Recommendations for Camino del Norte Guidebook

[Dawn Gibson]

Hola I would like to buy a guidebook on the Camino del Norte and wondered which ones my fellow-pilgrims here used? I walked with John Brierly's guidebook on the Camino Frances and loved it.

Any suggestions and experiences to share, please? I am initially looking to gain a feel for this northern route (no current plans in place to walk it at the moment, but I am always hopeful of the future. )

Thanks in advance.

 

[naplesdon]

I carried the Wise Pilgrim with me.

 

[Richmond Gardner]

I carried the Wise Pilgrim with me.

Yup… clear information, divided into sensible stages with dining and accommodations etc… definitely give you a good sense of the route. It is a beautiful walk weaving along the coast

 

[Peregrina 2013]

Guía práctica del Camino del Norte: Costa y Primitivo by Carlos Mencos Arraiza. It's in Spanish, but IMHO it's the best. If you don't know Spanish then I would say that John Brierly's guide for CDN is an excellent choice.

 

[JerryStroebele]

My preference is the Village to Village guide book. I carry the paper copy because it is very thin and light. However, I carry ALL the other guidebooks on my iPhone, either as an app or in Books or Kindle. Having walked with German speaking Swiss peregrinos, I would have to say the German Kustenweg book is the best and most detailed. But it is easily the heaviest and I don't speak German. Buen Camino

 

[RJM]

You can order one here, from the forum.

Camino del Norte

Camino del Norte related items

www.santiagodecompostela.me

 

[jsalt]

If you don't know Spanish then I would say that John Brierly's guide for CDN is an excellent choice.

John Brierley has a Camino del Norte Guide????
Please post a link.
Many thanks.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Hola I would like to buy a guidebook on the Camino del Norte and wondered which ones my fellow-pilgrims here used? I walked with John Brierly's guidebook on the Camino Frances and loved it.

I too loved the Brierley guidebook for the Frances, especially his simple to follow maps. I was initially disappointed he did not have a guidebook for the Norte/Primitivo routes, so I opted for this one in 2016. Once I familiarized myself with it, I could appreciate the differences and had no problem.

 

[ivar]

John Brierley has a Camino del Norte Guide????
Please post a link.
Many thanks.

No, I don't think he does...

 

[malingerer]

Hola I would like to buy a guidebook on the Camino del Norte and wondered which ones my fellow-pilgrims here used? I walked with John Brierly's guidebook on the Camino Frances and loved it.

Any suggestions and experiences to share, please? I am initially looking to gain a feel for this northern route (no current plans in place to walk it at the moment, but I am always hopeful of the future. )

Thanks in advance.

CICERONE publish a book entitled : THE NORTHERN CAMINOS which includes the NORTE, PRIMITIVO and INGLES routes. It is an excellent book and I have loaned it out many times. If you cannot get it , I will post it to you. Only on loan of course.

Samarkand.

 

[Peregrina 2013]

My apologies, I need to correct my previous response. I stated that John's Brierly's CDN guidebook would be an excellent choice without knowing if indeed he had one. I used his Camino Portugués one in 2019 and just bought his new Camino Inglés guidebook and I do think they are excellent.

​

 

[JerryStroebele]

They are all good, each different, all useful. I buy and read all the latest I can find before I walk my next Camino, carry the most appropriate (usually lightest) in paper form (with unnecessary pages cut out) and all the rest on my iPhone. Don't want to miss anything. The 2022 Wise Pilgrim Guide to the Camino Frances is on the way to me from Ivar's shop as I type. Eagerly awaiting it. Buen Camino

 

[LoriMcV]

Hola I would like to buy a guidebook on the Camino del Norte and wondered which ones my fellow-pilgrims here used? I walked with John Brierly's guidebook on the Camino Frances and loved it.

Any suggestions and experiences to share, please? I am initially looking to gain a feel for this northern route (no current plans in place to walk it at the moment, but I am always hopeful of the future. )

Thanks in advance.

Check out the Cicerone Press guide to del Norte and Primitivo, by Dave Whitson. They also do guide books to several other pilgrim routes. I’m planning to walk the Camino Frances in April using their guide written by Sandy Brown. Happy reading. https://cicerone.co.uk pilgrim trails

 

[Tincatinker]

For those who might be interested JB explains in this talk why he hasn't written a guide to the Norte

Camino Talks with John Brierley - Why we need to slow down - Follow the Camino

Author John Brierley discusses why we need to take time to slow down and how the Camino can help us to do that.

followthecamino.com

 

[trecile]

For those who might be interested JB explains in this talk why he hasn't written a guide to the Norte

Camino Talks with John Brierley - Why we need to slow down - Follow the Camino

Author John Brierley discusses why we need to take time to slow down and how the Camino can help us to do that.

followthecamino.com

If you don't have time to watch the whole thing you can skip to 16:18 for his explanation.
Basically, it's because he doesn't have time to walk that route regularly with all of its variants to keep the guide updated.

The video should be cued up to that part on this link

 

[Tincatinker]

Thanks @trecile

 

[PeterArrow]

Hola I would like to buy a guidebook on the Camino del Norte and wondered which ones my fellow-pilgrims here used? I walked with John Brierly's guidebook on the Camino Frances and loved it.

Any suggestions and experiences to share, please? I am initially looking to gain a feel for this northern route (no current plans in place to walk it at the moment, but I am always hopeful of the future. )

Thanks in advance.

Used the Rother on line book. With perfect GPS maps. If the language is a problem you can load it with Google Chrome. Then it’s automatically translated.

 

[Dawn Gibson]

CICERONE publish a book entitled : THE NORTHERN CAMINOS which includes the NORTE, PRIMITIVO and INGLES routes. It is an excellent book and I have loaned it out many times. If you cannot get it , I will post it to you. Only on loan of course.

Samarkand.

Thank you. I will try and get hold of it. I've used Cicerone books before and liked them.

 

[trecile]

Thank you. I will try and get hold of it. I've used Cicerone books before and liked them.

Plus @Dave Whitson is a forum member!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Yes, Dave Whitson is!
I always look at Gronze's website, but also have always purchased a guidebook months before I go on my next Camino, especially if choosing a new route. I add many notes in the margins with information gleaned from forum members. Before I finally leave home I do a quick 15 minute screenshot scanning of all the pages and now I leave the guidebook at home, yet still have all pertinent information at my fingertips.

 

[diane simon]

Planning I purchased both cicerone guide and wise pilgrim 2022. I will take wise pilgrim with me in June. I like the maps better. Also have wise pilgrim app on my phone but I like to look at a map on paper.

 

[annmte]

No, I don't think he does...

@ivar it looks like the Cicerone guidebook is currently sold out in your store. Any idea when you may have it back in stock, or should I look for it elsewhere?

 

[ivar]

@ivar it looks like the Cicerone guidebook is currently sold out in your store. Any idea when you may have it back in stock, or should I look for it elsewhere?

Sorry for late reply. There was an error in my stock, I actually have 6 in stock so try now

 

[David with new Kit!]

I just received the Wise Pilgrim Camino del Norte book from Ivar, it compliments the app very well. Having been used to the Brierley books it was a bit strange at first but I quickly came to like the format.

 

[andarapie]

I used Cicerone's Guide to the Camino del Norte and Primitivo by Dave Whitson, and found it particularly helpful for variant routes that might be more interesting and for which sites (manmade or natural) to see, whether on or near the camino or in a town. I also bought the Village to Village guide, but it was not helpful to me - it just has maps (which I can get from Google or other online sources) and addresses of albergues and hostels - so I left it at home.

For which albergues are open, and ratings on them, the most up to date guide was Gronze.com. Wise Pilgrim also had helpful ratings, and gps with their maps. (Some other map sites have this, too, but not Google - it doesn't show the Camino or GR routes.)

 

[trecile]

Guía práctica del Camino del Norte: Costa y Primitivo by Carlos Mencos Arraiza. It's in Spanish, but IMHO it's the best. If you don't know Spanish then I would say that John Brierly's guide for CDN is an excellent choice.

He's also behind the Editorial Buen Camino website and the Buen Camino app.

 

[alwalker]

Hola I would like to buy a guidebook on the Camino del Norte and wondered which ones my fellow-pilgrims here used? I walked with John Brierly's guidebook on the Camino Frances and loved it.

Any suggestions and experiences to share, please? I am initially looking to gain a feel for this northern route (no current plans in place to walk it at the moment, but I am always hopeful of the future. )

Thanks in advance.

Hi which guide did you get and would you get the same one. Cheers

 

[MarieKa]

Hi! Do you think I need a guide book in paper? I am thinking about rother digits gps tracks. Or do you think free online resources (hello world, buen camino) and an OsmAnd map are sufficient? Going from Irun to Bilbao in a week… thanks

 

[trecile]

Hi! Do you think I need a guide book in paper? I am thinking about rother digits gps tracks. Or do you think free online resources (hello world, buen camino) and an OsmAnd map are sufficient? Going from Irun to Bilbao in a week… thanks

I've never carried a physical guide book, though I do have the Cicerone guide as an ebook on my Kindle app.

 

[Richmond Gardner]

Hi! Do you think I need a guide book in paper? I am thinking about rother digits gps tracks. Or do you think free online resources (hello world, buen camino) and an OsmAnd map are sufficient? Going from Irun to Bilbao in a week… thanks

Buen Camino works very well and has real time gps locating, showing your position in relation to the indicated path. Very help whenever questions arise.

 

[Richmond Gardner]

Helpful!

 

[MarieKa]

Thank you!

 

[LRC]

Hello everyone! The Cicerone guide was published in 2019, do you think it is still up to date? With covid and all.

 

[dougfitz]

Hello everyone! The Cicerone guide was published in 2019, do you think it is still up to date? With covid and all.

No, but no printed guidebook is going to be up to date. Even when it reaches the bookstores, it will be months or more since the information was collected and assembled for publication. Perhaps there are different questions you might ask to help you decide:

• are there more recent publications from other authors that would be more suitable
• is the information so out-dated that it no longer helps, and if it is, does the publisher provide an update site you can go to to check for more recent information.

I have walked with a 10 year old guide on the Gudbrandsdalen in Norway because it was the most recent English language printed guidebook available, and a nearly decade old copy of Brierley's CF guidebook. I supplemented these with information from various web resources. In both cases the information critical to me, the basic route information, was essentially unchanged. Information about accommodation, cafes and restaurants, etc was quite outdated.

And you might ask yourself whether you need to take a printed guidebook in any case. I do normally, but not always, and find it useful for the content that isn't in the web apps. Nonetheless, there are many rich resources available on the web today that I wasn't able to access a decade ago in Norway, or eight years ago in Spain.

 

[LRC]

No, but no printed guidebook is going to be up to date. Even when it reaches the bookstores, it will be months or more since the information was collected and assembled for publication. Perhaps there are different questions you might ask to help you decide:

• are there more recent publications from other authors that would be more suitable
• is the information so out-dated that it no longer helps, and if it is, does the publisher provide an update site you can go to to check for more recent information.

I have walked with a 10 year old guide on the Gudbrandsdalen in Norway because it was the most recent English language printed guidebook available, and a nearly decade old copy of Brierley's CF guidebook. I supplemented these with information from various web resources. In both cases the information critical to me, the basic route information, was essentially unchanged. Information about accommodation, cafes and restaurants, etc was quite outdated.

And you might ask yourself whether you need to take a printed guidebook in any case. I do normally, but not always, and find it useful for the content that isn't in the web apps. Nonetheless, there are many rich resources available on the web today that I wasn't able to access a decade ago in Norway, or eight years ago in Spain.

Thank you for your thoughtful answer!

 

[andarapie]

Hello everyone! The Cicerone guide was published in 2019, do you think it is still up to date? With covid and all.

The Cicerone website publishes annual updates on the webpage for the book, and the author Dave Whitson also posts updates in a spreadsheet on this site.

But I second what @dougfitz wrote. I have found the most up-to-date information to be on the gronze.com website. I used the Cicerone guide for an overview of the route and the towns, and found it very helpful for that, particularly with regard to variants and things to see. For consulting while you are walking, I'd recommend the ebook over the paperback, because you will save on weight.

But I met many people who just started walking without any advance knowledge of what they'd be encountering, and they did fine. You can get by just by following the arrows and talking to people you meet on the route (of course, you should know enough basic Castilian to communicate). But I'd highly recommend a map of the camino that works with GPS (mapy.cz has all the major caminos and is free, but there are others), because parts of the Norte are not well marked, and Gronze, which also has reviews of albergues (some are much better than others, and there are some that are terrible). The WisePilgrim app also has reviews that I find helpful, but they are usually fewer in number than Gronze.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I'd recommend the ebook over the paperback, because you will save on weight.

I love looking at my physical guidebooks when planning my caminos and write in their margins and underline pertinent information on the pages. I now take pictures of those pages before I leave home, so no weight is involved. I then use them in conjunction with Gronzi while I am walking. I stil love owning my guidebooks!