Best Alternative to Brierley for Camino Frances?

[Melinda Francis]

Hi all. I have Brierly but am looking for a good alternative so I am not always following the throngs......
Thanks heaps!

 

[mspath]

Hi all. I have Brierly but am looking for a good alternative so I am not always following the throngs......
Thanks heaps!

The Spanish web www.Gronze.com is very good.
It lists both pilgrim accommodation and regular tourist places by location within the 'standard' sections or etapas.
Just choose a location before or after such a section end-point and it will generally be less busy.

Good luck and Buen camino!

 

[dougfitz]

Hi all. I have Brierly but am looking for a good alternative so I am not always following the throngs......
Thanks heaps!

Using a guide book like Brierley's does not compel you to follow the daily stages he uses slavishly. He gives sufficient detail of the places along the way in his stages for you to make informed choices, and you can supplement this with information from a range of web-based resources like Gronze, or there are a variety of apps for both Apple and android devices. The 'throngs' you wish to avoid will still be there whatever guide book you use - the underlying route doesn't vary. Although there are some sections with a couple of options, these options are also going to be the same.

 

[Kanga]

I'm just back from the Camino Francés and had no problems at all with accommodation, staying mainly in albergues. The trick is not to walk too far, so that you finish walking each day at 1 or 2 pm, when the albergues are opening.

There is an increasing tendency by people to book ahead, and of course that scares others into doing the same thing, but the municipal and donativo albergues only take walk up pilgrims. I thought their facilities were often better than the private albergues - less pressure to maximise $ by the number of bunks.

 

[Carol06]

I used the book put out by the Confraternity of Saint James. It was fantastic and is updated annually.

 

[Mark Lee]

Agree with what was stated earlier on this thread. No matter what guidebook you choose to use, it does not mean you have to walk it exactly as it's laid out (stages, stops, etc). It's a guide book, not a military procedure manual. The book shows the route, what towns are along it, which one's have accommodations for pilgrims and what kind, and that's it. How you walk it is up to you and the Brierley version is as good as any.
You could actually not use a guidebook at all, or just use a linear map of sorts with no stages/stops listed. You can also find the CF route for free on the internet and download and print your own custom CF plan. I carried a guidebook simply because it was convenient. If I were to get another one, I'd probably get a maps only version.
When you get to SJPdP the pilgrim's office will provide you with an elevation guide to the CF, with towns along the way and also a current listing of albergues on the CF.
cheers and ultreia

 

[cher99840]

If I were to get another one, I'd probably get a maps only version.

I did get another one and it is the maps only version. There is still plenty of additional info in it. By the time I arrived at SdC, my guidebook was gone because I tore out pertinent pages each day and kept them handy in my waist pack.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

The Brierley guide does not require you to stop!!

If you do not have it, how do you know which end points to avoid??

 

[Wokabaut_Meri]

On our Camino last April, between us we used both the lightweight Brierley Maps Only Gide to the Camino Francés and the Village to Village Guide Hiking the Camino de Santiago which is a fairly hefty book but proved a wonderful guide for us.

As everyone has said, you choose and walk your own stages hence the term 'guide'.

 

[G.White]

Is a guidebook necessary? I downloaded an app for my phone called Camino Pilgrim. I was planning on not buying a book to save the weight.

 

[jmcarp]

Using a guide book like Brierley's does not compel you to follow the daily stages he uses slavishly. He gives sufficient detail of the places along the way in his stages for you to make informed choices, and you can supplement this with information from a range of web-based resources like Gronze, or there are a variety of apps for both Apple and android devices. The 'throngs' you wish to avoid will still be there whatever guide book you use - the underlying route doesn't vary. Although there are some sections with a couple of options, these options are also going to be the same.

Right on, Doug! The key is to remember the Brierley book, and others like it, are "guide" books, not a "rule" books.

 

[C clearly]

am looking for a good alternative so I am not always following the throngs......

To avoid following the throngs, you could go to a route that does not have a guide book.

 

[jsalt]

Hi, On my last camino most people I met seemed to be avoiding the Brierley stages. If everyone does that it might be best to start stopping at the Brierley stages again!

 

[james walter purdum iv]

i walked in september 2015 and just stopped one town before or after the breiley stops. worked really well and met some smaller families running alberges

 

[SYates]

Here in the resources section of the forum is an excellent PDF for the CF with towns, distances, albergues etc. I agree, the CSJ guide is also a very good, and light weight, option.
Buen Camino, SY

 

[Kent Davis]

I purchased both the Briely and another guidebook referred to as Hiking the Camino De Santiago and I really really like the second one. It actually gives you a path from SJPP to Muxia. It stages the Santiago in 31 days, but I just preferred the size of the book, the graphics and it was very easy to read. Having all the elevations on one page with distances was also very nice.

 

[AlwynWellington]

The Michelin Guides for at least Le Puy-en-Velay to Saint-Jean and from Saint-Jean to Santiago are excellent. Each opening has a Michelin map, and elevation profile with towns and points of interest noted and a selection of albergue.

 

[Bogong]

Easy fix. Walk it in winter. Like I did. Expect to ge t wet. Very wet. Like I did. With a pulped shorter version of Brierly(the map one) just follow the arrows. Like I did. With generally nobody to follow expect to get lost. Like I and others did(nine times for me). Don't worry about accommodation. I didn't. Just stop when you feel a bit stuffed. Like I did. Make the Cathedral not the Camino your pilgrimage focus - here I go again.

Meet lots of wonderful friendly and helpful locals. Like I did. Interact with the happy bands of other pilgrims you may chance on, from almost everywhere in the world. They were wonderful to me, too, even though there weren't too many.

Read Up on Brierly avidly for colour before you go, and try to remember the key points. Like I generally couldn't. Don't get overwhelmed by the dire warnings and concerns expressed by others. I did beforehand and it almost scared the living daylights out of me, then halfway into my first day it sorted itself out.

Above all enjoy it all.(I won't say it again!). Have a great time!

De Colores

Bogong

 

[Melinda Francis]

Thanks for all your replies. I probably should have been more specific - I have heard here and there that there are 'alternative' trails which take you off the main route. This is what I was hoping to find and was wondering if another guidebook might have slightly different trails marked than Brierley. Of course I realise I don't have to use the stages marked by Brierley to the letter - I intend to hopefully stop wherever takes my fancy - I've no attachment to distances or marked stages. Thank you for the helpful suggestions of other books people have offered me. I will look into them.

 

[Melinda Francis]

To avoid following the throngs, you could go to a route that does not have a guide book.

Hopefully next time!!!!

 

[C clearly]

slightly different trails marked than Brierley.

Brierley does indicate alternative trails. (He didn't create them; he has just tried to document them.) In Galicia, there are more alternatives that are waymarked, but they are usually quite short and may not show up on guidebook maps.

 

[Kanga]

Try the list of other Caminos listed on the top page of the Camino - the Salvador and the Primitivo take you off the Francés from León to Oviedo and then back to the Francés, and the Invierno is an alternative entry to SDC from Pontferrada. Guides can be downloaded from the Resources section. But they are mountain trails and not for the novice - I've not done them and would not be doing them alone - except maybe the Primitivo, which is pretty well travelled.

 

[jefferyonthecamino]

Hi all. I have Brierly but am looking for a good alternative so I am not always following the throngs......
Thanks heaps!

The Codex Calixtinus?

Brierly is probably the most reliable when it comes to maps (although I am not sure if he has updated them after the changes this year), so his map guidebook is probably all you need.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

There are guide books? All I had in 2001 was a sheet of A4 paper from the Alberge in SJPP and the yellow arrows - seemed to work out OK

 

[Martyduc]

Lesley Gilmores guide Camino Frances ,,, comes as a kindle book which can be then accessed on your phone through the kindle app ,,,,

 

[norbert]

I found the "Rother Walking Guide" on the Camino Frances very reliable. I did not use Brierly.
Buen camino !

 

[newgabe]

Is a guidebook necessary? I downloaded an app for my phone called Camino Pilgrim. I was planning on not buying a book to save the weight.

Ditto. Camino Pilgrim was really helpful, linked straight to a phone call any time I needed to use it to contact accommodation and was easy to gauge distances/plan stops. It does break down the route into rather unusual 'stages' which of course don't need to be followed. I glanced at other people's Brierly a few times along the way and saw no use for it at all. The arrow markings are plenty good enough to find the path and Camino Pilgrim's map overlays onto Google maps totracked exactly where you were on the path which was much more useful to me than weird 'reflections'. I also had a very cheap .pdf guide I'd downloaded by Gerald Kelly that I'd edited down for easy reading on my phone.

 

[G.White]

Ditto. Camino Pilgrim was really helpful, linked straight to a phone call any time I needed to use it to contact accommodation and was easy to gauge distances/plan stops. It does break down the route into rather unusual 'stages' which of course don't need to be followed. I glanced at other people's Brierly a few times along the way and saw no use for it at all. The arrow markings are plenty good enough to find the path and Camino Pilgrim's map overlays onto Google maps totracked exactly where you were on the path which was much more useful to me than weird 'reflections'. I also had a very cheap .pdf guide I'd downloaded by Gerald Kelly that I'd edited down for easy reading on my phone.

Great, one more thing not to buy/carry! thanks.

 

[Saint Mike II]

Hi all. I have Brierly but am looking for a good alternative so I am not always following the throngs......
Thanks heaps!

G'day - I have a spare copy of the German Yellow Book (its the current 2016 edition), send me your email (PM/start conversation) I don't want the full value - say enough to cover the postage.

 

[newgabe]

I got a pdf copy of the English translation of the German yellow book online.

 

[SabsP]

http://www.gronze.com/camino-frances

http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es/

http://www.mundicamino.com/los-caminos/15/camino-frances/


On my first Camino , thr frances I used this one from smainsh Paco Nadal.
http://www.casadellibro.com/libro-e...-mapas-albergues-etapas/9788403507289/1181413