My sister suggested that we walk the Camino del Norte (Northern Way), instead of the popular Camino Francés (French Way). I didn't know much about the Camino del Norte, but the more I explored about different routes, the more it appealed. It looked more scenic, less crowded, and probably better food as well!
Once we decided to walk the entire Camino del Norte, in about 40 days, we needed to know who else in the family would want to join. Eventually, 6 family members signed up to walk the entire route (from San Sebastián to Santiago de Compostela) -- my sister in Beijing (Jieun), her husband (William), my oldest sister in Busan (Anna), her husband (Namkeun, or NK), my sister in Chicago (Mikyung, or MK), and myself.
Typically, there are 2 ways to walk the Camino -- just wing it (walk as much/little as you want, and at the end of the day, look for an accommodation), or plan everything ahead. We chose the latter, mainly because our group had a couple of, uh, elderly people (in their late 70s). We just wanted to have more security, instead of wondering where to sleep every night, not just for one, but for six people.
At first, Jieun and William suggested that we hire a travel agency to book everything for us, essentially, buying a tour package. It would probably be the easiest, but once I got preliminary quotes from a couple of companies, I said, "Well, I can do it myself, too, at a much lower price!" So, I volunteered to make arrangemnts -- booking for accommodations and luggage transfers. (As it turned out, it worked out really well for us, since some people decided to join us in part of our trip, and the plans had changed more than once. It was good to be flexible.)
Deciding to bypass a travel agency was one thing. We needed to actually plan! Based on multiple itinerarires from traval agencies and other Camino-related websites and apps, we decided on a 37-day trip, including 4 rest days, beginning in late August. Google map was helpful in estimating walking distannce; however, the actual Camino trail was NOT on it, and it was difficult to get exact mileage. So, I tried my best to estimate each day's walk, while considering elevation gain, etc.
Figuring out each day's walk was one thing. Booking for accommodations, mostly hotels, was completely different. First, the distance from each city (town/village) to the next would change, depending on the location of each accommodation. Even in January and February, booking for 6 people in one place near the Camino trail wasn't easy. (I suppose travel companies had hold on a lot of them.) Once I decided and booked a hotel, the walking distance needed to be re-calculated, and the subsequent (or previous) options needed to be adjusted, and so on. (Well, sometimes booking can be fun.)
By the end of February, we decided on an exact timeline, and I booked everything for 6 people. Even though there was no end in sight to the pandemic, omicron had become more prevalent, and I was hopeful that COVID-19 won't be much of a problem by the time we begin our journey at the end of August (and I was right!).
Having decided on the exact timeline, I needed to book for airline tickets. After considering many options, I decided to fly into Biarritz, France, and use a couple of days before I join everyone else in San Sebastián, not only to get used to a different time zone, but also to walk from Irún to San Sebastián, to truly complete the entire Camino del Norte. Here is our prelimary schedule. (Distance is the best estimate between accommodations. Time in hours:minutes is the estimate according to Google map, which does not take many things, such as weather, into account.)
