I’m stalking you Rebecca😉and loving your posts, YouTube interview, and I have a phone date set up with you in July. I’m reading the news fr both Portugal and Spain about the demonstrations asking for no more tourists. Not sounding very inviting. Your thoughts.
Thanks for asking about this. I haven't seen this on the Camino specifically, but I'm just one of hundreds of thousands who are on the Camino routes each year.
There are definitely problems in Santiago de Compostela itself. It is a big university town and the university students are having trouble finding housing due to the rise of things like AirBnB. So I recommend only staying in actual hotels or family-run pensions when you're there--places intended for visitors and not an apartment.
I would agree that cities like Barcelona, for example, are absolutely overrun with tourists in the summer months. But have you ever heard of Astorga? Oviedo? Monforte de Limos? They are places on the Camino Frances, Camino Primitivo, and Camino Invierno. I've been to all of them. Those of us who walk Camino routes know of them. Spanish tourists know of them. But they are not on the foreign tourist radar like Barcelona.
I feel like there will be/is a movement for more responsible tourism--the kind that respects the people and the culture, the kind that in which we are curious and not judgemental, the kind in which we support local small businesses like family-run hotels and restaurants, the kind in which we learn how to say, at minimum, hello, goodbye, please, and thank you in the language of the country we are visiting.
That's the kind of travel I like to do, support, and encourage.
Beautiful reminder on death
I’m stalking you Rebecca😉and loving your posts, YouTube interview, and I have a phone date set up with you in July. I’m reading the news fr both Portugal and Spain about the demonstrations asking for no more tourists. Not sounding very inviting. Your thoughts.
Hello Debbie --
Thanks for asking about this. I haven't seen this on the Camino specifically, but I'm just one of hundreds of thousands who are on the Camino routes each year.
There are definitely problems in Santiago de Compostela itself. It is a big university town and the university students are having trouble finding housing due to the rise of things like AirBnB. So I recommend only staying in actual hotels or family-run pensions when you're there--places intended for visitors and not an apartment.
I would agree that cities like Barcelona, for example, are absolutely overrun with tourists in the summer months. But have you ever heard of Astorga? Oviedo? Monforte de Limos? They are places on the Camino Frances, Camino Primitivo, and Camino Invierno. I've been to all of them. Those of us who walk Camino routes know of them. Spanish tourists know of them. But they are not on the foreign tourist radar like Barcelona.
I feel like there will be/is a movement for more responsible tourism--the kind that respects the people and the culture, the kind that in which we are curious and not judgemental, the kind in which we support local small businesses like family-run hotels and restaurants, the kind in which we learn how to say, at minimum, hello, goodbye, please, and thank you in the language of the country we are visiting.
That's the kind of travel I like to do, support, and encourage.