Guides?

[Lorelei]

I am walking the Northern Route in Sept/Oct. and I have the guides by Eric Walker from CSJ. as well as a good map of Northern Spain. What I am looking for is a good "guide" book, something with historical notes and places of interest along the route. I can only find books on the French Route....lots of books, but nothing for the Northern Route. I have been looking at proper guide books, but I am not sure which ones are the best? The Footprint series looks good?
Any suggestions would be wonderful...
Thanks
Lorelei

Anyone else who is walking the route at that time, I would enjoy chatting...I will be in Irun Sept. 10th / 11th hoping to begin walking on the 12th.

 

[sillydoll]

The only English guide I've seen is the one that comes in 4 languages - it is published by Federation Camino del Norte. I'm not sure that there is a comprehensive guide book in English for the Camino Norte - but I might be wrong?

If you read French or Spanish you could try these:

Le chemin côtier vers Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle (Camino del Norte : Bayonne - Cap Finisterre)
Auteur(e)s: Jean-Yves Grégoire et Françoise Pinguet Éditeur: Rando + ACIR
Année: 2005 ISBN: 2-84182-259-1
Nombre de pages: 240 Description: Guide en 40 étapes, par Bayonne, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Santander, Oviedo, Lugo. Prix approximatif: 22 €



Sur le chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle - le camino del norte, le chemin le long de la mer
Auteur(e)s: Duhalde, Philippe - Lepère, François - Terrien, Yvette
Éditeur: Lepère Année: 2008 ISBN: 978-2-915156-19-5
Nombre de pages: 200
Description: Explicatif du chemin à suivre. Avec les hébergements et leur prix et téléphone ainsi que les cartes des villes et les profils des dénivelés.


Le guide pratique (Irun - Bilbao - Santander - Gijon - Ribadeo - Santiago), par le sentier le long de la Mer. Cet ouvrage tout en couleur contient un explicatif du sentier a suivre, une liste complete des hebergements, des cartes avec les profils d'altitude, les plans des grandes villes. C'est a ce jour le seul guide en Francais qui propose le chemin tout au long de la cote Cantabrique !
Prix approximatif: 20 €

Spanish:

El Camino de Santiago del Norte (32 etapas) Auteur(e)s: Paco Nadal
Éditeur: El País - Aguilar Année: 2006
ISBN: 8403504276 Nombre de pages: 304
Description: Itinerario, mapas del recorrido y perfiles con las altitudes, para caminantes y ciclistas. Numerosas fotografias, monumentos de mayor interés y principales ciudades, datos practicos.
Prix approximatif: 21 €

 

[Deleted member 397]

There are quite a few general guide books on Amazon to Northern Spain-Insight,Cadogan,Footprint and Globe Trekker etc

 

[Spanish Steps]

Camino del Norte

Camino del Norte

Be sure to pick up topographical maps of the Camino del Norte to avoid the busy highways.

When walking this trail in 2000, I found that the oficina de turismo offices be of little use - they will always send you on the highway. They've never walked it therefore they don't really know it. They see the big signs for the Camino by car and and think that's the hiking trail for pilgrims.

Always ask local taxi cab drivers for directions when in doubt.

To find your way out of Santillana del Mar (Santander) one must walk past the Casa de Organista (hotel) and up the hill. That is the Camino. Not the highway.

Suerte and Buen Camino!!!
Judy Colaneri
http://www.spanishsteps.com

 

[AMNAUSA]

Thank you for the tip on walking past the hotel up the hill. I look almost everyday for little tips like this. We are leaving the USA on September 15th to walk the Camino del Norte and wish we had a great book like John Brierley's guide that we had for the Camino Frances. We do have the Confraternity of St. James's guide book which I'm sure will help. However, it will be a challenge and we are really excited to be going once more to Spain on this our third Camino. I wonder how many others are embarking on the CdN about the same time.

AMN

 

[jl]

I did send John Briely an email on one occasion asking if he was planning to do a Camino Del Norte guide but he indicated it was unlikely. Maybe, if we were lucky and if a few other people asked the same question he may consider doing it. Janet

 

[alex23]

Hi Lorelei,

I'm also planning to start in Irun on the 12th of Sept. Especially keen to get to San Sebastian with plenty of time to enjoy a full day there (I'm a bit mad about food).

Hopefully we'll catch up along the way

alex

 

[alex23]

Also can anyone suggest a good place to get the topo maps either in Irun or Madrid as I'll be there for a few days before I being walking.

alex.

 

[Javier Martin]

I can say, there's another guide for this Camino del Norte, in spanish, written for Carlos Mencos, a journalist from Pamplona. If you are in Spain looking for your guide, try to see this guide. As far as I know, it's fantastic. Very well done.

Buen Camino del Norte.

Javier Martin
Madrid, Spain.

 

[mdefrayne]

Howdy,

Concerning maps, here is a link to cool mapping tool:

http://www.multimap.com/

I was able to view a very detailed map of Santander and actually follow the directions from the guide. Very cool! I have used tools like this before to get a map to Logrono/Burgon/Leon showing the location of the albergue. I like these types of tools.

Suerte,
Mark