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Brierly Guide worst guidebook ever written?

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Melensdad

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Time of past OR future Camino
2016 SJPdP to Santiago, Finisterre. Hadrian's Way, 2015. Sections of the AT + National & State Park trails.
Is there a worse guidebook than the Brierly guide?

Started in St Jean, now in Herrerias, have not found any of the maps in the guide to be even close to reasonable. The descriptions seem to be written by a frustrated author and are often less than informative.

Seriously is this the best there is?
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
Yes, there are indeed some 'worse' guidebooks :)

Seriously though, if you prefer 'proper' maps, the little Michelin book or the German 'Outdoor' guide by Raymond Joos might be more to your liking.

Buen Camino
 
Sadly hard to find those guides in the small villages that are along the route. I should have picked up the Michelin guide in Leon (or earlier).

I do have a Kindle copy of The Village to Village Guide to ththe Camino and find it better, but still not great.

I'm curious what guide is worse than Brierly's?

Seems like Brierly is trying to highlight the spiritual aspects (which I do greatly appreciate, at least in theory) but his attempts to do so seem to fail. So his maps are inaccurate, his path guides woefully incomplete, and his spirituality seems to fall flat. Clearly my opinions, but WOW its hard to imagine something is worse than this guidebook. It seems good at home but fails in actual use.

Its fortunate that the trail is so well marked that the book really is never needed for trail guidance.
 
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The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
The Brierley guide served my purposes quite well, so I can't answer your question. My preference is the maps-only version.
I have the maps-only version for our continued trip to Finisterre and Muxia but the maps are clearly innacurate in the main guide. So inaccurate that they could be dangerous if this was a wilderness guide without all the markings found along this route. Consequently I'm hoping those paths are well marked because I'm not confident the maps will be of any real use.
 
I've used the Brierley twice and never found any issues aside from an occasionally incorrect/outdated bits of information about Albergues. I actually quite like the way this guidebook lays out the distances between places, works very nice with my GPS app on my iPhone. It is true the maps are not precise to the meter (I'm pretty sure the author mentions something to that effect right in the book?). Either way, sorry to hear the frustration you are having but hope you will keep at it and I'm sure that things will get much easier the further west you find yourself! Buen Camino.
 
Consequently I'm hoping those paths are well marked because I'm not confident the maps will be of any real use.

The paths on the CF are well marked :)

I also walked to Fisterra following the Brierley guide, i walked absolutely alone and I never got lost (well maybe once for a little while but I am rather hopeless :rolleyes::D)
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
I have the maps-only version for our continued trip to Finisterre and Muxia but the maps are clearly innacurate in the main guide. So inaccurate that they could be dangerous if this was a wilderness guide without all the markings found along this route. Consequently I'm hoping those paths are well marked because I'm not confident the maps will be of any real use.
I just wonder what you expected. The maps are representational - one might say topological. They correctly represent the layout of the route without ever claiming to represent distance or direction with any accuracy. If you wanted topographic or photo-mapping levels of accuracy, you clearly didn't look at what you were going to get. To compare it to a wilderness guide when the camino is far from wilderness strikes me as just a little over the top.

And if you don't like the spiritual reflections, ignore them.
 
a. The maps are adequate to the purpose.

b. The albergue list and description is kept up to date and is objective enough to make decisions about the choices.

c. The only criticism is the unwanted intrusions of spiritual flights of fancy. Its not enough of an intrusion though to warrant looking for another book.

I used the Camino Frances and Camino Finisterre books. I would have no hesitation in recommending the Brierley guides for anyone looking for a guidebook to the camino.
 
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I should add that writing a guidebook is a special skill ... it requires organizing a lot of bits of information in a logical way. You might try it and you will then realize the work that has gone into it.

Let us know if you have a better idea.
 
Clearly the book didn't work for you. We used the same book and found it more accurate on the topographic parts than most other aids we had. We walked with an Australian couple who had downloaded a German version into her iPad. That seemed to be more accurate on all the dips and turns than most others, plus by downloading the book she didn't need internet, or GPS. Im not sure but I think it was the Joost book.
 
Yes, I also got the German book. The translation was poor but the maps a re superior.
 
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I just wonder what you expected. The maps are representational - one might say topological. They correctly represent the layout of the route without ever claiming to represent distance or direction with any accuracy. If you wanted topographic or photo-mapping levels of accuracy, you clearly didn't look at what you were going to get. To compare it to a wilderness guide when the camino is far from wilderness strikes me as just a little over the top.

And if you don't like the spiritual reflections, ignore them.
I like spiritual reflections, appreciate them, in fact, but his seem to be laboured.

As for the maps I expected a modicum of accuracy rather than a kindergarten crayon level of accuracy.
 
Used the Brierley guidebook on two of my Caminos. It worked fine for me. All I pretty much refer to in it are the approximate distances and where the towns with albergues are. As far as precise accuracy, no real need for that when walking the CF. It's like playing horseshoes. Close is good enough. You're not using it to call in artillery fire or something. :D
If I were to buy a new guidebook now, I'd probably just get a maps only version.
 
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Not sure if it's due to the year of publication. I believe he has 13 altogether since 2003 and what I received recently was the 13th version apparently published 2016.

I think guides tend to get outdated fairly quickly. Even my Garmin GPS has to be updated several times a year especially for places that are developing.
 
I asked if there was a worse guide book. You failed to answer. No, Brierly's guide doesn't work for me. It seems heavily criticized by pilgrims along the trail with whom I am in contact. That does not infer that I am an author. If you choose to send up a challenge game please play your games elsewhere and do so with someone else. I'm allowed to question his book and his skills.
So far, everyone who has responded has failed to answer your question, which was itself a game-like challenge.
 
Not sure how or why a debate over the quality of a guidebook has devolved into such hostility. I would think that this is a topic that easily lends itself to civil discourse, so please try. Buen camino, Laurie

p.s. If you can read Spanish, @Melensdad, there are excellent online sources -- Eroski, mundicamino, and gronze all give good walking instructions, cultural notes, distances, elevation, etc, -- but not detailed topo maps.
 
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The first edition came out in 2003 and has become the go-to-guide for many pilgrims over the years. It is shipping with a Pilgrim Passport (Credential) from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
I used the Village to Village to the Camino guide twice and loved it ! km's are accurate (I got the same distances on my Polar watch) .
 
This year again I just took the few pages I needed of my Brierley. I'd emailed my self a file of what I wanted to make sure I didn't miss along the trail. Ended up missing some of them anyway!!! Usually because I'd be looking for something I'd noticed in someone else's photos (and knowing the relative location) and never could find it. I keep swearing I'll write a book along the lines of "if you want to see this view of whatever, make sure you cross down to the river on the right side and look off to your left" or "If you want to see this cool doorway make sure you turn right at the third tavern, walk 3 blocks, cut across the field and go behind the barn".
 
I found a set of outstanding detailed maps on the net. I copied them out in a compressed size in color, and had them laminated at a Staples store in the states. I rarely needed to refer to the book with these in hand.
 
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€83,-
I used the Village to Village to the Camino guide twice and loved it ! km's are accurate (I got the same distances on my Polar watch) .
I'm also finding the V-to-V guide is far more accurate and useful than Brierly.

I have 3 guides, Brierly, the English translation of the German guide and Village to Village.

V-to-V seems to be the best. The German and the Michelin guides both are better, and have better maps (but they could have done a better job in the German to English translation).

Brierly, is the worst I've seen.
 
If the trail is so well marked, why is it necessary or useful for someone to spend the effort to create a guide that would go way beyond its utility?

We used Brierly with no problem.
The distances and maps are wrong and misleading.

Not life threatening for a healthy person but still seriously wrong and could lead to people not refilling water bottles because they believe they are closer to a village than is true.

It's good you had no issues but that doesn't make the guide good
 
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Our Atmospheric H30 poncho offers lightness and waterproofness. Easily compressible and made with our Waterproof fabric, its heat-sealed interior seams guarantee its waterproofness. Includes carrying bag.

€60,-
This is a subject that is purely a personal choice.

Posts that are overtly hostile have been deleted.

It is fine to post your opinion on the merits of the book...for your needs. Please do not attack other people who have a different opinion.

This same subject was posted (by the OP) on a different site and drew much of the same type of replies.
 
It's good you had no issues but that doesn't make the guide good

Actually, my thought was that it was a good guide for the very reason that it met all my needs. If I had issues that the guide didn't help with, then I would say it was a bad guide.

Not life threatening for a healthy person but still seriously wrong and could lead to people not refilling water bottles because they believe they are closer to a village than is true.

I didn't find any of the distances off by 2 or 3 hours or more. It's true - I am healthy, so any times less than that are only an inconvenience.

If I were unhealthy, I would be taking care of myself in whatever way I needed. If water was really important to me, I would be filling up at every opportunity, not playing roulette health with any guide, no matter how perfect it might be.
 
This is a subject that is purely a personal choice.

Posts that are overtly hostile have been deleted.

It is fine to post your opinion on the merits of the book...for your needs. Please do not attack other people who have a different opinion.

This same subject was posted (by the OP) on a different site and drew much of the same type of replies.
I did post it on Facebook. Hovever the majority on FB seemed to criticize Brierly. It was referred to there (until the posts were deleted) as the book of lies.

And you clearly noted that hostile remarks were deleted. Those remarks were directed at the Brierly book. So the overall feeling on FB is critical, and some were obviously angry.

Not quite sure how you could say the replies are similar when those on FB were/are more critical.

As for being purely opinion, no. Maps are not opinion. Distances are not opinion. Inaccurate data is inaccurate data.
 
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The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
For anyone curious about the different guides and their respective merits - there are some other forum threads about this - e.g. https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/guidebooks.34858/#post-321537
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...d-i-get-for-camino-frances.38314/#post-376387

Funny how we can feel so protective or defensive about our favourite guide! I suppose the authors become like companions on our Caminos. Has anyone not made it to Santiago because they used a less than perfect guide? I doubt it.

@Melensdad - hope the rest of your Camino has more happy moments than frustrating ones. Buen Camino!
 
The distances and maps are wrong and misleading.

Not life threatening for a healthy person but still seriously wrong and could lead to people not refilling water bottles because they believe they are closer to a village than is true.

It's good you had no issues but that doesn't make the guide good

@Melensdad - please could you provide some specific examples of where maps and distances are so seriously wrong? Having used the guide myself without encountering any significant problems, I would be really interested to find out what I missed. That said, I never actually looked at the maps while walking, since they were completely unnecessary for wayfinding on the Camino Frances, but I did use them to get an idea of where I would be walking the next day and what sort of distances I was in for between stops. In my planning phase I checked many of the distances against Google and other maps and never found anything wildly out. But you clearly have, so if you could give some examples this would be very helpful for future planning, as well as for new pilgrims in the initial planning stages.
 
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€149,-
This poisonous kind of post is exactly why I got out of the guide-writing business. Some people expect WAY too much from a trail guidebook, and then write vituperative comments when it does not answer their questions or give them exactly what they want.
If you are fit and reasonably resourceful, you can walk the Camino Frances without a guidebook. When you see a fountain, top up your bottle. When you are tired and there's an inn with rooms available, jump on it. If you can't go another step and there's no room, ask the bartender or policeman what place he knows where you can go.
Sleeping in the sports hall or church porch is not fatal.
Maps are iffy, hostels and albergues open and close without notice. Life is full of suffering, and a pilgrimage is supposed to teach you to depend on providence, or your own enterprise.
Guidebooks are good, they are fun to write, but guide writers are not be responsible for the success or failure of anyone's Dream Holiday Vacation of Enlightenment.
 
Sadly hard to find those guides in the small villages that are along the route. I should have picked up the Michelin guide in Leon (or earlier).

I do have a Kindle copy of The Village to Village Guide to ththe Camino and find it better, but still not great.

I'm curious what guide is worse than Brierly's?

Seems like Brierly is trying to highlight the spiritual aspects (which I do greatly appreciate, at least in theory) but his attempts to do so seem to fail. So his maps are inaccurate, his path guides woefully incomplete, and his spirituality seems to fall flat. Clearly my opinions, but WOW its hard to imagine something is worse than this guidebook. It seems good at home but fails in actual use.

Its fortunate that the trail is so well marked that the book really is never needed for trail guidance.
IMHO , it really seems that the places marked in his guide are the ones that paid to be put there, so much is left out and the KM are off to the point that sometimes not sure where you are, and also some listings are out of order, saying they are in one village but are actually in another, anyway, my rant
 
We used both the Kindle version of the German book and a hard copy of the Brierly. We found the German book to be mostly more descriptive of the actual route with precise directions (take a half-right go 50 meters and the another half-right...). Both books were a little light on the details of the numbers of hills....

It always seemed there were at least twice as many as what was described.

I was also annoyed at times that because the way seemed 'uninteresting' to the authors that more details were not given for some routes. One example is the Samos segment which is longer, but better described than the recommended way.
 
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
This poisonous kind of post is exactly why I got out of the guide-writing business. Some people expect WAY too much from a trail guidebook, and then write vituperative comments when it does not answer their questions or give them exactly what they want.
If you are fit and reasonably resourceful, you can walk the Camino Frances without a guidebook. When you see a fountain, top up your bottle. When you are tired and there's an inn with rooms available, jump on it. If you can't go another step and there's no room, ask the bartender or policeman what place he knows where you can go.
Sleeping in the sports hall or church porch is not fatal.
Maps are iffy, hostels and albergues open and close without notice. Life is full of suffering, and a pilgrimage is supposed to teach you to depend on providence, or your own enterprise.
Guidebooks are good, they are fun to write, but guide writers are not be responsible for the success or failure of anyone's Dream Holiday Vacation of Enlightenment.
I didn't think the guide was my ,go to, depend on, or all would fail, but I did expect , that when a guide says , to point a . 1/2 km, turns out to be 1.5 km, or albergue , b, 2 km , and it s1/2 km, I did use it and found it very helpful, just needed a bit of editing
 
Personally I found the Brierly Guide was really very good. I particularly like the maps. Uncluttered and clear with just the right information. Are they accurate? No, not that accurate. They are merely a graphical representation of the route. I often found I walked a bit further or a bit less than expected. But to be fair, in many cases because my destination was on the near side or far side of a village, rather than central.

Did I read it all? No. I used it as a 'Guide'....

I also took Miam Miam Dodo, (both as soft copies on my phone) which was great for accommodation listings. But as mentioned above. The maps! What were they thinking? The shading on the maps makes them impossible to read at times....

The Brierly maps are a delight in comparison. It's probably not fair to call them 'maps' in reality. Maybe route 'sketches' with distance 'indicators' and points of interest?
 
As a former army man I know a lot about reading maps, navigation and finding a way. Never needed it on the CF.
I notice that when people come to the Camino with expectations such as "it's just a long wilderness style trek" or with a tourist bent "10 reasons why the Camino sucks - that includes the comment that to service the walkers better, Spaniards should speak more English etc" they are often disappointed and it shows to my mind that some people miss the point!
We have completed 4 Caminos since 2014 and will go again in Sep. They are wonderful and life changing and we love the experiences we get and the people we meet (there is the rare exception).
On our first, although experienced in life we were scared, we hadn't slept with strangers for years etc and medically there were issues...we let our reliance on being in control of everything go and that was the greatest lesson for us and gave us the greatest gifts along the Way.
We used Brierley and it was perfect for us...there was no need to ever get out the compass I had brought and he was accurate for distances and the CF was well marked and we and the locals helped each other. Nothing is perfect and we took it at face value.
I could easily see that it was not an accurate Ordnance Survey set of maps. The route descriptions, warnings, elevations and indication of accommodation and water and cafes were all we needed, and more, because of the nature of the Camino.
If you want accuracy, take a map. If you want a tourist guide, take a Michelin guide. Probably add a Lonely Planets guide. Then you will have a trip with no surprises.
But for us the joy was in some of the surprises along the way and in going through moments of despair.
Some loved his guide book, some hated it. Each to their own.
I have been taught now to expect little which can only bring joy. The mantra we now live by is that
"Tourists demand, pilgrims thank".
Life gets simpler and easier.
Buen Camino
 
Down bag (90/10 duvet) of 700 fills with 180 g (6.34 ounces) of filling. Mummy-shaped structure, ideal when you are looking for lightness with great heating performance.

€149,-
It is the Camino Frances !

Given the number of people walking this route and signage, the infrastructure, etc, I would suggest you almost don't need a guidebook.

Brierly guidebook is the best and I come to accept that like most things in life mileage, quality, and performance varies over time.
 
Well, the Brierly guide got me from A to B. I certainly didn't treat it as a map book, more sketches than anything which I have to say I liked. The information regarding distances I felt at some points was suspect, but that didn't matter a great deal to me, all I wanted was a rough guide to help me on my way, and Brierly did just that.
 
I only ever used the Michelin guide. Brierly's book is heavy, bulky, expensive and maybe even dangerous to novice walkers. Too much information can be unhelpful.
Use it to light a fire or give it away. Let the Camino be your guide.
Ultreia!
 
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