02 – Ferrol to Pontedeume

So, in fact, we can consider this step as the first one of the Caminho Inglés, starting in Ferrol.

Obviously, in the previous post, we started the Camino in the Ferrol port and then we walked around 3km of the Camino Inglés, till a hostel nearby the path.

In this post, we will start our journey at the Ferrol Hospedaje, near the “Diapasan Roundabout”.

In short, in one friday, we left Porto at 10a.m. and arrived Ferrol at 5.30p.m (local time). Then, we visited Ferrol till 9p.m, when we arrived Ferrol Hospedaje.

Now, we will start one the longest distances of the Camino Inglés (not the 33km, from the Ferrol port, but 29km till Pontedeume).

01 – Ferrol (visit and starting the Camino)

Ferrol is a small city located at 50km from A Coruña.

I’m not the best person to talk about Ferrol, but from what i’ve read it is an important city for Spanish Navy and also because it was here that the dictator Franco was born.

From what i saw, Ferrol was nicer from what i had seen in photos and google street view. Yes, it is a quite old and dark city but we had lucky to see it with a spectacular sunset.

There are many churches and a central park where we have a series of street coffees and plenty of people gathered. Easily we can see the major spots of the city in 2 hours. We weren’t running and we saw many things and still had time to initiate the Camino Inglés.

The train and bus station are situated neat the Plaza de España and you will easily visit Ferrol in 3hours. We arrive at 5.30p.m, we loose ourselfs a little, due to a GPS failure, but did see the Concello de Ferrol, had time to go again to Plaza de España do buy things in the supermarket, we visited the main garden, the Rúa dos Irmandiños (where you will see some major churches), we went to the port, started the Camino, visited the Iglesia de San Francisco, and had time to arrive at 8.45p.m at Ferrol Hospedaje.

05 – Porto/Vigo/Ferrol

So, finally we are ready to go to Ferrol.

First, we picked the Autna bus in Casa da Música bus station (boarding interface number 3) at 10am .

Porto | Casa da Música boarding interface

We arrived at 01:35 p.m  (Spain local time) at Vigo bus station.

Vigo | Bus station

In Vigo we only had time to eat something and buy the tickets in Castromil buses to go to Ferrol. The bus was at 2:30 p.m (14h30).

Castromil bus that took us from Vigo to Ferrol

We arrived Ferrol at 5:30 p.m (17h30) after stopping in Pontevedra, Santiago de Compostela and Pontedeume (the place where we would arrive by foot in the next day).

The weather was not constant but in general we had sun and some clouds. The temperature was around 21ºC and it was very pleasant when we arrive Ferrol.

From here, we took our GPS and followed the track that we previously had created to visit Ferrol, it’s main spots and also to start the Camino Inglés in that day.However, the GPS blocked as soon we got out of the bus and we had to do a little more of distance to correct the path. However we went to the right places, but we took longer to do it.

The idea was to go to the supermarket to “re-fuel” to next day and to make dinner in the hostel and then start the Camino.

Ferrol | Bus station

 

02 – Travel planning

Camino Inglés/ English Way – Santiago de Compostela – Map Overview from Ricardo Dias on Vimeo.

Going from Porto to Ferrol

I had to travel from Porto (Portugal) to Ferrol (Spain) that is one of the starting points of Camino Inglés (in spanish). The other one is A Coruña but you will do less kilometers (around 75km vs the 120km of Ferrol).

There are 3 major options to arrive Ferrol from Porto: BUS, train or by car. So, which one should i choose? Let’s analyse it in the cost/ benefict perspective.

Car

I’ll use the ViaMichelin website to analyse the costs of going from Porto to Ferrol and i’ll compare it with BlaBlaCar prices.

BlaBlaCar didn’t have any travel available for the day i wanted to go to Ferrol. Of course, i hadn’t the opportunity to find a travel to Ferrol. I was searching for a travel going from Porto to A Coruña. I had one travel one day before for around €20/ person. So, in my case it would be around €40 (two persons) + the travel between A Coruña and Ferrol. This travel is around €8,25/ person in Arriva. In this case, the sum of the travel between Porto and Ferrol (without any certainties of dates) would be €40 + €16,5 = €56,5

Using ViaMichelin the travel between Porto and Ferrol would be 318km and would have the total cost of €52,10 with diesel at €1,15/ liter. Of course, that also would arise the problem of parking the car in Ferrol for one week. Not a good option for us.

Train (CP and RENFE)

The experience of previous years (the last 2 years i did the portuguese way to Santiago on bike) i knew the train is the best way to transport the bicycles but also the more expensive. So, i didn’t care comparing the prices. They would be greater. But let’s see.
Going from Porto, you only have the Celta train (€14,75/ person) and you have to go from Vigo Guixar to Santiago de Compostela (€9,25/ person) and from Santiago de Compostela to Ferrol (€14,55/ person). So, for two persons the total price would be €77,1 and you needed 2 stops!

Bus

Porto – Santiago – Ferrol

The BUS option is the best one but you don’t have many schedules. You only have 2 options for Porto-Santiago de Compostela directly: ALSA and EUROLINES. The price is €34/ person. And i still needed to go from Santiago de Compostela to Ferrol via BUS (http://www.monbus.es/es). The price is €10,35/ person. So, the travel for 2 persons would cost €88,7. Grrr! Too expensive.

Porto – A Coruña – Ferrol

Price from Porto to A Coruña is €40/ person. Going to Ferrol in Arriva (http://www.arriva.gal/#home) is €8,25. For 2 persons the total price would be €96,5. Worst option!

Porto – Vigo – Ferrol

Going from Porto to Vigo in Autna or Eurolines or Alsa is €12. Going from Vigo to Ferrol in Castromil bus (www.monbus.es/es) is €18,35. So, for 2 persons the total price is €60,7. The cheapest option available and i would arrive earlier than previous options! Great! The cheapest option would be going by car, but i would need to park it one week in Ferrol and adding the price of bus or train from Santiago to Ferrol to pick it up and the returning price would be higher. Not an option!

The difference between the higher option available and the cheapest one is €18/ person. It is huge, considering the distance.

Castromil bus that took us from Vigo to Ferrol. Great service and great price!

Returning from Santiago to Porto

Like the previous options, the best one is going from Santiago to Vigo in Castromil buses (€8/ person) and in Autna for €12/ person. For 2 persons is €40 total.

If you consider doing directly in Alsa you will spend €34/ person, which means €68 for 2 persons. €28 difference in the same travel!!!

So, if you choose the cheapest option (the schedules are better too!) you save €32/ person only in transportation!

01 – Previous message

Writing about planning is more a personal issue rather than a collective one. So, i’ll talk about my planning.

In my travels i always have an excel worksheet that includes:

1. Travel planning and budget
2. Check-list of things to take
3. Blank worksheet for diary budget control
4. Real expenses

Talking about each one separately in next posts.