Guidebooks for del Norte and Primativo?

[QuailHiker]

After a great experience doing the Frances this spring, I want to research a combination of the del Norte and Primativo for next year. Checking Amazon, the only guidebook that comes up is the one by Whitson and Perrazoli. How is that, and are there other good options in English? Thanks,

Fred

 

[JohnMcM]

After a great experience doing the Frances this spring, I want to research a combination of the del Norte and Primativo for next year. Checking Amazon, the only guidebook that comes up is the one by Whitson and Perrazoli. How is that, and are there other good options in English? Thanks,

Fred

Hi Fred,
Have a look at the Resources section here for the Norte and Primitivo. You'll be glad you did
Buen Camino

 

[Castilian]

I don't have personal experience with them but another option in English are the guides made by the Confraternity of Saint James: www.csj.org.uk/planning-your-pilgrimage/csj-guides-and-updates

 

[Anemone del Camino]

It's a good guide. The alternatives I know of are not in English.

 

[notion900]

CSJ guides can look a bit scary (typed, no pictures and few maps) but I have found them to be great. Also very light weight, although they have recently made the type smaller, which my poor eyes are struggling with.

 

[Thomas1962]

The Basq tourist office has a free downloadable guide for the nothern camino's. There is no information about albergues and in that sense it's not really worth it to take it with you on the camino, but ca be nice as preparation.
You find it at http://tourism.euskadi.eus/downloads/tourist-leaflets/
Scroll down, then you'll see 'Guide to the Northern ways of St. James'

 

[Tia Valeria]

We carry the CSJ guides as they are reasonably light weight, but had added notes in from the Cicerone book and also from the gronze.com site. There are also the CSJ online updates and Dave has been putting the Cicerone updates here on the forum.
The other advantage of the CSJ guides is that there is room to write in some notes for the day too.
Buen Camino

 

[witsendwv]

After a great experience doing the Frances this spring, I want to research a combination of the del Norte and Primativo for next year. Checking Amazon, the only guidebook that comes up is the one by Whitson and Perrazoli. How is that, and are there other good options in English? Thanks,

Fred

I am currently planning the Primitivo and Finisterre for my husband and myself in Aug/Sept. I have been using Whitson as well as the CSJ Guide, but that is 2012. Wise Pilgrim has apps that I have purchased and found helpful. Finally Liz Brandt has made a Combined Guide to the Primitivo and Finisterre that can be found by googleing "Combined Guide", not so much a turn by turn, but very helpful. Hope this is helpful. WVWanderers

 

[backpack45scb]

We used the Whitson guide, and the two Wise Pilgrim apps, as well as cross checking with gronze.com. The Whitson guide worked well for us, other than the tiny maps, and some of the most recent accommodations being missed. The year we did the Norte, we lost the Whitson guide printed version partway through the trip. We also had the Kindle version, and after we lost the hardcopy, used Kindle version on our smartphone. The maps are better on the smartphone than on the hardcopy, because you can zoom in on the phone and see more detail. This year when we did the Primitivo, we also had maps.me on the phone, with Spain maps downloaded in advance. With maps.me, we were able to load tracks for the Primitivo and Norte from http://www.elcaminosantiago.com/Camino-Santiago-Map-Google-Earth-Camino.htm . That was fine except for a section of the Norte where the trail had been rerouted. Our 2nd online source was accurate in that area http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/maps/topographic/spain.shtml

 

[Old Koot]

the del Norte and Primativo for next year ......... are there other good options in English?

As a bunch of us ad hoc multi-national geriatric peripatetic adventurers did last year, kidnap a young English speaking German girl and coerce her into being out guide with her excellent German language guide book.

Regrettably, the German guidebooks, except a single one for the Camino Frances, aren't translated into English ... I contacted the publishers directly. However, there is an English guide book published in the UK for the northern routes published by Cicerone (spelling ?) that I will be using this year.

Thumbing through it, it seems okay so far, but my only complaint about it is and will be the weight of it. It's heavy. Notwithstanding, I walked the del Norte last year without a guidebook, so this year, I'll be able to avoid a lot of the Albergues and expensive youth hostels I didn't like last year, and hopefully, I won't get lost again as I did in the first week out from Irun.