Accommodation en-route

Mark asked me to look into reviews of accommodation en-route, I found this online, so maybe print & take with you.

Its a direct cut & paste from www.caminodesantiagocompostelo.com

Refuges and Hostals

At St Jean Pied De Port and other refuges, you can obtain a list of all the current refuges in Spain. When I obtained one of those lists I added the details to my set of "Lozano" maps. I have reproduced this list here with comments on the refuges that I have actually stayed at.
Since the beginning of 2004, a holy year, the number of refuges has greatly increased. You are more likely to find one in small out of the way places than before. Also the bigger cities and towns tend to have at least three now due to the large numbers of pilgrims which were expected during the holy year. The newer refuges tend to be much better equipped than the traditional ones and one or two very old ones have closed down either permanently or for refurbishment.

In general the refuges in Galicia are modern, built due to the visit by the Pope in 1992. However they seem to have been built cheaply and they all had problems with the electricity supply, which frequently failed leaving no cooking facilities or hot water. My cynical side says that this was so that the local bars did some extra business.

Refuges operate on a "first come, first served" basis. Preference is usually given to walking pilgrims and then to the cyclists. You cannot book a place in advance and most hospitaleros will not allow car pilgrims to stay there or allow a support car to "book" beds before hand. Quite right too, in my opinion. In the unlikely event of having a horse with you then your options are very limited unless you also bring a tent with you. When the refuges are full, which is frequent in the better months, then there are often many "hostels" or "pensions" (small private hotels or B&B) which are usually very nice and only $15 a night or thereabouts. They have the benefit of having hot water and usually a private shower and of course a private bedroom!. I used them a lot on my second Camino as the refuges were almost always full from Burgos onwards even in late May.

To stay in a refuge, you need to have obtained a pilgrim's passport or credential. These can be obtained in most of the major cities on the camino. Or from one of the camino organisations listed above or from the pilgrims offices in St Jean Pied De Port and Roncesvalles. The hospitalero will usually stamp these with their special stamp when you sign in to the refuge. Some of the stamps are quite artistic. Also bars and hotels often have a stamp and of course the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) will also have a stamp. Finally, you need to have at least two stamps per day when walking the last 100KM of the Camino if you want to obtain the Compostela when you reach Santiago.

The following list is very old and out of date and I had removed it, but many people have asked me to re-instate it again as there seems to be no other list easily available. Expect there to be many more refuges opened, especially private ones, than I have listed here.

The best source of information on the current refuge situation is the Confraternity Of St James. They produce a booklet with the most update information, but of course it's not free like this one!

Distance	Name	Comment
0	St Jean Pied Du Port	Not sure what to say about this one as it is likely to be your first experience of a refuge. I found it to be ok every time I have stayed there. The town has really good restaurants.
5	Huntto	I did not stay here but talking to people who did, they said it was an excellent private refuge.
8	Orrison	After Huntto and about 8Km from St Jean Pied Du Port is another new private refuge built by the side of the road. This breaks up the journey so you don't have to walk the whole way to Roncesvalles in a single day which is a great improvement. You have to book ahead though as it's often full.
18	Roncesvalles	Be careful of this one due to the stupid rules about vacating the refuge during mass. See my diary for the reasons. I had a very bad experience here. Update: They have now dropped the rule about vacating the refuge during mass and they have moved the whole refuge into another much larger building with vastly better facilities. I can now recommend it as well as the hostal above the bar and also the "La Posada" hotel also in the village. I have now stayed at all three places. La Posada is dutch run friendly & has good reviews. ~ You may stop at Akerreta ~ you can check out accommodation
22	Zubiri	If the weather is bad, this can be one of the worst refuges on the camino as the toilet facilities are very poor and get dirty very quickly. When the weather is good it's ok. There are no curtains on a very big picture window and a very bright light outside. You may have difficulty sleeping, I did. Update: The refuge situation in Zubiri has changed considerably. There are several new small refuges, particulary on the short road from the bridge to the main road. The old refuge is still there and used as an overflow. There are also several small pensions opened up and sign for these can be seen all over the place and in the bars.
5	Larrasoaña	I finally got to meet the hospitalero and mayor in 2004. The refuge is very good, although there are no obvious shops or restaurants in the village. I say "no obvious" because this year I arrived early and waited about 4 hours outside the refuge. I observed various people driving up to a particular house nearby the refuge and walking out again, with satisfied looks, a few hours later and sometimes with silver foil packages in their hands. I can recommend the little bar right at the end of the village on the left. The owner is a real character and he sells a few pilgrim items in the bar shop. Update: The refuge situation in Larrasoaña has also changed. In 2007, there was an overflow building to the main refuge and the bar at the top of the town had re-opened again.
8	Trinidad De Arre	I stayed here on my second camino and liked this one. We had wonderful weather after a day or two of damp weather and I have never seen so much washing out to dry in the hot sun at a refuge before.
6	Pamplona	A reasonable refuge in the center of the city. It's up a long narrow flight of stairs though so it can be difficult to get up there with a backpack on and somebody else trying to come down the stairs. Update: Again, lots of changes here with the old refuge closed down but many new ones opened up. Personally I still prefer to walk on until I reach Maribel's refuge in Cizur Minor.
5	Cizur Minor	This is Maribel Roncal's privately run refuge. Over the years she has updated the facilites considerably from the origonal garden house. There are no shops in the village, so you need to buy food in Pamplona first or use the several good local restaurants. Or walk the 10KM to Cizur Major which has a supermarket. Maribel has upgraded all the facilities and there is now a second annex with excellent showers.
19	Puente La Reina	There are two refuges here, one on the way into the town and one on the hill on the way out of town. Also many hostels and two "parador" style hotels on the way in. On my first camino, the refuge had a system of triple bunks in a very dark and damp room in part of a building. Now the whole building is used and they have new but squeaky beds. The refuge on the hill is a brand new modern one with good beds and washing facilities. It also has its own restaurant. The hotel "Jueke" has an albergue in the basement of the building with also has excellent facilities. Not many people stay there though as it is not very well advertised. I only know because I stayed in the hotel this year in order to get a hot bath.
20	Estella	A good refuge on the way into town. Be careful of the breakfast though as it is a big con. Don't buy it, get your own food. Can be noisy this refuge as the hospitalero seems to like playing loud music during the day. When I was there the first time, it was the same "Enya" track several times a day!
8	Villamajor De Monjardin	A really good, Dutch run refuge. They provide an evening meal and an excellent breakfast. This was the first place I managed to find brown bread! It was freshly baked that morning, delicious!
12	Los Arcos	This main one is run by some camino group. This is the famous "massage" refuge where the guy comes in every day to give foot or back massages. It didn't try one myself as I didn't like the look of him but people I asked said they were very good. Update: There are now four albergues in Los Arcos. The municipal one and three private ones. All are fairly obvious when walking into the town. The first one I got to looked very nice inside. I didn't look at the second. The third is accessable through a garage and is next door to the municipal one. I am told by someone, who's opinion I respect, that it was very good.
10	Torres Del Rio	I stayed in this one in 2004. I found it very "cozy" although there are not many facilities there.
6	Viana	This is one of the few refuges that still have triple bunks.
8	Logroño	A very big refuge on the left down a side street after you cross one of the big bridges over the river. It had a very nice fountain/pond in the grounds where you could bathe your feet. Actually very close to the town center and the restaurants.