Product Description

The author provides an overall route planner, eleven stage maps and contour guides, ten town plans, and more than a hundred full-color photographs. Here is practical advice and a list of accommodation for each day’s stage, together with historical notes on the significance of the Portuguese way in the development of pilgrimage in Europe.

This particular pilgrimage is part of the network of ancient pilgrim pathways known and loved collectively as the "Caminos de Santiago." This is the first-ever guide to this route, which is becoming increasingly popular.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #972825 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

About the Author
John Brierley, born in Aries on April 2, 1948, was educated and qualified as a chartered surveyor in Dublin, where he began his own practice in 1971. An existential crisis in 1987 took him to Findhorn in Scotland. This proved to be a turning point in his life toward a spiritual perspective. In 1996, he convened the international conference "Business for Life," in which the central issue was identified as a crisis of the human spirit. His abiding passion became the idea of business sabbaticals as an antidote to burnout and the notion of pilgrimage as a way to reappraise life’s purpose. He is the author of A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino Portugués; A Pilgrim’s Guide to Camino Fisterrra; and A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino Francès.

Customer Reviews

Excellent guide, colored maps, trail profiles, photos, accomodation guide
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 guide I've seen
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.

Superb -- this is all you need!
I used this book and the similar Fisterra book for my pilgrimage in April 2006. They are both superb. I followed Brierley's suggestions pretty much to the letter. The book contains excruciating details as well as a longer and spiritual view.

I think of the book as a personal gift to each of us pilgrims. Brierley obviously loves his work and the Camino. He kept me on track, put me to bed early and awake early when it was important, encouraged me to appreciate the wonderful people and sights along the camino. He offers history lessons, lists of practicalities, maps and directions. This book is all you need!