Coming from canada

[Bonnie]

Coming from Canada to Camino de Santiago fall 2011 - only have two weeks to walk - any suggestions where to fly into, what portion (s) of the pilgrimage would be best to do with this limited time frame. Also what time in September would be best - not a fan of hot weather! any input would be greatly appreciated (especially cost-savings!) with gratitude ~ bonnie

[HuskyNerd]

Hi Bonnie and welcome to the Forum.

A common starting place with +/- 2 weeks is the city of Leon, which gives you a 312 km walk, or about 22 kms/day for 14 days. Leon is one of the great cities of the Camino Frances and is worth a visit in its own right, with a grand cathedral, a charming old city, and great restaurants and night life. The only disadvantage of a start here is that the first several kms out of Leon are through the suburbs and industrial areas of the city. One can either bus to someplace like Hospital de Orbigo to avoid this, or just gird yourself for a relatively dreary day. After the suburbs you're in the mountains for a few days, then enter the small farm/rolling hill country of Galicia. This region is cooler than southern Spain, so you'll likely have pretty pleasant weather, just a few degrees warmer than Ontario. An advantage of doing this last part of the Camino Frances is that you'll earn your compostela certificate as a pilgrim who's walked at least the last 100 kms to Santiago.

Leon has a small airport, but it's much cheaper to fly into Madrid and catch the Renfe (train) to Leon. There are very cheap return flights from Santiago to Madrid, or you can catch a nice overnight train (Trenhotel) for about the same price. Check out the Renfe.com site for details, though you won't be able to purchase a ticket online until about 60 days prior to your trip.

An alternate plan would be to walk from Burgos to Leon, or Pamplona to Leon, but this traverses the Meseta, which even in Sept will be pretty warm.

Hope this helps. Buen camino!