disappointment John Brierley Maps camino Portuges

[Former member 22438]

The other day I ordered the booklet Camino Portuges Maps by John Brierley.
My attention was triggered by the frontpage as pictured at several websites .on the frontpage is pictured a blue dotted line as being the camino Portuges da Costa. although also mentioned the text camino central route and because of issue 2015 I decided to order the booklet on line.

If you want to walk the caminho da Costa from Porto to Vigo and Redondela via Esposende, Viana do Castelo ,Caminha, A Guarda ,Oia and Baiona ,this booklet is useless because it does not give any information about de caminho da Costa.
Today I sent it back to the webshop.

 

[Mark Francis Auchincloss]

Albertinho the best maps of all routes etc are on Luis Freixo's Blog which is free ! The dios of the Portuguese Way deserves a medal !!

 

[Former member 22438]

Albertinho the best maps of all routes etc are on Luis Freixo's Blog which is free ! The dios of the Portuguese Way deserves a medal !!

Gracias para contestar.
I just a minute ago I got the same link by a conversation.
I was triggered by the advertisement of the Brierley Maps booklet also because we had good experiences with the Brierley guide last year.so I ordered the booklet. .
So I am going to use the information of the link you mentioned

Felíz Navidad y prospéro año nuevo

Albertinho

 

[Peter Minett]

The other day I ordered the booklet Camino Portuges Maps by John Brierley.
My attention was triggered by the frontpage as pictured at several websites .on the frontpage is pictured a blue dotted line as being the camino Portuges da Costa. although also mentioned the text camino central route and because of issue 2015 I decided to order the booklet on line.

If you want to walk the caminho da Costa from Porto to Vigo and Redondela via Esposende, Viana do Castelo ,Caminha, A Guarda ,Oia and Baiona ,this booklet is useless because it does not give any information about de caminho da Costa.
Today I sent it back to the webshop.View attachment 15306

Thanks very much for this post. Saved me a load of grief.

 

[Former member 22438]

Thanks very much for this post. Saved me a load of grief.

Welcome on the forum

Are you intending to walk the coastal caminho ?
We just finished it yesterday
See my blog http://caminho-portuges-da-costa.reismee.nl/reisverhaal/291969/santiago-de-compostela/

We walked a combination of 3 caminhos.
From Porto airport to casa Fernanda the central route
From Viana do Castelo the coastal
From Pontevedra the Variante Espiritual (very special ! A must !)
And from Padrón the central route again to Santiago

Bom caminho

 

[Meldelcamino]

Thanks very much for this post. Saved me a load of grief.

I too didn't bother with Brierley's Guide realising it was of little use for the 'da Costa' route. I took a colour photocopy of relevant pages from the Michelin Road Atlas to cover Oporto to Santiago via Baiona and Vigo ( 15cms wide and sections taped together) on which I highlighted the
desired overnight stops. This I kept in a plastic cover in my left thigh pocket with my Credencial. Research on this Forum about starting from Matosinhos plus daily reference via my Tablet to o Luis Freixo's / Google Map's guidance allowed me to 'just follow the Yellow Waymarkers' to Santiago without too many sidetracks. It worked for me and it can for you. Buen Camino.

 

[ourgirl]

I am using my iPhone with the app maps.me --I downloaded the maps for Portugal and Spain. Although not marked with Camino Routes, I am finding maps.me to be a great resource in addition to looking for the yellow arrows. I am able to verify my location easily and I'm able to track my progress with little effort. I'm in route, currently, so I'm likely not able to respond immediately--hope this will be helpful to others walking the Coastal Portuguese Camino--it is lovely and I'm so happy with my choice of caminos!

 

[Former member 22438]

I am using my iPhone with the app maps.me --I downloaded the maps for Portugal and Spain. Although not marked with Camino Routes, I am finding maps.me to be a great resource in addition to looking for the yellow arrows. I am able to verify my location easily and I'm able to track my progress with little effort. I'm in route, currently, so I'm likely not able to respond immediately--hope this will be helpful to others walking the Coastal Portuguese Camino--it is lovely and I'm so happy with my choice of caminos!

There is no problem to find your way on the coastal.
It is all way marked , even in Vigo you have the choise to follow yellow waymarkers or green waymarkers. Yellow goes into the hills , green keeps low along the coastline. No problem at all. We just finished it last week.

 

[Joyus]

Albertinho the best maps of all routes etc are on Luis Freixo's Blog which is free ! The dios of the Portuguese Way deserves a medal !!

Do you perhaps know of any English versions?

 

[Mark Francis Auchincloss]

@Joyus use Luis's maps you will be fine !

 

[Justabob]

The other day I ordered the booklet Camino Portuges Maps by John Brierley.
My attention was triggered by the frontpage as pictured at several websites .on the frontpage is pictured a blue dotted line as being the camino Portuges da Costa. although also mentioned the text camino central route and because of issue 2015 I decided to order the booklet on line.

If you want to walk the caminho da Costa from Porto to Vigo and Redondela via Esposende, Viana do Castelo ,Caminha, A Guarda ,Oia and Baiona ,this booklet is useless because it does not give any information about de caminho da Costa.
Today I sent it back to the webshop.View attachment 15306

I've just ordered the Brierley Portuges guide and am wondering if the newest edition now includes information on the Coastal route. If not, I will be returning it as well. Thanks in advance.

 

[Former member 22438]

I've just ordered the Brierley Portuges guide and am wondering if the newest edition now includes information on the Coastal route. If not, I will be returning it as well. Thanks in advance.

No it does not contain any info about the Portugese coastal except for The trail Porto to Vila do Conde so better return it.
On this forum you will find all the information about the coastal and if you have particulairy questions feel free to ask me .

 

[Former member 22438]

Do you perhaps know of any English versions?

Sorry for late reply but to whom it concerns. No Freixos info is in Spanish but is usefull because it contains a lot of maps.

 

[cj2003]

I downloaded many of the maps from Luis Freixo and did some copy'pasting in a gps editor - and created my own maps as .gpx and .kml

The .kml files can be loaded into maps.me (I use Viewranger as my primary route finding tool and maps.me as backup, maps.me is outstanding for finding places to shop, eat and sleep - viewranger is in my opinion better at wayfinding)

Here is my route as .gpx - it is the coastal route from Lisbon via Porto to Santiago. From Lisbon to Porto it follows the 'normal' central route and then the coastal route from Porto). I wasn'l allowed to upload the .kml file, but there are online tools as http://gpx2kml.com/ to help converting

/Christian

 

[Justabob]

Christian......too complicated for this old man!

 

[caminobrit]

The maps are really only for the interior route expect day 1 which should be a must option for everyone out of porto. Just to let people know i think john brierly is in the process of a book for the coastal route. I have a friend who was doing the coastal from porto and got terribly stuck so she emailed john and he sent her a couple of pdfs of stages just like his interior book. This is what the coastal walk needs a good guide book, there is so much beautiful coastline and great alburgues, but she struggled clambering over rocks etc so there are times when u need to go in land and whilst there are some arrows there could be more information on the dangerous bits. She hardly saw a soul. the odd one or 2 pilgrims so i think a good guide book would boost the numbers on the coastal walk from porto. Lets hope its out for next year!!!

 

[Former member 22438]

The maps are really only for the interior route expect day 1 which should be a must option for everyone out of porto. Just to let people know i think john brierly is in the process of a book for the coastal route. I have a friend who was doing the coastal from porto and got terribly stuck so she emailed john and he sent her a couple of pdfs of stages just like his interior book. This is what the coastal walk needs a good guide book, there is so much beautiful coastline and great alburgues, but she struggled clambering over rocks etc so there are times when u need to go in land and whilst there are some arrows there could be more information on the dangerous bits. She hardly saw a soul. the odd one or 2 pilgrims so i think a good guide book would boost the numbers on the coastal walk from porto. Lets hope its out for next year!!!

There is a general misunderstanding and misleading . The route out of Porto is called the CENTRAL route. The INTERIOR route starts somewhere else , in the Coimbra area in central Portugal and leads at the east side of Portugal to the Via de Plata route.the interior never hits the central route from Porto.
Please keep the information clean . There are forum parts of the central route, the interior , the coastal and a separate for information for albergues ,hostals etc on the Portugese and others caminos like the Francès , Via de Plata etc.

Your friend did not follow the waymarkers very well, I think.
I walked the coastal this year and never got stuck. It was very well waymarked even the part from Baiona to Vigo where you have the choice to follow the yellow markers through the hills or the green ones ,following the waterside.

I agree a good guide in english should be a good option. Untill then we have to cope with Freixo's (excellent) information in Spanish.

Indeed you meet less pilgrims on the coastal and it can be pretty lonesome but this will change when there will be issued a proper guide.

 

[KariC]

Here's a question for someone who's walked the coastal route - I've got Brierley's 2015 version, and it shows the camino going inland to Rates at Vila do Conde, and restarting at Esposende, but no path TO Esposende - how do you get from Vila do Conde to Esposende? And assuming there is a way to do it, what's that path like?
Obrigada!

 

[Former member 22438]

Here's a question for someone who's walked the coastal route - I've got Brierley's 2015 version, and it shows the camino going inland to Rates at Vila do Conde, and restarting at Esposende, but no path TO Esposende - how do you get from Vila do Conde to Esposende? And assuming there is a way to do it, what's that path like?
Obrigada!

Well I can advise you to follow the yellow waymarkers from Porto,Vila do Conde, Póvoa de Varzim to Esposende. Keep the ocean at your left.

 

[Meldelcamino]

When I walked from Vila do Conde on 1st May, 2015 the weather was atrocious (as Albertino will recall) so I stuck to the road (Póvoa de Varzim - A ver o Mar - Aguaçadoura- Apulia-Fao-Esposende) cobbled road much of the way: very hard on the feet. It was a memorable day though for the wrong reason. On the outskirts of Apulia I bought some fruit from an elderly lady selling from a well protected market stall who, seeing that I was a rather sodden and weary-looking 'pilgrim' said "Oh how we must suffer for our faith". I was able to agree all too readily- but I would have settled for a little less of the suffering . Now I can recall that day (and the next two) with a smile on my face. Didn't spot any waymarks until Fao when I spotted a standard roadside Camino de Santiago sign and then the waymarks lead you through the village and over the bridge to Hotel Vista Rio where I enjoyed a recuperative lunch and dried out. Maybe I missed waymarks at A Ver-o-Mar but I reached my destination. Bom Caminho.

 

[Steven Dwyer]

Hopefully you have the information you need by now. If not, here are a couple of options.

Although it is in Portugese, WWW.Caminador.es has some maps. I used it for the Camino from Braga.
The second option is ViaMichelin.com select maps, when the map comes up, on the right hand side of the map is an Icon that looks like a unfolded map. Select it, the click on outdoors. It will show the camino route (and other trails)

 

[Rick2]

Brierley guide published Jan 2016 contains the coastal and Le Senda routes. It is a separate section at the back of the book starting on page 198. Lists all the usual information. It's a good guide. But as anyone who reads the postings, the person who tries to do a service for people must need a thick skin and Brierley must have thick skin because he keeps writing and updating the guides. I'm sure their are some that fault him for not painting a metre wide yellow line from start to finish.

I ordered the 2016 addition and will use it to walk the Coastal Route, beginning Sept 19 ex Porto. This will be our first Camino. So my larger concern now is how to select lodging options for each night, i.e. what, where and how to book. Any advice on anything Portuguese Coastal Way will be kindly appreciated. The more knowledge, the better.