to last year.

Of course we were up about 50, almost 50% a while back, but that was before Easter last year, so Easter this year was early, so you can really compare. Anyway, yesterday about 1,500, 1,520 composteras, so 1,520. It’s busy, but it’s not crazy busy, it’s fine.

It’s a little bit busy down by the cathedral, and then as soon as you get a little bit outside, just a little bit away from the cathedral, then it’s quieter. Some school kids there on a little bit of an excursion. That’s nice.

My son was also on a trip this week at his school. Anyway, what is going on? Oh, this is, you know, Café Susu and Hostal Susu has been a Pilgrim favorite for years. They don’t have a lot of rooms, but if you can get a room in here, they just redid everything a couple of years ago, so it’s all nice and modern.
Bar Susu. Anyway, this week I was together with Jessica from Pilgrim House. We were down at the Pilgrim’s office.

There was a conference that was organized by the Faculty of History and Geography here at the University of Santiago. They had some people come in from, I think Albania, and there were some people from India, and different parts of the world that were on a conference called Sacred Travel for Growth. So we were there talking a little bit about the Camino.

I took some pictures. A nice little group, they had some good questions, and so that was fun. What else? Of course, the big topic in Santiago these days is that, of course, the airport.
The airport in Santiago is now officially closed. It’s closed until May 27th. And you may wonder, well, okay, how do they do that? And now most of the planes are now redirected to Coruña, which is about 45 minutes or 15 minutes by car or by bus.

I tried to look up online the bus schedules from Coruña to Santiago, and it is Moonbus, Moonbus, that is the company, Moonbus, that is offering this service, bus service from Coruña Airport to Santiago, to the bus station. I looked on their website and there was, there’s a notice on the main page of their website saying that they have increased services from Coruña Airport to Santiago during the days where the Santiago Airport is closed. But they don’t really say how many buses they have and when the actual buses go.

And there’s been some comments in the local papers that there’s a little bit of a chaos going on there. So if you’re flying into Santiago until May 27th, it might be that you have to get ready and be a little bit patient on how to get to Santiago from the Coruña Airport. There are other options.

There’s buses going to Coruña Town Centre, and from there you can take a train down. Or, of course, you could just go for the more expensive option, which is just get a taxi. Not sure how much that would be.
It’s a 45-minute trip. If you are more people that can share a taxi, maybe that would work out, but I just wanted to let you know that that’s the situation. Of course, the direct flight to New York, was it United? I forget now.

There’s a direct flight to New York from Santiago Airport, starting up once the airport is now opening up again. I think they start up in June, somehow. So that’s good.

What else? It’s about 12.10, so this is the line to the mass. Let’s see if they are letting people in, or if it’s still… Yeah, he’s checking. Of course, you’re not allowed to bring backpacks in there, and if you have a little bag, he makes sure, he looks into the bag and makes sure everything’s good.
So if you have a backpack, you need to leave it somewhere. There’s a luggage store. I, of course, in my office have a luggage storage, but if you don’t want to go that far, they have a luggage storage service in here as well, I think.
Anyway, OK, well, I think this is the biggest line I’ve seen so far this year. Of course, I haven’t been here every day, but from the times I’ve been on the Square Quintana, this is as big as I’ve seen it. They shouldn’t have any trouble getting in, all of these people, but sometimes in the summer, the line is very long, and the last people in the line does not get a seat.

So if you want to get the 12.30 mass, I think you should get in line early, especially if you’re here where there’s a lot of people. Anyway, what else? I live, in the summer months, we have a little house outside of Santiago. Not so far, three, four kilometers away from the Camino Portuguesa, and one morning this week, I was up about 7.30, 8, and listen to this.

So as you could hear, it was amazing. We have so many birds, and I’m thinking, wow, it sounds like it could be a zoo or something, but it’s not a zoo, it’s not a bird, it’s just a normal day in Galicia in the morning when you wake up and you have that bird noise, which is actually nice to see that the birds are happy and that they can have a good life in Galicia. Anyway, so if you’re up early walking in Galicia, don’t be surprised that you will hear a lot of birds, a lot of nature, which is good.

I think that’s it for today. I’ll walk back to the office. I have some idea of, I’ve met a guy that has a lot of Camino badges that I’m going to start working with him and sell a lot of badges, and he has a lot of Camino badges that you can put on your backpack or your jacket for the, not only the big Caminos, Camino Portuguesa and the Française, but also the smaller ones.

So I’m not sure if I can get them put up on the website today before the weekend, but if not, if it’s not today, it will be up there hopefully next week. So you can get those badges if you’re interested. Anyway, I’ll make my way back to the office.

Take care. Hope things are good where you are. Stay safe.
Ciao, ciao.

Thinking of the Portuguese with my partner at the end of this September (around 23rd).
How busy does the trail tend to be at this time? We haven’t decided whether we prefer the Central or Coastal, and would like to keep our options open. We’d also prefer to sleep at municipal Albergues as much as possible. Should we expect a bed race at this time? Am I Naive, or could it still be possible to walk the Portuguese without booking in advance?

See all the good answers to this question on How is the Camino Portugese at the end of September? on the forum.

Hi everyone!
I am so excited to walk my first Camino (Frances) this summer. I am training with frequent walks & my backpack and want to prepare for hills as well. How much of an incline would you say that first day across the Pyrenees is? I’ll find some trails/set a treadmill close to that as preparation.
Buen Camino!!

See all the responses to the question on the Incline on the first day over the Pyrenees.