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Product Description
Product Description
A land of craggy cliff-top castles and enchanting cities blending medieval and modern, Portugal also means soulful fado, fantastic seafood and glittering beaches ripe for exploring. Regis St. Louis, Lonely Planet Writer
Our Promise
You can trust our travel information because Lonely Planet authors visit the places we write about, each and every edition. We never accept freebies for positive coverage, and you can rely on us to tell it like we see it.
Inside This Book
4 dedicated authors
21 weeks of research
489 restaurants visited
One too many glasses of port
Inspirational photos
Clear, easy-to-use maps
At-a-glance practical info
full-color food & wine chapter
Comprehensive planning tools
Easy-to-read layout
Our Promise
You can trust our travel information because Lonely Planet authors visit the places we write about, each and every edition. We never accept freebies for positive coverage, and you can rely on us to tell it like we see it.
Inside This Book
4 dedicated authors
21 weeks of research
489 restaurants visited
One too many glasses of port
Inspirational photos
Clear, easy-to-use maps
At-a-glance practical info
full-color food & wine chapter
Comprehensive planning tools
Easy-to-read layout
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Compared to all the other Lonely Planet guides I have used in the past, the Portugal edition is basically useless! I regularly use LP guides as I find that their recommendations are usually fantastic for things like hotels and restaurants (as a foody this is particularly important), as well as getting inside tips on unseen sites off the tourist trail.
Firstly, this edition was published in April 2009, and I traveled in August 2009 and at least 1/3 of the restaurants they recommend are no longer there! So... either Portugal has a big turn over of restaurants, or more likely they haven't been checked for this edition. For example, in Porto we looked for a restaurant recommended on the water front. After eventually finding it we discovered that all that was left was a shell which could not possibly have housed a functioning restaurant for at least a year, possibly longer! In Lisbon, a recommended pizza restaurant is now a bar - and has been for 2 years because we asked the barman! When we did find a recommendation that still existed, we wondered why it had been recommended because they were not very good. We often found better restaurants/hotels just looking further up the street, and regularly did this because we quickly lost faith in the book!
As another example, they recommend a "lush oasis" of a tropical botanic garden in Belem. Well, maybe it was a lush oasis when the first edition was written back in the early ninties, but it is now a rundown, empty dive of a place with no one but crickets!
On a positive note, they get most of the prices right for things like train times and museum entry. And their history section is useful for something to read while on a train.
But, there are no colour maps at the back (I thought this was a LP standard?) and no maps of the public transport systems of Lisbon or Porto. The black and white maps of Lisbon that are present overlap and don't fit particularly well with the individual areas that you might visit in one go. And, their recommendations for beaches and walks are often in places that are extremely difficult to get to by public transport.
Overall, I would recommend a different travel guide if you are going to Portugal, even if you are normally a loyal LP devotee like me!
Firstly, this edition was published in April 2009, and I traveled in August 2009 and at least 1/3 of the restaurants they recommend are no longer there! So... either Portugal has a big turn over of restaurants, or more likely they haven't been checked for this edition. For example, in Porto we looked for a restaurant recommended on the water front. After eventually finding it we discovered that all that was left was a shell which could not possibly have housed a functioning restaurant for at least a year, possibly longer! In Lisbon, a recommended pizza restaurant is now a bar - and has been for 2 years because we asked the barman! When we did find a recommendation that still existed, we wondered why it had been recommended because they were not very good. We often found better restaurants/hotels just looking further up the street, and regularly did this because we quickly lost faith in the book!
As another example, they recommend a "lush oasis" of a tropical botanic garden in Belem. Well, maybe it was a lush oasis when the first edition was written back in the early ninties, but it is now a rundown, empty dive of a place with no one but crickets!
On a positive note, they get most of the prices right for things like train times and museum entry. And their history section is useful for something to read while on a train.
But, there are no colour maps at the back (I thought this was a LP standard?) and no maps of the public transport systems of Lisbon or Porto. The black and white maps of Lisbon that are present overlap and don't fit particularly well with the individual areas that you might visit in one go. And, their recommendations for beaches and walks are often in places that are extremely difficult to get to by public transport.
Overall, I would recommend a different travel guide if you are going to Portugal, even if you are normally a loyal LP devotee like me!
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After having tried a few other guidebook series, I am back to Lonely Planet, as these are simply standard-setting in terms of travellers' reference.
But this is the exception that confirms the rule (along with Lonely Planet Iceland & Faroes). Though published last year, so much of the basic information is not up-to-date - and several recommendations seem like an absolute mystery as they in no way live up to Lonely Planet's usual criteria.
Just too many times I found myself planning according to the book's information and recommendations, and ended up finding nothing or not finding the expected. The examples are too many to be ust coincidence and 'because things change'. I will therefore get rid of this one, and try Footprint or The Rough Guide next time I go to Portugal.
Yet, my critical rating of this guidebook should also be seen in the light of my high expectations, as Lonely Planet - mostly - does set the standard. Try again - new edition.
But this is the exception that confirms the rule (along with Lonely Planet Iceland & Faroes). Though published last year, so much of the basic information is not up-to-date - and several recommendations seem like an absolute mystery as they in no way live up to Lonely Planet's usual criteria.
Just too many times I found myself planning according to the book's information and recommendations, and ended up finding nothing or not finding the expected. The examples are too many to be ust coincidence and 'because things change'. I will therefore get rid of this one, and try Footprint or The Rough Guide next time I go to Portugal.
Yet, my critical rating of this guidebook should also be seen in the light of my high expectations, as Lonely Planet - mostly - does set the standard. Try again - new edition.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've been using Lonely Planet guides almost since they appeared and used to find them good despite their increasingly politically correct lectures on issues like gay rights, racism, corruption etc.
I've just returned from a visit to Portugal during which I visited Lisbon, the Setubal Peninsula, Algarve and Evora and would like to make a few points about this latest guide which would make me reluctant to recommend it.
First of all, the road maps are not up-to-date and the city maps are not user friendly. This edition was published in March 2009 i.e. less than 18 months before I travelled yet only a tiny part of the A2 highway appears and the A22 highway does not appear at all, even though they are the main links between Lisbon and Algarve and within the Algarve, either on the main map of the country or regional maps. This may be because the roads have been upgraded since then. However, a Portuguese version of "The AA Keyguide: Portugal" with maps from 2007 does feature them. This caused me some navigational problems and I switched to the AA guide.
I feel Lonely Planet is shortchanging readers by presenting out-of-date maps like this.
The city maps are OK if you are planning ahead in your hotel but not when you are walking around you. Many streets are not named and you have to keep flipping through pages to check the reference numbers of sights. Even then, the references are not in numerical order but by interest i.e. hotels, restaurants etc so that the numbers are all over the place.
A final criticism is the condescending tone of many of the comments which treat the reader like a halfwit. History is dumbed down (presumably because the writers feel we readers are too stupid to understand it) so that the English Crusaders who fought the Moors are "hooligans", the great navigator Vasco da Gama is a "superstar", people who like visiting museums and art galleries are "culture fiends", food is a "belly filler", people who want to access their e-mail are "netheads". We even learn that Evora "got is groove back" at one point and that "seaports became sexy" at another time.
Such sloppy writing is an insult to the reader's intelligence.
I've just returned from a visit to Portugal during which I visited Lisbon, the Setubal Peninsula, Algarve and Evora and would like to make a few points about this latest guide which would make me reluctant to recommend it.
First of all, the road maps are not up-to-date and the city maps are not user friendly. This edition was published in March 2009 i.e. less than 18 months before I travelled yet only a tiny part of the A2 highway appears and the A22 highway does not appear at all, even though they are the main links between Lisbon and Algarve and within the Algarve, either on the main map of the country or regional maps. This may be because the roads have been upgraded since then. However, a Portuguese version of "The AA Keyguide: Portugal" with maps from 2007 does feature them. This caused me some navigational problems and I switched to the AA guide.
I feel Lonely Planet is shortchanging readers by presenting out-of-date maps like this.
The city maps are OK if you are planning ahead in your hotel but not when you are walking around you. Many streets are not named and you have to keep flipping through pages to check the reference numbers of sights. Even then, the references are not in numerical order but by interest i.e. hotels, restaurants etc so that the numbers are all over the place.
A final criticism is the condescending tone of many of the comments which treat the reader like a halfwit. History is dumbed down (presumably because the writers feel we readers are too stupid to understand it) so that the English Crusaders who fought the Moors are "hooligans", the great navigator Vasco da Gama is a "superstar", people who like visiting museums and art galleries are "culture fiends", food is a "belly filler", people who want to access their e-mail are "netheads". We even learn that Evora "got is groove back" at one point and that "seaports became sexy" at another time.
Such sloppy writing is an insult to the reader's intelligence.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Potugal Counrty Guide
This is a good and very useful book if you intend to visit the country and travel around planned areas.
Published 3 months ago by JOHN
travel book
The lonely planet Country guides are easy to read and follow. They have places to visit, stay or eat and drink in them. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. C. Ball
Excellent Portrayal of Portugal
As with all the Lonely Planet books this is yet another to be thoroughly comprehensive about the subject.The coverage of places to visit,prices etc is really helpful. Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2009 by Mrs. Marion J. Webb
Great travel companion
I bought this Lonely Planet guide as I was moving to Portugal for a year. I have used previous guides by Lonely Planet but this was has been my favourite: the authors are... Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2008 by zeemzee
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