Lonely Planet Portugal (Travel Guide)

This book met the need, including lots of helpful info that allowed us to make informed choices on where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do there. We had a great trip! I purchased 2 travel guides for Portugal and much preferred this one. I was surprised because I've used the other company many times before. But this time, they just didn't do a great job. I'm glad that LP did!

The new style of the LP guides is useless. I have used them for more than 30 years for so many travels. In this new style of LP guides, you will not find the necessary information that you, as traveller, need. No practical information on transport, accommodation, opening hours etc. You constantly have to google these pieces of information. What's the point in having a guide then? On top of, the very useful chapters like history, politics are missing.Overall a big diasppointment.No information about hist

I have relied on the Lonely Planet guides since 2000. Since then I have used them as a solo traveler in visiting 43 countries. Before I leave, I used the guide to plan out my itinerary. I useThe Country maps in the guides to learn about some of the highlights I may want to visit.The Regional maps to see more highlights, gauge distances, see the route numbers, and take photos of it to use in my travel videos to show my routes.The “Getting Around” section to figure out how to go to and from the airport by various modes of transportation which includes directions on where to catch the transportation, the times of operations and travel time, and costs.The “Getting There & Away” section to figure out what modes of transportation and various companies are available to go to other cities and countries. It includes the prices, duration of trips, departure times.The City maps to locate where the transportation modes are in relation to the city center, popular sleeping, sightseeing, eating, drinking entertainment and sleeping spots are.When I travel, I cut up and staple the sections of the guidebook into each region and city I visit so I only need to carry with me that portion I am visiting during the day. The other cut up portions remain in my travel bag and room until needed. Sometimes I leave that portion behind when I am done visiting that location.I just received two of your new guides, Spain and Portugal. I was so disoriented with your new format.The Country maps do not differentiate big roads from smaller roads and they are a boring grey rather that the vibrant green color I was used to and enjoyed. Plus it was a great insert to my travel videos—grey is not.The Regional maps lack the route numbers, some of the highlight boxes block the map instead of using the familiar red circled numbers on the maps. They also lack other icons like umbrellas for beaches, boats for ferries, trees for parks, airplanes for airports, larger lines for major highways.The “Getting Around” section is missing and instead a “Find Your Way” section is substituted which totally lacks the valuable details I had relied on in planning my trip and traveling about when in the country.The “Getting There & Away section is missing from the City Sections and instead is at the back of the book in the Toolbox section and only mentions in general the transportation modes and has no information on what is available in each city you have written up—no location for getting transportation, cost, duration, nor departure times.The City maps now have darker circle areas instead of the big city map with boxes of the more detailed maps which was very useful in better visualizing the city and neighborhoods. It also seems like the maps lack the locations of the various modes of transportation—airports, bus and train terminals, pick up and drop-off spots for buses and minibuses.As a result of your changes, I will now have to use the internet to get the specific information that your new format guidebooks no longer provide. Was that your plan? Or was this new iteration of your guidebooks a result of committee members who have not traveled much or have heavy reliance on Google Maps and their internet browsers instead of guidebooks.Maybe your next iteration would be to just refer people to the internet for sight seeing and highlights of places to visit, for sleeping arrangements, and for travel arrangements.

I usually love these books but the new book layout is missing all of my favorite parts. There is no easy way to see the top things to do/see in a region anymore. Nothing is stared to let me know what the most highly recommended things are if I'm limited on time. There's only one page in the whole book for hotels and it's just general advice. There's no card I can pull out of the back of the book with a few transit/language tips and space for me to write in my hotel. Some of the new graphic choices are good but in general, I'd way prefer if Lonely Planet returned to the old format and added back in the helpful parts.

I have over 20 lonely planet books from years of travelling. Out of habit, I get a book for everywhere I travel bc the info has always proved itself to be worth it.This book however, is a huge disappointment. They changed the layout for this book and it is awful. Not easy to follow and they have gotten rid of helpful sections all together.Do not waste your money. You will be disappointed.

Good book. Well researched and relevant info

Just as background info - I have never written an Amazon review in my life, until now. I have about 50 Lonely Planet guides (yes, 50) from all of my travels, and this is by far the worst one. This new format is bad - like, really bad.I'm not sure who gave this format the green light, but it seems that he/she/they have sacrificed helpful information for visual appeal. Can someone explain to me why there are only five pages dedicated to Porto (pp 310-315)? Each of those pages is covered in photos, so really it's only about 2.5 pages full of info for Portugal's second largest city and one of the most visited cities in all of Europe.Background information for individual sites (i.e. plazas, museums, buildings, etc) have mostly been chopped, aside from some in Lisbon. I thought Lonely Planet was supposed to be a solid guide for solo travelers? It's almost as if they're assuming you'll Google these sites or hire a tour guide to tell you the background info instead.Transportation information is irritating and more dumbed-down, but in a way that isn't helpful. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. I really hope they go back to the old format or I'm going to a different company for guidebooks next time.I gave two stars instead of one because the pictures are at least pretty nice and the authors seemingly have at least been to Portugal to some extent. *golf clap*

Não quis acreditar nas revisões do produto, pois os guias Lonely Planet sempre foram meus companheiros de viagem. Porém neste caso eles resolveram transformar o guia em um álbum de fotos, sacrificando informações como "how to get there" e preços/horários das atrações. Cidades importantes como Porto tem apenas 4-5 páginas, cheias de fotos e pouca informação. Estou devolvendo o guia e não o aconselho a quem está acostumado com o formato tradicional dos guias Lonely Planet.

Exactement ce à quoi je m’attendais, jamais déçue avec Lonely Planet.

After 30 + years as a faithful Lonely Planet traveller to 40 + countries, I quit. Recently purchased new format last issues of Iceland and Portugal: lots of beautiful colour photos and useful information at a bare minimum. The portuguese one doesn't even include Batalha!!! More an inflight magazine that good old Lonely Planet quality. From now on Rough Guides will be my travel companions.

I have been using Lonely Planet guides since 2000 on six continents. They were always packed with information and very detailed. Recently I made one purchase of three new guides (Malta, Portugal, and Denmark) on Amazon and discovered that Lonely Planet has a new format. The guides are much more beautiful (lots of pictures) but have much less information, similar to a magazine article. I happen to have an old version of the Portugal Lonely Planet: old version 539 pages, very few pictures, new version 423 pages, a lot of pictures and waisted space. They no longer include their short but concise history section, detailed maps and there are a lot fewer accommodation suggestions. The organization is very confusing with a lot of repetition and even the witty writing has vanished. So disappointing!

Ce guide est très pratique pour préparer vos vacances. Très complet, il donne de bonnes idées de balades et visites