Customer Reviews

Portugal (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Portugal by Eyewitness Travel Guides is a great travel guide, and it was a wonderful and invaluable tool during my last trip to Portugal. It is not a typical travel book in that it does not provide extensive reviews of hotels and restaurants, although it does highlight a few of each. Rather, it provides extensive information on the people, history and sights of Portugal. In addition, the information is splendidly presented with vivid photographs and succinct coverage of all the major cities and sights, and even some remote locations. After paging through this book one almost feels intimately knowledgeable with Portugal's history and culture.

If you are interested in finding a great place to stay or eat I would recommend looking elsewhere. However, if you are interested in learning about Portugal's culture, sights and history I would strongly recommend Portugal by Eyewitness Travel Guides.

I just returned from a last minute business trip to Portugal, and bought this guide because it was the only English guide in that I could find in the Lisbon airport. It cost me an outrageous sum, 33 Euros, (the Amazon price is much cheaper!) but was worth every penny.

There is a large section on Lisbon, as well as several sections on different regions in Portugal, Maderia and the Azores. The pictures are excellent, the descriptions provide much historical context, and 'must-see' places have their own special spread, giving great tips as to how to spend your time. Directions to most sights are excellent (for instance, telling you exactly what tram to take to Belem and where best to catch it) and the guide provides many local tips on customs unfamiliar to Americans (for instance, that you will be charged for the bread and cheese that arrives at your restaurant table unasked for - in the U.S. any food that arrives without being ordered is generally assumed to be free). There's also a great little section introducing regional Portuguese cuisine.

I only had two disappointments - I would have liked more information on less expensive places to get good local cuisine in Lisbon - most of the restaurant recommendations were for fairly expensive resaurants - as well as some tips on interesting places to go out for drinks in Alto (a hip Lisbon neighborhood). Also - it helps to read the book very carefully - a quick skim can result in missing important information about the region (for instance, I neglected to find the information about the train to Sintra because it was located at the begining of the section on the general area, not in the Sintra section itself).

Portugal is a wonderful country and I am keeping this guide handy for planning my return trip - as a previous reviewer has noted, a week is not enough time to see as much as Portugal has to offer.

I just returned from spending a week in Portugal, and recommend this book whole-heartedly. I noticed many other tourists carrying this book (written in different languages!). The graphics are a must if you want to decide which of the many, many sites you want to see within a limited amount of time. Recommendations on walking tours are very helpful, and the descriptions of the history behind each site add significantly to what you get out of each visit. If I were to ask for any improvements on this book, I would ask for two things: 1) include a short language CD of the basic phrases listed in the back of the book to aid understanding of the language (reading Portuguese on paper does NOT work, since it sounds so unbelievably different than it looks), and 2) include more detail regarding maps for the longer-distance routes (ie., for when someone wants to rent a car). The intra-city maps are right-on, but the long-distance routes need alot more detail. Portugal itself is a beautiful country (see my pics if you like: www.imageevent.com/tvmule/portugal), and I hope to return one day to see the rest of the country (one week is much too short!). PS - if you rent a car, be prepared to deal with ALOT of impatient drivers, as the locals like to drive fast and are always in a hurry :)

I have just returned from a 10 day trip to Portugal during which this travel guide was a valuable companion. The layout of the book is easy to use and it is chocked full of extra information on wine regions, the making of port, cork and regional food. While I did not use the guide to select hotels, it was great for information at the various stops. Highly recommended!

Back from a week in Portugal (several regions and Lisbon) with this guide in hand; I hesitate to recommend it as a full-bodies travel guide.

True to the Eyewitness standards, the pictures are wonderful, and true to reality. The two-page views of the monasteries in Alcobaca and Batalha, for example, are wonderful. The neighborhood-by-neighborhood reviews of Lisbon's main areas are also very well done. The street maps of Lisbon are excellent (as a matter of fact, don't waste money buying the Eyewitness Lisbon guide Lisbon (Eyewitness Travel Guides) - this guide contains 90% of what's there)).

Why the 3 stars then? Because this is not a comprehensive guide (particularly if you are going outside Lisbon) - it is very sparse and basic with respect to hotel or restaurant recommendations, as well as with directions on how to get to specific places. In that sense, I can only recommend it as a companion piece to a "real" travel guide (I strongly recommend Portugal (Country Guide)).

If you are only (or primarily) traveling to Lisbon then perhaps you can take the Eyewitness Lisbon guide, but you'll be (mostly) on your own in terms of selecting restaurants or hotels.

This is a good travel guide for people to make travel by bus, train. and etc. However, the travel gude does not describe detail enough. For example, the picture of "Cabo Da Roca" presents at page 152, but the book hasn't provide further information for how to get there.

I have to say, eyewitness travel books are definately the best travel books there are. They provide many pictures, and explain the history of places in portugal. This book gives a brief overview of everything, you do not have to read big lengthy travel books to find out about a place. The pictures are very helpful, and they allow get a glimpse of what you are going to see, if you deciede to go there. Although, if you want a very extensive travel book, I would suggest something other than this book, lonely planet has some good travel books. Overall, really good, and the sites in Portugal are absolutely beautiful!

This travel book was great when traveling throughout Portugal. Had lots of information on what to do and see. The pictures are great.

With too many pictures and graphics, and too little text, this guide wasn't much of a help when I visited the Algarve. For the Porto region it was better, although some more text would have been nice.

With history, culture, regions outlined in this book, this is the way I want to see a new country