Thoughts on Group Leader
Alfonso was great, he organised the transfers well and on days when we walked quicker than expected always tried to bring forward transfers if he could. On most days he managed to get lunch time and evening meals booked when he could so we didnt have to wait for a table big enough for the group.
Advice for Potential Travellers
If you have allergies/dietary requirements take some food with you. Some of the lunch stops weren't very good for me (gluten free), on the first day of walking we stopped for lunch at a pizzeria that served me a salad with croutons despite asking for them to be left out. The supermarkets in the bigger towns had a good variety of food and drink available so I carried wraps I had made after that to make sure I got enough food. Most places will take card payments but we did come across a few smaller coffee shops while walking that only took cash. Having cash also makes settling up group meals alot easier (we stopped for lunch in one place that didn't let us split the bill). All of the hotels except one (the Casa Rural) had lifts, there were sometimes waits to use them as they were small but you can definitely take a suitcase as you aren't walking far with your bags. Having a sim card that will work for Portugal and Spain was definitely an advantage. After day 1 the group tended to split up while walking as we all walked at different speeds. We set up a whatsapp group so we could share photos but it was also useful for the guide to post links to where were stopping for food/coffee and regroup and on the odd occassion the route split into two he could let us know which path to take. The camino route is very well marked so even when we split up it was easy to know which way to walk. Take something to keep your camino passport in to keep it safe from the rain (available to buy from Porto Cathedral - our guide took us there after we got to the hotel). There is little time to explore Porto unless you have an early flight on the day you arrive, if you want to see the city arrive a day or two earlier or go back there at the end of the trip. We stayed in Porto for a couple of days - that was all you really needed to see the city. You will arrive in Santiago on Saturday afternoon - we had enough time to check in, shower and change and be back at the cathedral for pilgrim mass. Get there early if you want a seat, we got into the cathedral 45 minutes before mass started and only just got seats. There will be a large queue to get in. Also worth noting that you cannot enter the cathedral with a backpack. The 7.30pm mass was a full service which lasted approx an hour. The fumiares is brought out right at the end of the service so make sure you stay til the end if you want to see it (it is not used for every service so you are lucky if you see it). They also close the doors once the service starts to stop people coming in and you cannot walk around the cathedral whilst the mass is happening.