u/KevinGBurk

I have generally really like used Wikiloc premium and building my own trails but while walking in Europe I sometimes just want to follow the accepted trail.

For example in Puglia, I want to follow the Via Ellenica path. Problem is, a wikiloc user may call their path Via Ellenica but they have made variations or have gone off the trail for a while so their route is not THE route. Sure I could plan a trail, plug in two points, and see what comes up but then I’m just HOPING it’s Via Ellenica. There’s no guarantee. And that’s when I switch to AllTrails.

I look up Via Ellenica and the town I’m starting from and up pops THE route. Thank you.

Looks like I’ll need to use both apps because one does not do it all (AllTrails in Europe has way fewer users so planning trails based on crowdsourcing is less accurate than Wikiloc).

Any thoughts on my use of Wikiloc and AllTrails based on my European needs and wants?

I wanted to post this to emphasize and remind new travellers that not all travel at Lisbon airport is chaos. We had our car rental company (CRC - recommended!) drop us off right at T2 (they had no pickups at T1) and we were through security and at our gates in 25 minutes. We checked in yesterday, are travelling within the Schengen and had just carryon so that helped.

I’m making the move to wearing the Decathlon dry synthetic boxer briefs and away from merino blend boxers (from Smartwool, Decathlon). The temperature of my walk in Italy will be 13C-25C and we’ll be walking 15-25km/day.

I know that the synthetic briefs don’t have odour control like the merinos so i’ll have to wash them more often but other than that what has been your experience wearing the synthetic briefs on Caminos? For those that have tried both, what has been the pros and cons ? Thanks.

I go away for 8 weeks at a time and only wear compression socks twice for the 9 hour flights to Europe and back. I never had a problem with blood clots before the socks so I’m not sure if the compression socks even work.

Should I continue to bring the compression socks for the health benefits or can I ditch them and try something else?