Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

[Touva]

I live in the US. Can I order a good english guide with maps on any web site? I plan on walking in September/October and would like the security of a guide. Thanks///

[sillydoll]

Hello Touva,
The Confraternity of St James UK mentions these guide books:

Guide books.

Los Caminos del Norte (Pilgrim Guides to Spain # 4) Confraternity of Saint James. Detailed route description and accommodation where known. £5.00 each. Available in our Bookshop. In the following parts: Introduction (2004)

A: Ruta de la Costa, 1: Irún to Villaviciosa (2005). 2005 update

A: Ruta de la Costa, 2: Villaviciosa-Gijón-Arzúa (2005). April 2006 Update.

B: The Tunnel Route (2002).Update

F: The Camino Primitivo (2002)

Full details of all these on the author's website.

El Camino de Santiago del Norte, by Paco Nadel and Fundación Caixagalicia. El Pais/Aguilar. ISBN: 84-03-50228-1. €19.90. The guide covers the route as far as Villaviciosa and then turns inland to the Camino primitivo. One of the few guides that crosses provincial boundaries. Can be bought at http://www.cervantes.com

Dos Caminos a Santiago, A lavishly produced reprint in A4 format of the old spiral-bound guide. All the inaccuracies in the maps are still there but excellent for an overview with some good photographs. Can be obtained free by writing to the Bilbao Tourist Office, Paseo del Arena, 1 - 48005 Bilbao, Spain.

Good luck!

[peregrina2000]

Hi Touva,
I walked the Norte last year and had only the two CSJ guides by Eric Walker. They were helpful but, in my opinion, not up to the same standard as the CSJ guide to the Camino Frances. But we made it just fine, and had the good luck to find our way back to the arrows when we got lost (I can think of three times, but nothing serious). My experience was that the marking in Asturias was the sketchiest and least reliable, in fact in the other provinces no guide was needed for walking instructions. As I've told others, if you speak German you should definitely buy the German guide. We walked with some Germans for about a week, and their guide was up to date and had very detailed walking instructions for when the waymarking got spotty.
Laurie

[lynnejohn]

Well, you know. I quite agree with you. The guides in German are so superior to those in English it makes one quite frustrated with the whole thing. We are from Canada and it's impossible to find reasonable guides..On the CF and the VDLP we found German companions who had these great guides that they were willing to share, and it was great!. So we loved to walk with Germans (not only.....because they had the very best guides)!!! They were so accommodating and helpful, and we were so happy to have walked with them awhile..

Peace.

lynne

[AJ]

What you say about the German guides is interesting, and accords with my experience on the VdlP. I had Alison Raju's guide, or rather I was supposed to but I lost it in Granada. I walked with people who had the Spanish guide, the French guide and the two German guides (red and yellow). All differed regarding the distance of each stage. The routes were not necessarily exactly the same either.

If you stick to the yellow arrows, you will be pretty ok. On the Vdlp, this year, you don't really need a guide, though a map is a comfort.

[Javier Martin]

Hi, Laurie,

I can recommend you a very good guia for the Camino del Norte, written by Carlos Mencos (but in spanish). He is journalist and has written a couple of very good guias in the las two or three years.

Buen Camino,

Javier Martin
Madrid, Spain.