Spain's Sendero Historico: The GR1

Many thanks for this very helpful trip report from Stuart Smith, Waco, Texas

We picked Oliana as our stopping point as there was bus service from there to Andorra, and we wanted to visit Andorra before heading to Barcelona. We took a train to Pamplona and then a taxi to Sos to start our trip. We started in Sos rather than Olite as we had about 20 days allocated for hiking and starting in Sos would save a couple of days. This segment, which is a little over 400km, fit into our time schedule just fine. We took rest days in Rodellar and Graus.

We did not see any other hikers doing long sections of the GR-1. Many days we saw no one else. Between Rodellar and Paules de Sarsa we saw a number of hikers who seemed to be doing a 6-day loop.

Sec 5, stage 3 We stayed in Casa Loft Bergua in Arguis, which has several small apartments. It is on booking.com. There is a restaurant in the village but it is closed Mon and Tues. There is a vending machine outside the bar. Since we were there on a Monday, we carried food from the previous village, which we could cook in the kitchenette in the apartment.

Sec 5, stage 6 There is a bar in Arcusa. It is in the former city hall and appears to be a community run bar. There is also a new fancy boutique hotel in the village

There is a reroute from Castejon de Sobrarbe to go south of Pardina; however, one section is so overgrown with brambles near Latorre we cut through a field to get to Latorre and back to the road. So the description in the book actually works better than the reroute.

Sec 5, stage 7 We contacted Liguerre de Cinca about staying at one of their properties. We were there on a Saturday night in early May. There are two locations that are several kilometers apart. The property emailed us to explain that the big hotel on the lake is off limits on Saturdays due to weddings. The small hotel and campground at Liguerre are available on Saturday, but the restaurant at that location is not open in May. We carried food and stayed in a cabin so we would have a kitchen.

Sec 6, stage 1 We stayed near Laguarres in an excellent Casa Rural called Casa Cholavila, which is on booking.com. This makes for a short day from Graus and then a longer day the next day, but the Casa Cholavila owner will give you a ride to Lascuarre if you like. They don’t normally do supper but likely will if you arrange it beforehand, which is what we did. No place to eat in Laguarres. The owners are a Dutch/Spanish couple and she grew up up in Laguarres and they have moved back here. They have a really nice property with great gardens, and they grow a lot of the food.

Sec 6, stage 2 The GR-1 has been rerouted off the road if you take the shortcut skipping Luzás. The shortcut seems to be the official route now, according to the Aragonese website and the sign boards posted at the beginning and end of the stage. There are some overgrown sections. There are up-to-date tracks on Wikiloc from the Aragones Mountain Club when they hiked it last year. In fact, they hiked all the sections in Aragon and posted the tracks on Wikiloc.

Sec 6, stage 3 There is a coffee and gift shop at the north entrance to the Congost de Mont Rebei park that sells snacks.

Restaurant del Congost in Corca is closed and for sale.

Sec 6, stage 5 Masai Massanes is closed.

We walked to Vilanova de Meia rather than doing the Hostal Roig version since we knew that Masai Massanes was closed. Rather than try to arrange transportation from and to Massanes just to get in those last two sections to Oliana, we decided to walk about 22km down to Artesa de Segre, which is on a highway with plenty of transportation options. We found some dirt roads on a map, which kept us off the paved road most of the way. From Artesa we took a bus to Oliana where we stayed at the delightful Hostal Victor and then went on to Andorra. So the net result was that we missed the last two stages that we had planned to do from Hostal Roig to Oliana but we missed only one day of walking since we walked the day from Vilanova down to Artesa de Segre.

Thank you to Gill for the following updates:

In Sant Llorenc I strongly recommend Casa Rural Cirerer (booking.com) - almost on the GR1 as it comes into the village and a really lovely little house. There are good shops for self-catering.

Mas de Pujol is still open - quite quirky and a massive walkers' dinner!

Cal Majoral near Espanyola only opens the restaurant for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. The food is very good but it's essential to tell them you want dinner.

Lluca no longer has accommodation so we detoured to Prats de Lluçanes - there's a very comfortable, small hotel (Hotelet) with friendly owners - they sorted out a taxi for us when it transpired the bus to Alpens that we'd planned to take almost certainly didn't exist on Sundays, despite what the bus company said on the internet. There's a good bar nearby for dinner and breakfast.

Alpens - only self-catering accommodation and mostly only accepts booking for 2 or more nights so we skipped a day (LLuca to Alpens) and taxi-ed there. Taxi driver Joan lives in Prats, was v helpful and speaks good English: 649 996 742/630 994 933.

Bar Casino is I think where the Fonda used to be and does a big trade serving brunches etc to cyclists.

The Hotelet in Sant Joan de les Abadesses is fine - they do breakfast from 8am, which is a plus. Getting dinner is difficult midweek - as it was almost everywhere.

There's a new-looking hotel more or less half-way between Sant Joan and Sant Pau de Seguries, Les Planes del Grau. It is right on the GR1 and seemed very tidy and pleasant, with a pool and restaurant.

The hostal in Oix is still there although the bar/restaurant was closed to non-residents and I wondered if the owner was winding down. It would be such a shame if that closed!

As ever the GR1 was very quiet indeed. No major issues although here and there it's been re-routed a bit. The stretch from Ripoll to Sant Pau was my least favourite of the trip, with so much of the walk near the road. We had a good time in Camprodon (2-3 hours on from Sant Pau on a well signposted trail - then a direct PR (also well-marked, good views, quite steep downhill at times) from Camprodon to Oix after a couple of days off).

Camprodon is a good little town with an attractive old part and famous bridge as well as very good bus links - we took a tiny bus to Setcases on one "day off" and had a beautiful walk back with stunning views. With hindsight I might have skipped Ripoll to Sant Pau and taken the train direct from Ripoll to Ribes de Freser and walked from there to Camprodon - it's supposed to be a lovely walk and only about 21km.

Anyway, Besalu was a great place to finish our GR1 adventures - the mention of Sos del Rey Catolico in your book took us back to the Aragon leg that we did before Covid and made us nostalgic for all the lovely places we've had the privilege to visit over the years on the Sendero.

Many thanks to Louise Heinemann for her updates on Stages 1–3 of the GR1. Louise managed the route without GPS and used the guide and waymarks.

Stage 1

On leaving Olite, the route is via an underpass below the railway which fills with water - locals appear to ignore it and cross the railway line.

There appears to be an error in the text, with the Canal de Navarre being placed a paragraph and an hour before it actually arrives.

A wildfire in June 2022 burned a huge area on the other side of the canal - the path with waymarks is clear at the moment but following it may become more difficult as the vegetation returns. There is an old cross at the junction not mentioned in the guide but a useful landmark.

Stage 2

There is now an obvious zig-zag descent into Gallipienzo. Opposite the new hotel there is a waymark and a path

The first half of the route to Caseda may have been changed slightly. It was adequately waymarked but waymarked from the opposite direction (i.e walking East to West) so check behind as well as front. Overall, the route to Caseda is now clearly waymarked following minor rough roads. A bit tedious at times, but absolutely obvious.

Stage 3

Louise had to climb the gate described in para 3 page 143 and local hunters are clearly trying to discourage hikers - the hunting season is between October and February.

Accommodation

Ujue – Casa Rurale Isolina had a great view and friendly people

Sos del Rey Catolico – the youth hostel has excellent views, friendly staff, free tea and coffee and is only 20 euros. It was virtually empty; probably best to check as they do have large groups of children.

Petilla de Aragon – Hostal Santiago Ramon y Cajal, run by Roberto and his wife, great value and strongly recommended

Biel – The town hostel is still operational

Aguero - the bar has closed, and the sandwich maker only seems to operate only in July and August, Louise recommends the casa rural, the Villa Garibaldi (tel 658817922) on the edge of town.

Riglos – The refugio is strongly recommended

Fiestas are a huge feature of Spanish community life and every town and village has a least one a year.

Depending on how hard your day's walking has been they can either be a wonderful distraction or a sleep-destroying pain in the neck. Louise Heinemann recently returned from walking the GR1 and found September a particularly busy fiesta month.

Fiestas are a huge feature of Spanish community life and every town and village has a least one a year.

Depending on how hard your day's walking has been they can either be a wonderful distraction or a sleep-destroying pain in the neck. Louise Heinemann recently returned from walking the GR1 and found September a particularly busy fiesta month.