LightFoot Guide to the Via Podiensis: Pilgrimage Route to Santiago de Compostela Le Puy-en-Velay to Ronceveaux

I walked Le Chemin in July 2017 and threw this book in the bin to save the weight! The maps are particularly bad, with major destinations like Le Savage not even marked. Buy the Miam Miam Dodo GR65 guide in part 1 on this website and part 2 easily on the trail: 95% of the walkers use this book. It has some English and you can just learn the only French you really need from the English translation list located at the back of the Miam Miam Dodo guide. This Lightfoot book is 60% full of superfluous step by step descriptions of the path, which you are never going to read while walking 25km a day: "Turn left after the first white house" sort of thing. This is totally unnecessary as the Via Podiensis is thoroughly waymarked with red and white stripes. At $50 including postage this book is a complete waste of money written by amateurs. For background info about your destinations you can always visit the tourist bureau located in every town for information, or google it, instead of buying this book, and they will also book your accom for you if you want. The only useful thing about this book is the GPS waypoint data available for free on the their website (google it). Just download a free app to open it with.

This book is a wealth of information. Far more than a guidebook--and a very good one it is--it presents the history of the road, that is, the sites along the road. I haven't walked it, but it seems that the geography is as fascinating as its past. Hiking the route without this book would mean missing half of what's there--the half you can't see.The information is thorough, detailed, comprehensive, and very useful, though its weird, inconsistent typography might drive some people crazy. But the aesthetics are along the route, not inside the book. Don't leave home without it.

Loved this guidebook for its in depth cultural and historical info, turn by turn directions and accommodation advice. Not sure how I could have planned and walked the via podiensis without it.

Great resource; I liked the descriptions of the alternative routes

Easy to navigate, clearly and beautifully written. I would never attempt this walk without this book in my back pocket!