A Survival Guide to the Camino de Santiago in Galicia

Book excerpt: Revised and updated for 2018. The only Camino guidebook written by a person who works as a guide on the Camino and who gets to walk regularly to Santiago de Compostela. This guidebook covers the last 159 kilometres (roughly 100 miles) to Santiago on the French route. Or in other words, it covers the section of the Camino in Galicia, starting on the border with Castile and ending in Santiago de Compostela. The guidebook is organised in eight chapters that correspond to the commonly suggested daily stages to be covered on foot. There is also a final chapter for the city of Santiago de Compostela, a general introductory chapter and an annex on general Spanish culture. Each chapter describes a departure town and a town of arrival, the distance to be covered on each stage and information about the villages, hamlets and other points of interest you will walk by. Each chapter also has a series of miscellaneous information snippets that can be historical, religious, artistic, or anything else related to Spanish and Galician culture and/or customs. This is a guidebook that will help you understand and appreciate Spanish idiosyncrasy, usually the most intriguing, and at times frustrating, part of a trip for travellers. This is also a guidebook that provides insider insight and information about the Camino; information on where you are walking, why you are looking at things, what you are eating and how to make the most of your experience; all that stuff that is not readily available to travellers from abroad. In a nutshell, this is a guidebook written by a Spanish pilgrim for pilgrims from abroad.