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Old 09-13-22, 07:09 AM
  #19  
John N
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
Posts: 451

Bikes: Co-Motion Americano Pinion P18; Co-Motion Americano Rohloff; Thorn Nomad MkII, Robert Beckman Skakkit (FOR SALE), Santana Tandem, ICE Adventure FS

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This is thinking outside the box but what you want is exactly what can happen if you ride in Spain on one of the main Camino de Santiago routes. While it is mostly geared for walkers, about 10% of the people ride either the actual route (mainly gravel) or a closely parallel road route. The best part is the more popular routes have luggage services where for about 10 euros, the company will take your luggage to your next lodging facility so it is waiting for you typically no later than 2pm, usually earlier. The transport companies shuttle probably a million pieces of luggage a year (literally) and rarely deliver the luggage to the wrong hotel (an "air tag" type device in your luggage allows you to track your luggage). Anyway, so the shuttle service allows you to ride the Camino with only your "day ride" items. I "think" there are 3 main routes with shuttle service, the Francis, North, and Portuguese. The North is supposedly the prettiest (I could believe it) but also the hilliest. The Francis is by far the most popular but I know very little about the Portuguese route.

This summer, my wife hiked the Camino while I toured it and other areas within a day or two ride of the Camino. She used the shuttle service every day and I used it periodically when I was on the Camino and never had an issue.

If you want to ride "off Camino" Spain has tons of taxis (no Ubers) but due to high cost of gas, the prices to shuttle something via taxi could easily be $50 or more per shuttle depending on how far.

Spain is a wonderful country with friendly people and has relatively inexpensive food (3-course lunch and dinners with a bottle of wine included is typically around $12-$17 and lodging can range from $12 to around $50 for a hotel. Soda is more expensive than wine or coffee. Services are located every 3-5 miles on the main St. Francis (Francis) Camino route so never an issue finding food or bathrooms. English is mostly understood along the Caminos as it has a wonderfully diverse international participation. I speak very little Spanish and got along fine with the basics. If you did the main Camino, it would take about 2-3 weeks depending on your speed but since the shuttle services are available, you could take your sweet time. Oh, and the drivers are fantastic toward cyclists. The drivers are definitely amongst the best I have found in 45+ years of international touring. If you go, be sure to look at something like WeatherSpark so you can plan to avoid the hotter months because for some odd reason, very few hotels have air conditioning OR ceiling fans so sitting in a hotel room without either when the temps are 90* outside can be not too enjoyable.

In summary, touring in Spain is probably the same cost or cheaper than a similar 3-week trip in the USA, especially if you need air transport in the USA and is definitely a cyclists' area.
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