Will be doing the last 100 km of the Portuguese way with my mum in September. I’ve been reading lots of stories about the bed race etc, do you recommend booking ahead? Can albergues even be booked ahead?
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Definitely book ahead especially if you’re looking for private rooms with private bathrooms etc. I went through a travel agency (OrbisWays) and they handled the luggage transfers too, but you can do it all on your own. You need to set a realistic goal for each day to figure out where to stop. We went super slow since my dad is almost 70. We did it over 8 days of hiking, but you can figure out if you’ll need fewer depending on how much hiking your mum wants to do each day. Everything should be available on Booking.com. If you want a list of towns, go to a tour website like SantiagoWays, CaminoWays, OrbisWays, etc and look up their itineraries for the hike you’re looking to do (Sounds like you’d be starting in Tui?) and you can see the towns they’d have you stopping in each day. Note that they’ll always start with the quickest itineraries first cause they’d be the cheapest, so you’ll see 4 and 5 day trips, but those trips would require bigger miles each day, so you can look for a 6, 7, 8, etc day trip and they’ll update the itinerary and town list.
Amazing, thank you for the advice! I think we’ll do exactly that. And I’m pretty sure she will book ahead, private only. I’d like to have some of the communal experience as well eg. breaking bread with my fellow pilgrims and sharing stories. Can you/ should I book single beds ahead in the shared beds albuerges?
I did last year in the late Fall. It was so easy using booking.com. You can find 30 euro a night beds in private rooms. It's a relief to have some privacy after staying in public albuerges most of the time. The prices may be higher during high season though....have fun!