Is carrying a guidebook worth the weight?

[stelrey]

I'm trying to shave another 300 grams off my pack weight, and am having a (very) hard time. Do I need a guidebook for the camino frances in March and April? Will it really make a difference in the quality of my trip? If it will make a difference, then I'll carry it, but if it isn't necessary, then I might just leave it behind. That would take me within 50 grams of my goal...

Thanks!

 

[Anniesantiago]

You don't really need it Just follow the yellow arrows and the crowd. You'll be fine.

 

[SabsP]

Even with a guidebook I would have taken the wrong road out of Ventosa ( say no more... :wink: ). No seriously , you don't need a guide per se. I read alot about the history beforehand. Also in the small villages barpersonnel and locals in general have a wealth of info about their towns.
I did have a printout though of the albergues and a very lightweight Michelin booklet/ map with the elevations.

 

[CaminoGen]

I highly recommend you leave the guidebook at home and just print out this guide (http://www.caminoguide.net/#CF) and throw away the pages as you go along. This became my "bible". Add the sheet with the elevation they give out in SJPP and you're set.

 

[Olivares]

No need to bring one for directions-- the Camino is incredibly well posted. No need to bring one for services-- word of mouth knowledge is generous and available. Not really critical for details on sightseeing for towns and villages-- info is readily available at the local office of tourism or even a stop at a local hotel could often yield the best word of mouth on the local gems.

In a synopsis, don't bother. If you find yourself yearning for a guidebook I can assure there will be 10 available within reach to borrow from those who chose to carry and 25 left behind at the Albergue!

BUEN CAMINO!

P.S. Having said the above, I admit making copies of pages out of book "The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago" by David M. Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson and taking with me. This book is amazingly good at describing cultural notes along the Camino. I enhanced the sightseeing 1000% and things that I was so lucky to read-ahead thanks to this incredible book.

 

[stelrey]

Thank you all very much for the quick replies! I'm buying the Brierley guide, but I'm leaning towards just reading it at home, and then leaving it behind. I'll definitely look at the links. And I like to idea of making my own "guidebook" by jotting some info down in the back of my journal.
Thanks!
S

 

[tyrrek]

Hi Stelrey.

Although I have posted reservations about Brierley's guide, overall I still find it useful. Especially for the maps, approximate distances between towns, and accommodation. At the risk of advocating copyright infringement, you could remove the maps or copy them from the book (you could probably get 4 maps on 1 sheet of double-sided A4 paper and still have enough room for a few notes at the side if there is something from the text that interests you. As other posts have said, you won't get lost, but it just helps you to work out your options each day.

That said, other pilgrims will be carrying one, so you can just use theirs!

Buen Camino!

 

[anniethenurse]

Hola! I am for the guide book and maps - it is great to have one with you and plan for the next etapa. Great to have some practical and historical information in your hands. Guide books are necessary on many caminoes less- walked.

And YES - there are many pilgs who want to use YOUR guide book.

You can of course have an App in your iPhone or Android but I love books the old style and be able to underline, write small notes and memories on the spare pages of the book.

 

[Pieces]

both brierley and michelin have map guides, I find those a comfortable in-between

 

[KinkyOne]

I did my two walks on CF with Brierley's guidebook and found it very useful. Yes, CF is very well marked and is almost impossible to get lost and you can get all other really necessary information from fellow pilgrims, staff in albergues or local people. But I liked this guidebook for example when the weather got worse and I finished earlier particular day and had to do the re-planning of the next stages.
Also data written with ink on the usual paper can get moist and potentially lost in a blur. In this case use an old-fashioned pencil

 

[dougfitz]

I carried the Brierley guide on the Camino Frances, and would most likely take a guidebook along again. I don't have strong language skills, and I don't think it would have been possible for me to get by with locally sourced information.

Regards,

 

[supersullivan]

I carried the Brierly guide with me last year and found it very useful for seeing how far to my next cafe con leche stop, the accommodation options for my planned route each day and when I wanted to get a hotel room one night for having the phone number to ring ahead.
Weight not an issue assuming you've prepared fitness wise, there were other things I carried with me that i would have dumped first if I wanted to reduce weight load.

Regards

Seamus

http://supersullivan.wordpress.com/2013 ... -ramblers/

 

[luisalovespaul]

We just finished a 10 day walk and loved having the book with us. I looked forward to my cafe con lecche at the next town every morning. Some days I would have two, each one about 5 to 7 km apart

 

[Corwen]

we bought a guide with a separate sheet for each stage. This had contact details of albergues etc on the back of each sheet, and before we went we annotated it with any info from the main book we thought helpful. This reduced the guidebook to just 30 small sheets of paper. Wouldn't have been completely without anything though, having one makes planning your days easier.

What else are you taking? There is maybe something obvious in your pack list you could change?

 

[whariwharangi]

I can't imagine going without; a guidebook is needed for day to day planning. Sometimes you need to know if you are going to have to stop early or have a very long day.

 

[Yallah]

I absolutely think carrying a guidebook is worth the weight. I love planning my day, calculating the distances, deciding on an albergue, figuring out where to stop for lunch, etc. Plus there a lot of alternate routes along the camino that you wouldn't know about without a guidebook. I like to write notes in the margin and then have the book as a keepsake.

E-books are awesome for most things, but I still prefer a physical book for guidebooks, as I like to browse, flip through, etc and books don't run out of batteries!

 

[annakappa]

I have never used a guidebook. (None available here in Costa Rica), but even if there were, I think I would prefer to do what we always do: we use the Eroski site http://www.consumer.es to print out their printable guide, admittedly in Spanish, which comes to about 15 double printed pages. There is abundant, up to date information, both regarding a description of the route, the Albergues and places of historical interest, which I then personally add to. I also print out the couple of sheets of http://www.caminoguide.net, which again, has very actual information regarding all the Albergues on the way, together with approx. km between each village. We sometimes supplement a sheet or two of http://www.gronze.com, should there be alternative routes that we might try.
A guide book is a very nice thing to have, I guess, but one of the trappings is that it seems that most then follow the specified stages, meaning that there is always one load of Pilgrims at these stops, almost as if one should really follow these stages. The in-between stages Albergues are usually so much more charming and less overcrowded. Anne

 

[peregrian]

It´s a little bit old and in spanish but doesn ´t weight too much http://www.peregrinoteca.com/tienda/fic ... -5583.html maybe you can find something similar in English :S

 

[stelrey]

Lots of food for thought! Thanks again!

 

[JabbaPapa]

You don't need the guidebook -- though you DO need something useless for hiking, taken along just because you want to have it with you. It can be whatever you want, including a guidebook if that's your desire.

 

[jeff001]

It's not really a matter of "needing" a guidebook. It's a matter of how much you want to know about where you are and where you will be.

 

[Gaz27]

Never needed it. Follow the yellow arrows. So simple.

 

[ouroboros]

The Brierley guide turned out to be the only reading material I cared to read
on the Camino. The walk was all-consuming of my energies, so to sit down
at a cafe with my beverage and the Brierly was always the break to refresh me.

I agree about the language barrier. If Spanish is not an easy language for you, you
would be better off having a guide in your native tongue.

Regarding the lemming aspect of pilgrims following the Brierley stages:
if you get shrewd enough, you can plan with the guide how to AVOID the masses
and locate albergues and pitstops before and after the locations on the Brierly stages
which attract the obedient pilgrims en masse.
We got into the rhythm of stopping right outside a town or hamlet where we were planning
to perch for the night, and instead of wandering in and looking around randomly, (which sometimes made us prey to some of the more desperate entrepreneurs trying to lure in pilgrims, creating awkward situations) we would suss out the possibilities in the guide and then seek out destinations directly and purposefully. And sometimes we allowed ourselves to be invited off the street, and those were also memorable, wonderful times! So a balance of planning, intentionality, and spontaneity is a good blend for pilgrim life.

 

[StuartM]

I didn't have much opportunity to prepare, when I decided to go two days later I was in Spain and walking so never really had the opportunity to buy a guide or do much research.

I really did not miss it at all. I had no real idea where I was going, I literally just started following the arrows. Every day was an adventure, I knew nothing about what was coming up, I didn't know if it was going to be climbing, asphalt, forest... There was a surprise every mile. OK, there were a few places where I felt stuck in a landscape that just went on with no escape (I'm thinking about a few of the urban sprawl type places) that may have been made mentally a bit more bearable knowing how much was left but by and large for most of my walk I really did not regret not having a guide.

I met so many people who, when asked their plan for the day, would point to the map from Brierley and say from the bottom of the page to the top. Fine if that's for them, it's not for me. Everyone is different and if you want a guide then take it. I just used the Godesalco website to print a list of towns along the route (it lists every town, distance between them, distance from the start and what facilities are there: bars, restaurants, albergues, hostals, etc). I'd set out every day with an idea of the distance I wanted to cover and keep going until I found somewhere with a bed.

I honestly don't think a guide would really have made my trip any better, if anything the uncertainty of it all enhanced it for me. It was, like I said, a real adventure into unknown territory. A few people mentioned that the Brierley guides got a bit too spiritual and preachy in places too and I didn't really want my thoughts getting shaped by what I'd read. It was available in plenty of places and I never felt tempted to buy it although a few walkers seemed rather disturbed that I had no info with me (including a lovely Irish pilgrim who gave me possibly the worst map I've ever seen because she was so concerned ).

If you are taking a smartphone then there is a very good 33 day guide here http://www.galiciaguide.com/Camino-de-Santiago.html. I just made PDF's of the relevant pages on my PC and copied the PDF's to my phone where you can view them with the Adobe app. Doesn't give maps but it's no real loss for it. It gives a lot of good background on the places you pass through, things to see, etc.

Alternatively, Cicerone do an ebook version of their guide which you could put on a phone: http://www.cicerone.co.uk/product/detai ... es---spain I don't know what it's like but I have a few Cicerone walking guides for other places and they are all generally very good. Definitely seem to stick to fact and geography rather than straying into mystical rambling territory.

 

[KinkyOne]

I think this fuzz with guide-books is rather similar to the dogs and their owners. It simply depends on the owner of the dog what kind of behaviour the dog will have. And it depends on the pilgrim how he/she will use the guide-book. It might be "from the bottom to the top of the page" style or a simple improvisation. Both were very nicely explained by StuartM.

 

[billvinhage]

I am scanning select pages of the brierly guide book to PDF and will have it in an iPad mini just in case but hoping to not need it.

 

[Kanga]

When I walked my third Camino Frances with my 20+ daughter we did not have a guidebook. It drove my daughter nuts. By the time we reached Burgos she just had to buy one of the guides for sale in the cathedral.

 

[Kathy F.]

I'm one of those people who always get guidebooks in museums because I love to know what I'm looking at. I read biographies of musicians because it gives me insight into their creative process (sometimes!). Yes, I'll be taking a guidebook. My problem is - so many guidebooks, so little space
Kathy

 

[poleskigal]

The guidebook I carried was not only a good source of historical information but it turned out to be a wonderful journal of my camino. I noted significant dates, circled cafes and auberges that I stayed in, wrote down addresses of pilgrims I had met. I can quickly reference my Fall 2011 Camino at a glance!

 

[Kennedy1]

Not sure what the big issue is. I am currently walking with a guide book and have
Let numerous people use it (Brierley's) because they did not want to carry one
because of the added wait. What is with this. Information make for correct decisions.

 

[fraluchi]

Not sure what the big issue is.

In fact, guidebooks are only to "guide", not to "oblige", and if the weight seems too much, don't purchase the book. The Forum's members give so much useful and up-to-date information, that they beat any guidebook. All you need to do is search the subjects you're interested in. It's all here to be found!