Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Portugues

View other editions of Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Portugues.
View books by John Brierley.

Needs updating annually. - Rated
As a general guidebook this is fine except that as the Camino Portugues is a fast developing route much of the newer facilities are not included in this guide.I do not need the "mystical"stuff and pretty pictures as much as I need up to date information on accommodation etc.I bought this book because the excellent Confraternity of Saint James guide was out of print.This guide needs to be updated annually if it is to be of real benefit.The C of St.J guide is updated annually.

Excellent guide, colored maps, trail profiles, photos - Rated
This guide follows the format of Brierley's Camino Frances guide: very pleasing to look at: glossy paper, colored photos almost every page, multicolor maps and trail profiles, parts of text set off by shading. It has the information the walker needs, where the alburgues are, how many beds, alternate choices. There is an introductory section with introduction, overview, followed by planning and preparation information. The main body of the guide follows, organized in 11 stages where each stage corresponds to a typical day's travel. Each stage has a map and a trail profile.

The planning section is very useful - detailed equipment list, travel info, essential phrases in Spanish and Portuguese and a short history of the Camino
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This guide also makes a serious effort to address the spiritual or inner path side of the journey. In addition to the map and profile, each stage begins with three paragraphs - the Physical Path - a narrative overview of the day's walk, the Mystic Path - to awaken you to the spiritual potential of the day's walk, and Personal Reflections - a quotation from the author's reflections. In each stage there is a page with blank lines for the walker to write in their own reflections. The mystic path, and blank reflections page didn't work for me, but that is personal preference.

For me, the colored maps, elevation profiles and photos are the strong points of the book.

The Camino facilities change from year to year, and inevitably publications will have typos and errors of fact. Do future pilgrims a favor by emailing the publication's website if you find errors in the text.

Best travel guide I've seen - Rated
The "Camino Portugues" has managed to provide the most integrated and concise travel guide that I've ever come across (and I've used plenty). It manages to provide a complete picture of this lesser known pilgrimage route with an easy to follow step by step process complete with pictures and colorful maps. It loads up on all of this practical information and somehow doesn't become sterile. It's a great read as part of your pre-travel preperation. There are even places that I'm using for additional notes (reserved as "reflections" for those that want to use it as a summary journal).

There are no other updated English guides for this Camino, and as it turns out, with this book, you don't need any. It's the complete package.