Continuing with our Camino questions, this week we have a great one: “When starting my Camino Frances in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, should I allow for one night or maybe two to soak up the environment and enjoy the town before setting off?”<\/p>\n
As with everything Camino-related, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Here are a couple of alternatives based on my experiences.<\/p>\n
I’ve set out from Saint-Jean twice, and both times the decision on how long to stay was influenced by how far I’d travelled to get there. If you’re traveling a short distance, like from within France, arriving and starting your walk right away might be feasible. However, if you’re coming from the other side of the world, like me, it’s a different story.<\/p>\n
When I walk from Saint-Jean, I usually fly into Paris. Paris is an awesome city and a great place to recover from jet lag. I typically land in the morning, spend a night in a hotel near the Gare Montparnasse (station), enjoy a fantastic lunch, and walk around the city. The next day, I take a train to Bayonne and then a fast train to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.<\/p>\n
If you’re traveling a short distance, one night in Saint-Jean is usually plenty. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is a picturesque country mountain town with lovely places to eat and cute little shops. You can see most of the town in half a day, taking photos by the river and soaking in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
If you need to buy equipment, there’s a store on the main street near the Pilgrim’s Office and a big hypermarket near the station. Unless you have specific errands, sightseeing in Saint-Jean doesn’t require much time.<\/p>\n
The key factor is how much rest you need before starting your walk. For those traveling long distances, a couple of nights’ sleep might be necessary. This could mean a night in Paris or Madrid before heading to Saint-Jean.<\/p>\n
Another consideration is the excitement of starting your Camino. Picture yourself in Saint-Jean, watching pilgrims head up towards Orisson and Roncesvalles. You might find yourself eager to join them and get started.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, it comes down to how much rest you need before walking, determined by how far you’ve travelled. If you’re coming from the US or Australia and heading straight to Saint-Jean without a break, you might want to spend two nights there. However, keep in mind that while Saint-Jean is lovely, there’s not much to do beyond a few hours of exploration. The real joy is heading up that mountain and starting your journey.<\/p>\n
I hope this answers your question, even if it wasn’t the exact answer you expected. Thank you for your question, and please keep them coming. I love having new topics to discuss. Thanks for watching, and see you next time. Bye for now!<\/p>\n
Do check out the individual Blogs from each year we have walked.\u00a0 Most include lots of photos and videos.<\/p>\n
2015 Camino Frances<\/a><\/p>\n 2016 Camino Frances<\/a><\/p>\n 2018 Camino Frances<\/a><\/p>\n 2023 Via de la Plata<\/a>,\u00a0 Camino Invierno<\/a>, Camino Fisterra\/Muxia<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Starting Your Camino in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port Continuing with our Camino questions, this week we have a great one: “When starting my Camino Frances in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, should I allow for one night or maybe two to soak up the environment and enjoy the town before setting off?” How Long Should You Stay in St Jean? As with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4261"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4267,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261\/revisions\/4267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscamino.com\/general\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}