Camino Frances – Gentle Steps

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  • Start Sarria
  • End Santiago de Compostela
  • DateMain Season - March to November
  • Duration 14 nights. Also 10 & 12 night options available
  • Distance115 km
  • GradeEasy

Gentle Steps Camino, short sections at your own pace

We believe you should “Walk the Way, Your Way”.

We will take time to understand your requirements and create a personalised itinerary just for you. Each person has their own particular walking ability and fitness level. You certainly do not have to be at peak fitness to walk the Camino. We regularly welcome clients from 8 – 80+.

We also design itineraries for couples or friends, where one walks the Camino and the other doesn’t walk.

If you are concerned about carrying too much weight in your backpack, you don’t need to worry.
We provide reliable luggage transfers. This daily service is organised so that all you have to worry about is carrying a small day sack with your essential items.

Santiago de Compostela As Your Base
We also design Camino experiences out of Santiago. Full day and half day tours are available around the Camino and the wider Galician area. Many of our couples and groups wish to combine gentle short walks with sightseeing excursions and gastronomy experiences.

For further details about our slow walks of the Camino de Santiago, just get in touch. We will be happy to create a personalised itinerary designed specifically around your needs and interests.

Transfer to Cape Finisterre and the Atlantic Coast
You can also spend 2 or 3 nights on Cape Finisterre where there are short walks to be enjoyed. Stroll the 2km long beach, take a gentle walk to the famous Finisterre lighthouse for a superb lunch, find the 0.0km waymarker and watch the Atlantic sunset. You can even add on a two-day mini itinerary from Finisterre to Muxia.

Price Includes

  • 14 Nights B&B
  • Baggage transfers

Price Excludes

  • Driver Service Fee
  • Guide Service Fee
  • Room Service Fees

Single Supplement

£230

Highlights

Experience the classic pilgrimage route at a gentle pace
Walk the thousand-year old pilgrimage route in manageable sections, at your own pace. Soak up the Camino’s ancient history as you go past medieval villages, pilgrim fountains, and majestic monasteries linked for centuries to the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

Spanish Gastronomy and Wine
Every town in the Camino has a variety of lively plazas with bars and restaurants, so there will be plenty of opportunities for you to enjoy the delicious Spanish gastronomy and the variety of world-famous Spanish wines.

This is an area that still preserves a traditional way of life. Galicia is the green corner of Spain and its lush meadows support many family-run dairy and beef farms. Galician cooking is simple and hearty, using mainly fresh local produce.

Those with a sweet tooth will love Tarta de Santiago, a type of almond cake dusted with sugar outlining the shape of the cross of Santiago. A gastronomic point – in Melide look out for the local speciality “Pulpo Gallego” – octopus – sprinkled with paprika and served with potatoes.

The wines, cheeses and seafood are all renowned Galician specialities. Unlike the red wine-producing rest of Spain, Galicia’s climate is better suited to whites. Albariño is a straw-coloured wine with a distinct peach flavour that’s now highly respected outside Spain and the perfect companion to fish and seafood.

Santiago de Compostela, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985, Galicia’s capital city Santiago de Compostela is the world-known destination of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. Around the Cathedral of Saint James of Compostela, a masterpiece of Romanesque art, the city boasts a picturesque old town worthy of one of Christianity’s greatest holy cities.

Guided Tours of Santiago de Compostela
As an optional extra, we can arrange a guided tour of the city’s extraordinary ensemble of distinguished monuments grouped around the Cathedral of Saint James the Greater.

Day Excursion to Finisterre & Muxia
We can arrange a full day excursion to Cape Finisterre on Galicia’s Atlantic coast, which traditionally was the final destination for many pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. A walk on the long golden beach searching for your own scallop shell makes for a superb ending to the whole experience.

Food & Drink

Choose B&B or Half Board
For any traveller on the Camino, nourishment and refreshment is an important part of the daily routine. There are many places to enjoy good local dishes to suit a variety of tastes and budgets. We also aim to cater for those with particular dietary needs.

Breakfast
Where available we always order a full breakfast spread for our clients. But it does vary between establishments. Whether you have a light or substantial offering, you can always top up mid-morning at cafe bars along the route. The Spanish habit is to have breakfast between 10 and 11 when cafes and bars fill with locals having their “desayuno”.

Lunches
Lunch on the Camino is often taken as a picnic, and most places have local shops selling items of fresh local produce to purchased each morning before you set out on the trail. Certain lodgings will offer pre-ordered packed lunches. Or check your guide and plan to stop off in a cafe-bar or restaurant on the Way.

Dinner
Spanish people tend to have dinner from 9 pm. But on the Camino, dinner is usually served from 8 pm — so do take advantage of the habitual afternoon “merienda” to keep you going, once you have arrived at your daily destination. That could be cold beer “cerveza” and tapas or coffee and cake.

Hydration
Hydration is essential — carry between 1.5 and 3l of drinking water, depending on the season, temperatures and distance you plan to cover. Keep a sugary and salty snack handy in your pocket or daypack – this will give you that little extra burst of energy to keep you going.

Mid morning/afternoon snacks known as “merienda” are the perfect way to sustain yourself on the Way. Especially if you are not used to the later meal times which are the norm across Spain. It is customary for Spanish people to have a mid-morning stop for breakfast and late afternoon for a bite to keep them going until the traditional late dinner.

Itinerary

Enjoy the Camino de Santiago at Your Own Pace
This slow travel version of Spain’s classic and most popular route – the Camino Frances or French Way, we call our “Gentle Steps” edition.

It’s exactly the same route in shorter segments – fewer daily miles to walk, more overnight stops and you are still eligible for the Compostela certificate.

We will tailor the walking tour to suit your personal requirements walking a range of 4 – 8 miles sections each day.

As experts on the Camino and have considerable experience tailoring walking and driving tours of the Camino de Santiago. Contact us and we will create an itinerary to fit you.

For those who are looking for a new slow travel Camino experience, we also organise slow travel version of the Via de la Plata, which is often referred to as “The Quiet Camino”.

Map

Accommodation

Accommodation
Baggage Transfers

Hand-picked comfortable, family-run establishments with high levels of personal service
We usually choose comfortable, small, family-run establishments on the Camino. Our Bed & Breakfast accommodation includes a variety of traditional farmhouses, historic homes and two and three star hotels. All rooms have en-suite facilities.

Our accommodation providers are hand-picked and well known to us. We believe that our high level of personal service and customer care offers the best available in the local food, culture and history.

We quote all our journeys with bag transfers as standard. We heartily recommend that you book your main piece of luggage to be transferred between accommodations. It helps your enjoyment of the Way and keeps unnecessary stress off your back and joints.

We work with dedicated professional companies who do this essential work day in, day out. The system works very well, with bags picked up between 8 and 8:30 am and delivered to the next hotel between 2 and 4 pm.

This daily service is organised so that all you have to worry about is carrying a day sack with your essential items.

If you do wish to carry your own bag that is fine with us. And you can always call us and request to add on the service if you change your mind.

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Camino Frances Gentle Steps
FromGBP£1,190

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