Albergues - Refugios - Hostels

[Leslie]

There is a list of Camino hostels on this page http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/albergues.html please bare in mind that it is not up to date - I last updated it about six months ago so some of the prices will have changed.

There is an amazing amount of places to stay along the Camino, most of them are run by volunteers from various confraternities. Every night apart from two I paid less than €10 per night to sleep somewhere - often it is donation only.

I have a few favorite albergues - but I will wait for others to post their ones first.

If you find mistakes in my list or know of others that are not listed please let me know and I will add - if you have web details of any albergue again let me know and I will add.

I do not discriminate between private and not albergues. I stayed in both, private ones were often 1 or 2 Euro more expensive, but that was about it.

So, lets hear about your experiences in the Camino Hostels...

[murphydog201]

So far, I have not bought a guidebook, nor did I plan to carry one. However, that made me wonder: Without a guidebook, how do you find the refugios?

[Covey]

Follow the little yellow arrows!! Literally! or brass scallop shells set in the pavement.

Almost without exception, the signposted/painted arrows route takes you to the official albergue, or within a few yards of it.

If in doubt ask the slightly scruffy, hungry looking person wearing trousers with map pockets on the trouser legs. You can be 99% certain they will be a pilgrim!! and they will be looking for a: somewhere to eat, b: the pharmacy or c: a bank.

If they have a rucksack on their back, they are lost like you and are looking for somewhere to sleep!! Find a pilgrim fitting the above description (without rucksack!!) and you will have found someone who has found a bed for the night!

If you lose track of the arrows, always head uphill and you will find a church at the top as the Catholic Church likes to get a head start on the stairway to heaven. Most albergues are within 75m of the main church. In ancient times pilgrims used to sleep on the floor of the church.

Seek and ye shall find

[murphydog201]

There is a new albergue in Burgos. It is beautiful, like staying in a hotel.

[Covey]

Can you let us know where it is and if it is an official or private one?

[murphydog201]

I believe it?s the new official one- only 3 euros. It?s on the Camino, before the cathedral.

[vjpulver]

I leave for Spain at o'dark-thirty on Monday! I am so eager to put my feet on the Camino!

I am spending part of today tweaking up my notes on my tentative itinerary (Roncelvalles-Santiago de Compostela). I am open to any last minute recommendations on villages to stop in, bars to dine in, alburques to sleep in...you know you have a special place you want to share!

I received the following poem this morning - I love her use of the word "trudging"...I also like the message and though other pilgrims may like to read it. Enjoy:



Halleluiah

Everyone should be born into this world happy
and loving everything.
But in truth it rarely works that way.
For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it.
Halleluiah, anyway I'm not where I started!

And have you too been trudging like that, sometimes
almost forgetting how wondrous the world is
and how miraculously kind some people can be?
And have you too decided that probably nothing important
is ever easy?
Not, say, for the first sixty years.

Halleluiah, I'm sixty now, and even a little more,
and some days I feel I have wings.

~ Mary Oliver ~


Life is good...8-)

"Ginn"
Peregrine Pulver in Sunny Santa Fe
The Pulver Pages

[JEP from LA]

It's no more than a glade of trees on the vast, arid meseta. My Camino companero and I happened upon it accidentally when we were worn out and in between larger stopping points.
San Bol is a stone shelter for 8-10 with a shaded meadow on which a couple of tents are posted. We got the last space, in the 2-man tent (which had a mattress and so was very snug and comfortable). Our view was a wheat field. There's no electricity, no plumbing, but there's a spring and a pool that run through the site. Dinner was family-style and exceptionally tasty. A simple breakfast was also provided. After sundown, we sat around a candle lit table, talked and listened to the guitar. It was peaceful, relaxed and intimate.
San Bol was my favorite albergue. (it's located between Hornillos and Castrojeriz)
For a similar experience, I would stay at St. Nicolas *after Castrojeriz) and San Anton.

Others I enjoyed were Ruitelan and Ribadiso.

-Jenna

[Skyfish]

I am hoping to hike the Camino in February, will the albergues or alternate accomodation be open during this time? I am afraid of arriving in a town without anywhere to sleep in the winter. Are there many pilgrims who hike the Camino in the winter?
Thanks alot...

[Laurah]

I leave for Spain at o'dark-thirty on Monday! I am so eager to put my feet on the Camino!

I received the following poem this morning - I love her use of the word "trudging"...I also like the message and though other pilgrims may like to read it. Enjoy:



Halleluiah

Everyone should be born into this world happy
and loving everything.
But in truth it rarely works that way.
For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it.
Halleluiah, anyway I'm not where I started!

And have you too been trudging like that, sometimes
almost forgetting how wondrous the world is
and how miraculously kind some people can be?
And have you too decided that probably nothing important
is ever easy?
Not, say, for the first sixty years.

Halleluiah, I'm sixty now, and even a little more,
and some days I feel I have wings.

~ Mary Oliver ~


Life is good...8-)

"Ginn"
Peregrine Pulver in Sunny Santa Fe
The Pulver Pages

This is a wonderful poem! Thanks for sharing!

[Covey]

Trudging or the verb "to Trudge" "the slow weary desperate yet determined walk of those who are tired beyond caring"

[Gazza]

Leslie

Favourite Albergues, well their were a few for all sorts of different reasons. But the one that really stood out is En El Camino at Boadilla del Camino. My wife had taken ill from the night before (still walked 25km's) but when we hit this Albergue she went straight to bed & was really really ill. The way she was looked after was absolutely brilliant. After being in the Meseta for a few days this was an Oasis

[hikerdame]

Albergeu thoughts:
I recently walked from St Jean Pied de Port to Burgos, (had intended on walking much further but blisters stopped my husband and I in our tracks!!:>(
Loved our Albergue in SJPP : The Pelerin 3 Rue De La Citadelle. Private. Fab meal around the table with other pilgrims. Very interesting hostelier.
The new albergue in Roncessvalles was spotless and more private than most. Friendly, charming Dutch volunteers working there.
Stayed in the municipal albergue in Zubiri, awful, awful, and again: awful. I believe this is where bedbugs attached themselves to me, and plagued me for the rest of the way!!
We stayed at the Jesus Y Maria albergue run by the Jesuits in Pamplona. What a beautiful building!! Very clean beds. Reasonably clean bathrooms, although my hubby complained about the toilets having no seats on them. Apparently this causes a problem with the male anatomy:>)
Will update thoughts on other albergues we stayed in if anyone is interested.

[Atlantic]

Please do share any thoughts Hiker!

I am sorry you found bugs on the way. This is one reason among others that some don't go to the Francés any more. Yet it is a camino which is closest to me, personally, though I go elsewhere now.

I don't know why toilet seats vanish but they do; it's one of the great puzzles of the world, like why do you always see only one shoe on the motorway, and why is it always a man's shoe? We may never know.

Albergeu thoughts:
I recently walked from St Jean Pied de Port to Burgos, (had intended on walking much further but blisters stopped my husband and I in our tracks!!:>(
Loved our Albergue in SJPP : The Pelerin 3 Rue De La Citadelle. Private. Fab meal around the table with other pilgrims. Very interesting hostelier.
The new albergue in Roncessvalles was spotless and more private than most. Friendly, charming Dutch volunteers working there.
Stayed in the municipal albergue in Zubiri, awful, awful, and again: awful. I believe this is where bedbugs attached themselves to me, and plagued me for the rest of the way!!
We stayed at the Jesus Y Maria albergue run by the Jesuits in Pamplona. What a beautiful building!! Very clean beds. Reasonably clean bathrooms, although my hubby complained about the toilets having no seats on them. Apparently this causes a problem with the male anatomy:>)
Will update thoughts on other albergues we stayed in if anyone is interested.

[unadara]

Leslie

Favourite Albergues, well their were a few for all sorts of different reasons. But the one that really stood out is En El Camino at Boadilla del Camino. My wife had taken ill from the night before (still walked 25km's) but when we hit this Albergue she went straight to bed & was really really ill. The way she was looked after was absolutely brilliant. After being in the Meseta for a few days this was an Oasis

Just to add we loved this place, the food was really good and breakfast and the "service" we had fun. BUT resist urge in Oct to get into or soak your feet in the pool, this was were I got an infection/(foot-blood ) I am sure , I could see the water was not clean.

[unadara]

The alberque beside the Cathedral in Burgos is far from like a hotel. We were put in bunks in the corridor where people passed to use loos and showers etc, clothes wash area sinks were in this area too! And the noise on a Sat night meant we did not sleep a wink, the kitchen has no equipment either. We waited at the door to be let out at 6am!
It is a beautiful location and conversion BUT>>

I believe it?s the new official one- only 3 euros. It?s on the Camino, before the cathedral.

[hikerdame]

Thanks for the commiseration re. bed bugs. The hubby and I walked from Astorga to Santiago in 2009 with no precautions and had no problem. This time around I sewed cover sheets, which the hubs sprayed with promethium(?) and also sprayed the outside of our sleeping bags, so I was pretty unlucky!
Anyway, moving right along:>) After Pamplona we stayed in Puenta del Riene at the Refugio Reparadores. The beds were quite yucky actually, but the bathrooms were clean and the garden was lovely. Next stop was Estelle, a decent Alburgue, 1 Euro for a disposable fitted bedsheet. Large kitchen. Nice staff. Unfortunately I can't remember the name. It was certainly the largest Albergue in Estella.
Then on to Los Arcos. Here we stayed in a private Albergue named Casa De La Abuela. I cannot say enough good things about this Albergue. Wonderful hosteliers. Fab kitchen. Spotlessly clean and some great innovations: they do a "group laundry" for half a euro. Just put all your laundry in a mesh bag and they'll toss it in a washer, spin dry it and hand it back to you. A bunch of us took over the kitchen and cooked a huge meal. No dishes to wash, they go in the dishwasher:>) Free wifi and access to a computer. Great!! Lograno was next , the Rua Vieja. This Albergue was a huge disappointment after Los Arcos, very cramped and stuffy with limited, barely private showers. Nagera made up for it though. Another private Albergue, I think called the Alberone, around the corner to the Albergue run by the Swiss:>) Really pleasant staff. clean, good showers and bathrooms. Paid for a meal at the adjoining restaurant, great meal eaten with other peregrinos!!! In Santa Domingo de la Calzada we stayed at the best, most luxurious municipal Albergue ever. It was as if they'd taken a poll of pilgrims and asked them "what do you want?" and all the pilgrims had answered "more showers" and that's what they built!!! There were comfy leather sofas, really pleasant staff, tables in the courtyard and even some roosters to entertain us:>) Great. Really recommend this place.
This post has run very long. Will share my thoughts on on remaining Albergues we stayed at in a later post:>)

[hikerdame]

Final post from me re. fave albergues:
The Albergue after Santa Domingo de la Calzada, in Belorado had a strict (signs everywhere) silence policy from 10-6.30, still didn't stop someone's deafening alarm going off at 5.30:>( but it was a decent, clean, municipal albergue.
Next up was the municipal albergue, above La Taberna in Ages. Very clean. inexpensive and roomy. Lots of freshly laundered bed linens. It is above a tavern, so I thought it would be noisy. Not so. Plus, 9 of us ate at the restaurant downstairs. 8 euros for a typical three course menu del dia, but it was mouthwateringly delicious!! If you go, order the lamb. you will not be disappointed!!:>)
Finally we come to the huge, new, purpose built albergue in Burgos.
I cannot find a single good thing to say about it. The staff are deliberately, uniformly, awful. Unhelpful, rude and obstructive. The mattresses have no covers on them, and no bed lined is offered. YUK!
There is a sink and a shower at the end of each row of 6 bunks, no maintenance done, so some sinks are clogged and unusable. There are only two toilets for about 40 bunks, and they were FILTHY. I will repeat: FILTHY!!! Double Yuk.
Horrible experience. Such a shame too as it is a fairly new building, and my expectations were high.
Burgos is where the hubs and I ended our trek due to blisters. We took a bus to Santander, so cheap and such an amazing experience. Drove through a gorge to rival the Grand Canyon.................spectacular scenery.............almost worth the blisters and shortened pilgrimage!! Will try again in the spring to complete the Camino Frances, in spite of bed bugs and blisters:>)