We present a geometric construction of Bäcklund transformations and discretizations for a large class of algebraic completely integrable systems. To be more precise, we construct families of Bäcklund transformations, which are naturally parameterized by the points on the spectral curve(s) of the system. The key idea is that a point on the curve determines, through the Abel-Jacobi map, a vector on its Jacobian which determines a translation on the corresponding level set of the integrals (the generic level set of an algebraic completely integrable systems has a group structure). Globalizing this construction we find (possibly multi-valued, as is very common for Bäcklund transformations) maps which preserve the integrals of the system, they map solutions to solutions and they are symplectic maps (or, more generally, Poisson maps). We show that these have the spectrality property, a property of Bäcklund transformations that was recently introduced. Moreover, we recover Bäcklund transformations and discretizations which have up to now been constructed by ad hoc methods, and we find Bäcklund transformations and discretizations for other integrable systems. We also introduce another approach, using pairs of normalizations of eigenvectors of Lax operators and we explain how our two methods are related through the method of separation of variables.