what do we know about arles?

[pia]

I'm thinking of trying to avoid some of the high-season crowds by starting the camino frances in arles instead of st jean, but i'm a little worried that the road-less-travelled may also be the road-with-less-facilities: does anyone know whether i can get a pilgrims' passport in arles and whether there are many camino albergues between arles and pamplona??

[Leslie]

This is part of the GR653 so it is well marked but with GR marking and not as the Camino. I Have not walked this, but my experience of GR routes is that they are well marked - GR routes cover all of Europe.

The only issues on this route appear to be cost and being more on your own. There are no pilgrim hostels on the French side of this - and that is where most of the route is. The Bed & Breakfast, Pensions, gites are not cheap.

This changes when you reach Somport and from here it is waymarked mostly as both the GR and the Camino. I have walked part of the route from Somport - it is great, much quieter the Camino Frances, but can be a bit more challenging terrain wise. There are pilgrim hostels on the Spanish side, but they are few, there are enough though.

I would recommend the route from Somport, the rest I don't know as I have not walked. Let us know hoe you get on if you walk this part and if you do consider writing a couple pages about it and I will add it to the main part of the site. Thanks.