The reason I combined these two subjects is because they are kind of related. Where are you going to end up at the end of the day depends in large part on where the next accommodations are.
We prefer to walk if at all possible between 20 to 25 Km a day. On average that’s about 5 to 6 hours per day at 4 km per hour. We actually walk faster than 4 km/hr but once you account for bathroom stops, site seeing, coffee and lunch breaks and picture taking it roughly come down to 4 km/hr. Of course, 20 to 25 Km is not always possible as the next town could be 30km or more away.
Here is a breakdown of the different types of accommodations.
Public Albergues – Run by the municipalities or religious groups 6 to 10 Euros per person. Bunk bed and a shared bathroom. Some of these are very big and accommodate a lot of pilgrims.
Private Albergues – Usually family homes converted into albergues, here you can find a mixture of private rooms, bunk beds and shared or private bathrooms. 10 to 15 Euros per person.
Hostels, Pensiones – These are what we usually stay in, 20 to 40 Euros. We always make sure we have a private bathroom.
Hotels – as you can image the range here goes to whatever you can afford.
Where you decide to stay depends a lot on your budget as well as the distance to get there. Here is where John Brierley Guide becomes your bible. I bought the guide ahead of time and try to break down each stage into 20 to 25 kilometers each. I know the day we are going to start walking and the day we need to be in Santiago other than that all I have ahead of time is a rough idea where we are going to be sleeping.
A few things you need to know if you are going to be using the albergues. They do not take reservations, first, come first served basis. People using albergues wake up early and walk fast to get there so they can set down their backpacks in the queue. Albergues usually open at 3 or 4 pm and there is nobody there when you get there. At the door there is a plaque with the capacity if the number of backpacks in the queue has reached that number you need to keep walking until you find the next one. This is another reason we don’t use them unless there is no alternative, we like to take our time and not worry where we are going to sleep.
The night before I call ahead my next pension/hostel and make a reservation, they just take your name, no credit card information needed unless you are calling a hotel. We speak Spanish but you really don’t need it, we have met people from all over the world and they did fine without English or Spanish.
