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Walking the Camino De Santiago: From St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago De Compostela and on to Finisterre
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12 new or used available from £23.85
Average customer review:
Product Description
This is a guide to walking the Camino de Santiago across the north of Spain. Follow Celts, Romans and pilgrims on a spectacular journey across the north of Spain. "Walking the Camino de Santiago" leads you along an ancient 800km pilgrimage route from St Jean Pied de Port in southwestern France to Spain's northwest corner, where St James is entombed at Santiago de Compostela, smoothing your way with step-by-step instructions, detailed sketch maps and profile charts. This guide lets you into Spain's cultural and culinary secrets, includes a detailed, illustrated wildlife section, and gives you all the practical information you need for a hassle-free pilgrimage.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #352019 in Books
- Published on: 2006-02-01
- Original language: English
- Binding: Paperback
- 192 pages
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Bethan Davies is a librarian and former editor who co-authored Walking Portugal with Ben Cole.
Ben Cole has worked in travel bookshops for more than a decade, traveled extensively in Spain and Portugal and has hiked all over the globe.
Customer Reviews
Good as a guidebook, but don't trust the distances...
I used this book as a guide both when walking the Camino to Santiago, and when walking from Santiago to Finisterre this year. The great thing about the Camino is that the yellow arrows mean it is very difficult to lose your path but this book comes in handy in both giving you tourist information on where you're passing, but also in letting you know when to expect the next rest place.
The major disadvantage to the book is the distances - one pilgrim we met joked about the fact that gallego kilometres seem longer than normal ones, and it seems that the authors were also using their own measurements. The book claims that the walk is roughly 75km from Santiago to Finisterre - about 5km out of Santiago, we saw our first way marker which stated that there were 85km to go. The day from Negreira to Oliveiroa was a particular killer - what was claimed to be an undulating 26km in the book was actually a hard going 34km.
As a summary, this book is good for background information - but don't consider it too seriously as you'll find it very demotivating!
2nd edition has updated, accurate distances!
I'm the author of Walking the Camino de Santiago. I have to admit that Jackie is right about the distances in the first edition of this book.
The second edition of the book, published in January 2006, was entirely re-researched in 2005. We took a GPS with us to ensure that distances are now accurate. We've also included city maps and printed the book on lighter paper - it's now just over half the weight of the first edition.
My apologies to Jackie!
Bethan Davies
Very Useful and informative
Havng just returned from walking the Camino De Santiago and using this book I can honestly say it is a gem of a guide. I used the second edition which is a tad dated in relation to the number and quality of Albergues in the various towns and villages, however this was a minor flaw. The albergues change yearly, either being modernised or springing up from no-where. The history the book gives you and general back-ground information is very well researched. The flora and fauna identification guide are very useful and allow the amateur to positively ID a wide variety of native species. Each area which is traversed is discussed in detail within the book giving the reader information on people and culture, regional food and drink and the local fauna and flora to look out for. The distances seem fine now. I used the book extensively on the Camino and found it a very good read. Didn't find Fonda's bar on the way but found many others which would undoubtedly give it a run for it's money.
There are a number of guides available to help you undertake the Camino De Santiago - Not many include the walk to Finisterre (which this one does) and few if any have the extensive background information which this one has. I had to give it 4 stars as it wasn't absolutely bang up to date - Other than the occaisionally slightly inaccurate Albergue info (which matters not as other people will undoubtedly have other info on the albergues) the book is 5 star material.
