Camino Accommodation

There seems to be no hamlet too small to house pilgrims, and any even medium sized village has all sorts of places a weary walker can lay her head. It seems impossible to think that these fill up night after night, but in the height of the pilgrim season they do.

We've been here several weeks now and we can't even figure out the various designations, but I can tell you what we have found.

First there are the albergues and refugios. These are the traditional pilgrim beds of choice if one is wanting to follow in the footsteps of the great unwashed of a thousand years ago. They are primarily dormitories, some holding hundreds of bunkbeds, and overseen by a warden who may live on site. They often offer a communal meal, or a kitchen where one can cook one's own meal. There may be laundry machines and a clothes line. A hang out location. Maybe even some smaller, private rooms. Rooms in the albergues can not be booked ahead, are only given to those carrying a pilgrim's credential and preference is given to pilgrims who walk (over cyclists) with all their luggage (not collected or delivered). Some of these places will take only donations, and others have a set price, usually somewhere between 6 and 10 euros for a night's stay, with breakfast or a pilgrim's dinner a few euros more.

Some albergues have a bar and basic food service during the day, although the rooms are not available until 1pm or so, and everyone is shipped out in the morning by 8:30am or so. There is generally at least one municipal albergue in any large village or town, with others operated by various religious orders and local parishes, as they were right from the beginning of the Camino in the 9th century. Some are provided in monasteries and convents. More and more are privately owned and operated. Some have pools. Some are enormous. Some are held together with plastic sheets and duct tape.

Next up are the hodge podge of places known as casa rurales, pensiones, posadas, hostales and hotels. It's hard to figure out the hierarchy, but signs mentioning camas, fondas, hospedajes or hospederias seem to be beds or rooms in a house without any other facilities. You eat out. Rooms may be had for about 15 euros, but these places seem to be rare - we only saw a handful in all the weeks we have been walking to date.

Pensiones are houses with very few rooms, then hostales which may have a star or two if there are attached bathrooms. Casa rurales tend to be more of a Bed and Breakfast type operation, which could also be agricola turismo (on a farm). These all will provide a basic breakfast, but dinner is to be found elsewhere. Budget about 30-35 euros for these.

Then there are the posadas and hotels, which seem to be equivalent terms. Hotels will have stars designated as to their amenities. These will have a cafe or restaurant attached and provide dinner as well as breakfast, which is usually buffet-style. We have yet to figure out what a one star versus a three star hotel provides. Perhaps an elevator for the three star? They all seem to have the same style rooms with bathroom, a TV, wardrobe, and that's about it. Wifi that works if you are lucky. Costs are all over the place depending on where you are, anything between 25 euros (1 star in a town) to 100 euros + (5 star in a city)

We have been staying in pensiones right on up to 3 star hotels depending on what is available wherever we are. The prices seem to end up being much the same however, except at the 3 star hotels, which are in the larger cities and so would probably cost a little more anyway.

We decided that dorm. sleeping with the attendant smell of feet, sound of snores, and broken sleep by those crazies who want to be off out by 5am is not for us any more. Been there done that.