Brierley's Finisterre guidebook - good addition?

[Bouwmeester]

Hi everyone,

Is Brierley's guidebook for the Camino Finisterre a good addition to his guidebook for the Camino Francés? I'm considering to buy the latter and wondered if the Finisterre guide is worth buying as well, since it's just a few dollars/Euros cheaper than the Francés guide and I'll only use it for three of four days (compared to several weeks spent with the other one).

Advice is welcome

Tom

 

[Deleted member 3000]

His map-only, multilingual guide includes the Fisterra routes. It may be all you need.

 

[Anniesantiago]

I haven't walked that stretch yet, but I suspect that you don't need a guide and that you can simply follow the arrows.

 

[mspath]

Annie is right; there is no need for a special map for this route as it is EASY to follow the yellow arrows. However, the Eroski guide offers a good schematic on line >> http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es./lo ... -fisterra/ In Santiago the Galicia Tourist Office at 30 rua de Vilar near the cathedral provides an invaluable free multilingual list of ALL services on the path including accommodation, restaurants/bars, buses/taxis.

Walking across the hills near Cee you can at last glimpse the sea. Near-by is the simple, welcoming albergue at San Roque/Corcubion. >> http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es./al ... san-roque/ In the dark from the dorm window when you see the lighthouse beacon at Finisterre shining out to sea it is magical.

 

[Bouwmeester]

Thanks for your replies! I think just the Brierley maps will be the best way to go then. I'd already come across them some time ago, but forgot that they also include information on albergues etc. It's good that they cover the route to Finisterre as well, although you're definitely right, Annie, following the arrows should also work out during those days (It could even work out for the entire Camino, as I've read in some topics on the forum, but I'd like to have some extra orientation along the way.)

Walking across the hills near Cee you can at last glimpse the sea. Near-by is the simple, welcoming albergue at San Roque/Corcubion. >> http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es./al ... san-roque/ In the dark from the dorm window when you see the lighthouse beacon at Finisterre shining out to sea it is magical.

Will keep that albergue in mind

 

[johns]

hi just back from walking finisterre muxia had brierley guide + csj guide you can get all the info you need from the tourist office hope the weather better when you walk it rained every day+ mud + flooding nice camino in good weather. john

 

[JohnnieWalker]

hi just back from walking finisterre muxia had brierley guide + csj guide you can get all the info you need from the tourist office hope the weather better when you walk it rained every day+ mud + flooding nice camino in good weather. john

John - I agree with you. This route is very well waymarked. The tourist office in Santiago provides a credencial + a list of all accommodation along the route plus distances. All free. Nothing else is needed imho.

 

[Thornley]

If anybody buys Brierley's guide book for the Finisterre/Muxia route you have just wasted a nights accommodation in a pension.

Not required for either accommodation or maps

 

[geordiewanderer]

Is the Brierley Finisterre guide available to buy in Santiago (in English)? Just wondering....

Does the accommodation list from the tourist office have prices on? I may not have much money left by the time I reach Santiago so would be helpful to know in advance how much hostels will be.

 

[mspath]

....
Does the accommodation list from the tourist office have prices on? I may not have much money left by the time I reach Santiago so would be helpful to know in advance how much hostels will be.

No the free list from the tourist office does not list prices but it does provide telephone numbers for the various accommodations.

Buen Camino,

Margaret Meredith

 

[geordiewanderer]

....
Does the accommodation list from the tourist office have prices on? I may not have much money left by the time I reach Santiago so would be helpful to know in advance how much hostels will be.

No the free list from the tourist office does not list prices but it does provide telephone numbers for the various accommodations.

Buen Camino,

Margaret Meredith

Thanks.

I've a got a hell of a stammer and don't know much spanish so may just walk and see what happens......

 

[Adhemar78]

Yes, the Brierley guide to the Camino Finisterre is available in English. The same guide has pages in Spanish too.

Brierley probably should include the section on the Camino Finisterre in his guidebook to the Camino Frances. The Camino Finisterre guide is not that big (95 pages) and is padded out a bit with sections of the English text translated into Spanish. Nevertheless, it cost me almost as much to buy it from the Kinokuniya bookshop here in Sydney as the Camino Frances guide. I still bought the 2014 edition, as it was the most up-to-date guide on the Camino Finisterre I could find (I have the Confraternity of Saint James too, but that was last updated in 2009) and it also has maps.

 

[nisse]

Yes, the Brierley guide to the Camino Finisterre is available in English. The same guide has pages in Spanish too.

Brierley probably should include the section on the Camino Finisterre in his guidebook to the Camino Frances. The Camino Finisterre guide is not that big (95 pages) and is padded out a bit with sections of the English text translated into Spanish. Nevertheless, it cost me almost as much to buy it from the Kinokuniya bookshop here in Sydney as the Camino Frances guide. I still bought the 2014 edition, as it was the most up-to-date guide on the Camino Finisterre I could find (I have the Confraternity of Saint James too, but that was last updated in 2009) and it also has maps.

We bought Brierley's Camino Finisterre guidebook in Santiago for about 14 Euro. Of course it's no problem walking the camino without a guidebook, but maps are allways nice and the book adds some historical facts that at least we are interested in. One thing only: some of the cafés marked on the maps were not there.

 

[Adhemar78]

One thing only: some of the cafés marked on the maps were not there.

Is that right? That's good to know - thank you for mentioning that.

 

[dougfitz]

I bought the guidebook. It has a number of minor inaccuracies about distances and open albergues, but is otherwise much the same as his other guides. You either like them or hate them. I don't mind Brierley, and it was good to have the maps, which were not available at the Galician tourist office in Santiago. You might consider the CSJ guide. I didn't use it, but have looked at it since I walked, and it appears pretty good.

 

[koilife]

Is the Brierley Finisterre guide available to buy in Santiago (in English)? Just wondering....

Does the accommodation list from the tourist office have prices on? I may not have much money left by the time I reach Santiago so would be helpful to know in advance how much hostels will be.

You might look here for all the information you're likely to need on current albergues and prices. http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es/albergues/#epilogo-a-fisterra

 

[Thornley]

I bought the guidebook. It has a number of minor inaccuracies about distances and open albergues, but is otherwise much the same as his other guides. You either like them or hate them. I don't mind Brierley, and it was good to have the maps, which were not available at the Galician tourist office in Santiago. You might consider the CSJ guide. I didn't use it, but have looked at it since I walked, and it appears pretty good.

I still don't believe it is necessary Doug
With due respects the Camino Frances and ways to the coast do not require a road map
You could not get lost compared to other ways

Miam Miam Dodo for accommodation
That's all that is needed

Every book known to man is required if walking from Mont Saint Michel we have just found out.

 

[Dutch]

Except for Finisterre -Muxia. You could get "lost" on that part. Lost being a big word, but many pilgrims i met on that walk complained about bad signpostings and many, myself incl, walked the wrong way, adding many unnecessary kms to an already long day. And these were people with and without a (brierley or other) guide.

Furtermore i must say that any guidebook on the Frances and Finisterre walk is not really needed imo, but i did like using 'm for knowing how far the next cafe was, although i found out that the brierley book for Finisterre and the portugese were less accurate then the Frances book. Not saying that the Brierley Frances is without its faults...it sure is 't.

I also think Brierley is a bit biased when it comes to certain accomodations. Matbe even villages. His description also often sound more like an add then anything else and they tend to make a hotel/casa rural ect often sound better then it really is. But thats just my findings and opinion.
I do like the brierley maps though.

 

[Dutch]

Is the Brierley Finisterre guide available to buy in Santiago (in English)? Just wondering....

Does the accommodation list from the tourist office have prices on? I may not have much money left by the time I reach Santiago so would be helpful to know in advance how much hostels will be.

Yes, there is a bookshop in the same street and on the same side of the street as the pilgrim office. They sell all the Brierley guides + many other guidebooks.
If i am correct, the bookshop is just a bit before the normal tourist office (not the galician office, where you can get info on the finisterre/muxia route for free). The galician tourist office is also in the same street as the pilgrim office, but on the other side of the street.
The info you get from the galician tourist office (not the normal tourist office, they dont have finisterre/muxia info) does not have prices on it....if my memory is right.
Hostelprices will be the same as on the Frances, from donativo to 6 euros to 12 euros and anything in between.

 

[dougfitz]

I still don't believe it is necessary Doug
With due respects the Camino Frances and ways to the coast do not require a road map.
You could not get lost compared to other ways

Miami Miami Dodo for accommodation
That's all that is needed

Every book known to man is required if walking from Mont Saint Michel we have just found out.

@Thornley, I prefer to walk with a guide, and this year I used the CSJ guide for the Camino Ingles and Brierley for Muxia and Finisterre.

I haven't heard of the Miami Miami Dodo guides you mention. Are they a US version of the French guide? I lack the skills in French to make the French version a good option for me.

Regards,

 

[Doodles]

I'm kind of surprised that guidebooks are such a contentious subject. I found Brierley's books loaded with helpful information and my Bible for the Frances, Portuguese and the Finisterre/Muxia. When you think about it hiking is a very cheap activity and guidebooks relatively inexpensive. If costs are that much a factor I'd suggest spending a little less on your pack or other gear which are really not as crucial as some want to believe. Information while on the trail can be invaluable.

 

[Bogong]

Hi everyone,

Is Brierley's guidebook for the Camino Finisterre a good addition to his guidebook for the Camino Francés? I'm considering to buy the latter and wondered if the Finisterre guide is worth buying as well, since it's just a few dollars/Euros cheaper than the Francés guide and I'll only use it for three of four days (compared to several weeks spent with the other one).

Advice is welcome

Tom

It's well waymarked as is the section from Fisterre to Muxia which I would recommend you do. But watch at the T junction a couple of hours out of Vilaserio. I spent at least five minutes trying to puzzle out the way the arrow pointed then headed off the wrong way. After some k's the rain stopped for a moment and a brief glimpse of sunlight gave me a shadow which showed I was heading due south. My Brierley guide (the smaeller of the two, with a Spanish/French/English text) was just a pulp anyway due to incessant rain which had soaked everything (my third Goretex jacket had proven just as big a useless disaster as the first two; perhaps someone should initiate a class action against this mob for blatantly false advertising)

Likewise out of Lires at a T junction joining a "main" road I missed something and mistakenly headed north down the road. I didn't retrace my steps as I thought it would work out OK and it did.

The bar in Lires was closed when I went through But they had the credencial stamp and a pen on a table in the garden.

John (aka Bogong0

 

[Dutch]

imho is the road from Finisterre to Muxia not waymarked well. Its very confusing at several point. Lots of people went the wrong way.

The brierley guide for this route from finisterre to muxia is equaly confusing. For the SdC to Finisterre route it is just fine.

 

[Thornley]

May i ask this question,
Why has Brierley JUST now wrote a guide on Muxia/Finasterrre ?
The Spanish have for decades considered this the end to Camino Frances..........
Maybe the recent LITTLE message in the movie The Way...suggests the same.....maybe he saw this message

How many other walks , camino's in Spain / France has Brierley written a book on???

************I just can't understand how a 4 day maximum walk can contribute to a guide
So may i say this and be shot down without a problem existing;
Has the man done the Norte?............been a long time since the Frances was written.
Has the lad been down to Seville ??

Please help me out as i only use the local tourist office for help

 

[whariwharangi]

I am aware of three guides written by Brierley: Frances, Portuguese, and Finisterre. My copy of Frances is in its 9th edition and the information was quite accurate at the time I walked.

As for your other questions why not ask him? His e-mail (listed in the back of the guide) is jb(@)caminoguides.com.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

I'm carrying his (Brierley) guide with me. Planning to use it to travel to Finesterre after Santiago. Figure it's better to be prepared than not. I like the maps that he has in his books. Gives me an idea of what I'm in for.