Best maps and guides for del Norte/Primitivo in English?

Best guides will,be in German and Spanish I'm afraid: the Rother book and Editorial buen Camino. When using their maps language should not get in the way.

In English I would say the Cicerone one. I used up for the Primitivo portion.

If you have a smart phone I would recommend the Wise Pilgrim apps. Fine by themselves but also a very useful resource in addition if you want a paper guide as well.

TrailSmart (see the resources section of the forums) covers the Primitivo. It is free and has support for Google Maps built in. Offline maps can be purchased for a small price. The Norte isn't covered yet, though we are working on it. (I'm the author).

Hello Jason,
I might run into you guys! I am also planning to start the Norte/Primitivo from Bilbao on May 21 or 22, we'll see. At any rate to contribute my 2 cents worth to your question. I've done my research and I've selected the following for my Caminos: In my humble opinion the best one it's Gronze.com
(a Spanish website with tons of FREE information on all the Caminos); Buen Camino App by Editorial Buen Camino cost me $5.49 for the Norte and the Primitivo it's the same $5.49; Camino Assist by TDINET APPS, also $5.49 but this one includes the Norte, Primitivo and Ingles for one price. MI CAMINO APP, has the Norte and Primitivo, a ton of info and it appears to be FREE !.
There are others but I wasn't crazy about them, you might want to look at the them and evaluate them for your needs: CAMINO DE SANTIAGO de Eroski and MUNDICAMINO. Now the benefit of all the aforementioned, it's that they will all fit in your smarphone and will not add additional weight to your backpacks, that's a big plus. I realized that we all have different needs in whatever we do so I gave you as much variety as possible so that you can make a semi-educated decision on your selection. Good luck, Buen Camino and be on the lookout for a grey-haired peregrino walking the Norte/Primitivo, you will probably pass me.

Take care,

Ignacio

For a paper guide, we used the Cicerone Northern Caminos guide for the Norte and Primitivo. We also had a copy on Kindle, that was quite helpful after we left the paper copy somewhere. The maps are easier to read on the Kindle (can zoom in). Also found the Wise Pilgrim apps for Norte and Primitivo quite useful. Also double checked everything on Gronze.com

Print Gronze, much lighter than Cicerone, it works well if you use the translater, better maps too. Although Cicerone is fun to read.