Best guide book?

[Daniel Crowe]

How are you all?

I'm doing the Camino Del Norte on Sept 14th starting in Irun and I'm looking around for the best guide book for the trip? I know at this particular moment that every guide book is less accurate than it was but can anyone recommend one for me, please?

I know phones and google maps etc is all very good but having a book means you don't have to worry about loss of signal or dropping it in the toilet! haha If push comes to shove I can use the phone and book, but I'd sooner have the book.

Thank you!

 

[RJM]

Digital is good, real books are better, but I'm sure despite you saying you want an actual book there will be responses from forum members trying to convince you otherwise*, .
Wise pilgrim makes a guidebook for the Norte. I had one of their guidebooks for the Frances. It's good. I'm sure their book for the Norte is as well.
*and I was right lol

 

[naplesdon]

Wise Pilgrim for sure.

 

[Former member 91017]

Wise Pilgrim will be the most up-to-date if you get the app for your phone. Not sure about the paper version. @wisepilgrim, what is the most recent publication of the actual book form?

 

[JerryStroebele]

The Village to Village guide is the smallest lightest and in 2019, excellent. Buen Camino

 

[trecile]

I know phones and google maps etc is all very good but having a book means you don't have to worry about loss of signal or dropping it in the toilet!

By all means take a guidebook if you want, but the apps and Kindle versions of guidebooks (such as the Village to Village guide suggested above) don't need a signal to work as everything is downloaded on your phone.
I can't help you with the toilet problem though.

 

[lt56ny]

Wise Pilgrim for sure.

I had downloaded the Northern Camino guidebook and a few years earlier i had all the Wise Pilgrim apps that I bought in a bundle. I think it is a personal choice but I found the Wise Pilgrim app to be much better for me. There is a downloadable GPS map and if you go with the actual book there are good maps and directions as well as lists of places to sleep.

 

[Daniel Crowe]

Thanks everyone for all the replies. I think that actually I'm going to go for both the app and book. Best to be sure. The Wise Pilgrim app is the one I'll likely go with as it's been spoken about most here, and it was the one I had my eye on before I wrote in here.

Looking forward to this immensely. Now I just hope I won't be broke inside the first week after seeing the prices of a lot of these places haha

 

[trecile]

I use both the Wise Pilgrim and Buen Camino apps. I prefer the Buen Camino app, as it has more features, including a stage planner, and it shows you how far you are to the next town as you are walking.
I look at Wise Pilgrim for albergue reviews. Buen Camino has star ratings, but not written reviews. Buen Camino is free, so there is no risk downloading it.

 

[RJM]

You can purchase the GUIDEBOOK you inquired about on this forum. There is a pilgrim's passport included.

2020/21 edition: A Camino del Norte Guide from Irun to Santiago (W/FREE Passport)

Each book ordered will include (at no extra cost): 1 "Camino Passport" (from the Cathedral in Santiago) This is the 2020 edition of this book. If you are planning a walk in 2021, get the 2020 edition (no new 2021 edition will be published) and download free pdf updates here for 2021 (link to...

www.santiagodecompostela.me

 

[Robo]

How are you all?

I'm doing the Camino Del Norte on Sept 14th starting in Irun and I'm looking around for the best guide book for the trip? I know at this particular moment that every guide book is less accurate than it was but can anyone recommend one for me, please?

I know phones and google maps etc is all very good but having a book means you don't have to worry about loss of signal or dropping it in the toilet! haha If push comes to shove I can use the phone and book, but I'd sooner have the book.

Thank you!

I think Guide Books are a very personal thing in many ways.
It depends what is important to you, and how you like the information presented.
I like a Guide Book with good maps.
So for me, the Wise Pilgrim books don't suit me. (I have the Apps too)
The town maps are far too small to read (as is much of the text) and the stage maps are rather bland with not much useful information, just icons.

I am totally sold on the Brierly guides, purely due to the maps.
Simple, high contrast, with just the right information.
OK, they are sketches more than 'maps' but I find them really good.
I buy those guides just for the maps.

I have others, Raimund Joos, Gerald Kelly, Cicerone, Miam Miam DoDo (terrible maps) Village to Village (quite good maps) etc.

But Brierley are my 'go to' Guides. If only for the maps.
But...........I see he doesn't have one for the Norte! Dang.

But at the end of the day, it's very personal.

Online I use Gronze a lot!

 

[trecile]

I am totally sold on the Brierly guides, purely due to the maps.

To save weight you can get the Brierly maps only book from the forum store.

2020/21 edition: Maps Only Guide to the Camino Francés

This is the 2020 edition of this book. If you are planning a walk in 2021, get the 2020 edition (no new 2021 edition will be published) and download free pdf updates here for 2021 (link to pdf coming later on this page). 112 page paperback in full colour. This condensed and ultra lightweight...

www.santiagodecompostela.me

 

[Robo]

To save weight you can get the Brierly maps only book from the forum store.

2020/21 edition: Maps Only Guide to the Camino Francés

This is the 2020 edition of this book. If you are planning a walk in 2021, get the 2020 edition (no new 2021 edition will be published) and download free pdf updates here for 2021 (link to pdf coming later on this page). 112 page paperback in full colour. This condensed and ultra lightweight...

www.santiagodecompostela.me

Yes, I have those too

Don't tell Mr B, but because he won't produce digital guide books, I used to tear out the maps, and just carry those.

Of course it's also possible, in theory,
so I'm told, to scan a guide book and carry your own digital copy on your phone.

That would allow you to zoom in and out too.
Which I imagine could be useful.

But it might breach copyright.
So might not be a good idea.........
Just a thought, for those who perhaps don't want to carry a physical book.
Or those who struggle with ever smaller print in the physical books.

 

[trecile]

Yes, I have those too

Don't tell Mr B, but because he won't produce digital guide books, I used to tear out the maps, and just carry those.

Except the maps only guide is available in digital form, which really makes no sense. I'd prefer to carry the physical map part, and have the rest on my Kindle app.

 

[Robo]

Except the maps only guide is available in digital form, which really makes no sense. I'd prefer to carry the physical map part, and have the rest on my Kindle app.

Very true!
I actually just carry Mr B's stage maps in paper form.
The concertina maps at the front of the books.
It tucks into my passport/credential 'purse'.

I make notes on them, like where I'm staying, places of interest etc.
It's nice to unfold them, and see all the stages 'on a page', for planning purposes and to see what's coming up next.

 

[Davey Boyd]

Very true!
I actually just carry Mr B's stage maps in paper form.
The concertina maps at the front of the books.
It tucks into my passport/credential 'purse'.

I make notes on them, like where I'm staying, places of interest etc.
It's nice to unfold them, and see all the stages 'on a page', for planning purposes and to see what's coming up next.

Funny that Robo, I do the same. my first time on the Frances I had the Brierley Map Only guide. I really love those maps. Then I use it to make notes on. Good albergues, bad albergues, cafe's, dodgy bits etc. I underline where I I have stayed in Red = bad, Green = great and blue = ok.

(I also mark good freecamping spots, shhhhhhh)!

Next time I walked I copied those notes into a new Map Only guide, then added new info as I went.

I'm now on my 5th Map Only guide which has tons of extra notes now! Plus when other pilgrims see it they all want to copy out my notes!

But I have cheated a bit. I have underlined Granon and San Anton albergues in red as bad places. Because people who knew I really liked these places took note, then walked faster than me and they were full when I got there!

Davey

 

[Daniel Crowe]

I think Guide Books are a very personal thing in many ways.
It depends what is important to you, and how you like the information presented.
I like a Guide Book with good maps.
So for me, the Wise Pilgrim books don't suit me. (I have the Apps too)
The town maps are far too small to read (as is much of the text) and the stage maps are rather bland with not much useful information, just icons.

I am totally sold on the Brierly guides, purely due to the maps.
Simple, high contrast, with just the right information.
OK, they are sketches more than 'maps' but I find them really good.
I buy those guides just for the maps.

I have others, Raimund Joos, Gerald Kelly, Cicerone, Miam Miam DoDo (terrible maps) Village to Village (quite good maps) etc.

But Brierley are my 'go to' Guides. If only for the maps.
But...........I see he doesn't have one for the Norte! Dang.

But at the end of the day, it's very personal.

Online I use Gronze a lot

I think Guide Books are a very personal thing in many ways.
It depends what is important to you, and how you like the information presented.
I like a Guide Book with good maps.
So for me, the Wise Pilgrim books don't suit me. (I have the Apps too)
The town maps are far too small to read (as is much of the text) and the stage maps are rather bland with not much useful information, just icons.

I am totally sold on the Brierly guides, purely due to the maps.
Simple, high contrast, with just the right information.
OK, they are sketches more than 'maps' but I find them really good.
I buy those guides just for the maps.

I have others, Raimund Joos, Gerald Kelly, Cicerone, Miam Miam DoDo (terrible maps) Village to Village (quite good maps) etc.

But Brierley are my 'go to' Guides. If only for the maps.
But...........I see he doesn't have one for the Norte! Dang.

But at the end of the day, it's very personal.

Online I use Gronze a lot!

Gentleman, thanks a lot. I had a Brierley book for the Camino Frances and it was brilliant. He was my immediate go to for this trip as well, but as you say he doesn't have one! Option B so.

 

[Daniel Crowe]

I use both the Wise Pilgrim and Buen Camino apps. I prefer the Buen Camino app, as it has more features, including a stage planner, and it shows you how far you are to the next town as you are walking.
I look at Wise Pilgrim for albergue reviews. Buen Camino has star ratings, but not written reviews. Buen Camino is free, so there is no risk downloading it.

Thanks a lot for that Trecile. Looks like a no-brainer to get that one eh!