How good did you find Rick Steves Portugal guide?

I really enjoy the Minho region, which Rick does not cover. There's also Madeira if you want to explore beyond the mainland.

For Portugal, I found the Julie Dawn Fox blog helpful for those smaller towns and other non covered regions. Her recommendations seem to align with what I like.

In general, there's a great deal of up to date information on the internet regarding the practical (trains, buses, etc.) and other areas of Portugal not covered in his guidebook.

I did check out the book from the library, but really didn't use it. For the most part, I find his guidebooks great, just for Portugal, for me, not really.

The library is your friend! Go to the library and check out the guidebook and make up your own mind if you feel that it is a worthwhile purchase for you. Goodwill/thrift stores also usually have a selection as well where I live.

We also like the Minho region; give it a look. We based in Guimares.We stayed in several Pousadas on our trip throughout Portugal and recommend them too.

I have put the book on hold at the library, there’s 5 people ahead of me so it could take a while. Unfortunately, looks like a physical copy only at my library, I often get quicker service on e-books, I’ve returned them myself at 3 am.

As a rule, I would not consider a guidebook unless it covered a country thoroughly, and in good detail. In this regard, Lonely Planet guides have always fit my needs best (including the LP Portugal guidebook). I'm not acquainted with the Rick Steves Portugal book, but we read above that it doesn't cover the Minho, which if so would make it of little use to me; and if that means it doesn't cover beautiful, historic Guimarães, then I'm doubly glad that that was not the book I had chosen. I do recall that for my 2014 Spain trip, I consulted a Rick Steves Spain book for information on Zafra and Zamora, the two towns I was considering, and could not find either in the index -- I promptly returned the book to its shelf. (Perhaps Mr. Steves has included them since then.)
To credit the manager of this forum where it's due, I'm sure his guidebooks are great for the more typical tourists whose goal is to hit the famous must-sees -- a perfectly legitimate goal, I know -- but certain other guidebooks, like the LP series, do just as well in that area, while remaining useful for us less conventional, more independent sorts.

I found the Portugal guide very good. Helped with lots of planning, but I also usually have another guide as well/

An example would be that we are going to Spain in September, I do still have a Spain 2018 RS guide (Kindle), but I also bought the recent Rough Guide Spain. Not only does the RG book help with Zaragoza and Valencia (Not in the RS guide), but even places that are duplicated offer a different perspective.

Hotels and Restaurants? Probably the best information I get from a guide is the neighborhood or area that has a good selection of places, good areas to stay, then I vet places myself, pick up others off of blogs, and just wander the area once there. I like what many might consider "sub-par" places, more local, it is a bit reassuring if they appear in a guide or a blog.

I also do not fret over purchasing a book (mostly Kindle versions) $20, more or less, is nothing for a trip I think the Rough Guides Spain was $12, not sure if I will buy the latest RS book, seeing it is a year and a half old.

I think he has a lot of good information in his book. For example we followed his 3 walks in Lisbon, as well as his Evora walk and they were excellent. We didn't use it much for hotels or restaurants, but we used his itineraries etc. Places that are worth prioritizing etc.

He is very fond of a couple of towns ( Salema in the Algarve, and Nazare) that are not always recommended on this forum. . And he skips some places that I might like. But as a guide to get a feel for things I think it was helpful.

You can also check out ( for free) all his shows on Portugal which will give you a bit of a feel for his approach to Portugal. On Youtube, or through his website.

I can’t recall the last time I bought a guidebook, as they are all out dated by the time they are published, particularly in regard to prices and Covid closures/changes.

There is so much information freely available online these days, so that is now my information source. It’s more current than any guidebook could ever be.

LP books in the past have been what I have used as they suit my travel style.

Hi Dale. I used the RS guide and Lonely Planet. LP was useful in the places RS covers but it was invaluable for the places RS ignores. You can look at the contents of most guide books on Amazon's "see inside" feature. You can also download free samples of most ebooks.

RS includes little more than the places his tours visit. For those places it's good. I especially liked the walking tour of Coimbra.

I spent 3+ weeks in Portugal, about half in places not in RS, and which I highly recommend. I spent about a week by car visiting towns and villages in the east, from Evora to the Douro Valley. I didn't go to the Algarve.

I had both guides with me on ebooks and often looked to LP for restaurant recs along the way. I don't think I used either guide for hotels (I rarely do). Of course it's hard to know who survived. My trip was in 2019.

I find RS guides invaluable as a jumping off point the first time I visit a country. I agree with the other poster that $22 is a small price to pay for curated information from a reliable source. I love the clear maps, list of sights to see in order of significance/preference, self-guided walking tours, and general travel information (trains, buses, business hours, travel times, local cuisine, etc.) and find it incredibly useful to have them all in one place. As others have stated, there are many resources on the internet, but I don't always trust those opinions as they are often paid endorsements. There are so many different kinds of people with different backgrounds and travel expectations posting on travel sights, and I find Rick's approach to travel to be pretty similar to mine. I am grateful that he doesn't write about every treasured location because that exposure might ruin the personality of a special place.

That said, I always supplement RS guidebooks with other sources such as Lonely Planet, Insight Guides, and travel blogs. I like to get off the beaten path, but I like to use his book as a roadmap to get me started (especially helpful for big cities). I like to hike so always find places to do that via other sources, and I always add areas to my itinerary that are not covered in RS guides. I also don't usually use his dining recommendations but find his guidance on areas to stay in a big city to be right on (I then use Google maps to locate accommodations in those areas).

I have used RS for trips to Italy, Spain, and France in the past few years and am currently using his Portugal book to plan a trip for this September. To me it is definitely a great investment!

I got the full Portugal guide in preparation for a Douro cruise that includes days in Lisbon, Porto and a stop in Coimbra. For me I would have been better off with the the Snapshot Lisbon. This may be the one time I rip out pages from his guidebook to save weight.

We just returned from two weeks in Portugal and Spain and used RS guides in both countries. Found them to be extremely helpful. We only visited Lisbon/Sintra while in Portugal so can't speak for the entire country.

I firmly believe in using guidebooks to plan a trip, rather than relying solely on the internet and videos. Guidebooks give you so much information in one compact place. The cost of a good guidebook is inconsequential when compared to the cost of the trip.

I used Fodors and Rick Steves when we planned out trip to Portugal. We only visited Lisbon and Sintra because of time constraints and commitments at home. However, the other guidebooks I have found invaluable when planning other trips are Lonely Planet, Michelin Green Guide, and Rough Guides. One thing I don't like about Rick's guidebooks is that he omits some really interesting places. For example, in his book on Andalucia, he treats Malaga as merely a transportation hub, and Malaga is so much more than that. In his book on Croatia, he omits Zadar. We didn't visit Zadar but I know people who have and they love it.

I have found this a good source for RS books at a discount.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/browse/?b.search=Rick%20Steves%20Portugal#b.s=mostPopular-desc&b.p=1&b.pp=30&b.oos&b.tile

The location of sites does not move; you may need to do a bit of research to get current prices/hours, but contact info is usually provided.

I wish he would offer a book without all the hotel/restaurant recommendations (although I am sure they pay to be mentioned) so that it would be easier to carry with you. I have never used any hotel/restaurant recommendations.

I find the transportation tips helpful as I like to take public transportation.

I have found that he leaves a lot of 'little gems' out and focuses on the big normal tour places so you have to do some of your own research depending on what or how you like to travel.

I gotta admit, restaurant recommendations in guidebooks have never really been useful even before the smartphone era. I much prefer general information like this area is good for Chinese food, this area has a lot of Bohemian coffeehouses, this area is a business district with most of the restaurants chains or aimed at the expense account customer.

I found RS guide to Portugal most useful for its walking tours in Lisbon and Porto, logistics for the most popular sites such as visiting Sintra and the Jeronimos Monastary in Belem. It was particularly useful for the interior of the Templar convento in Tomar because they were out of written material in English when I was there.

I found it least useful for planning travel without a car between cities, good but budget conscious accomodations and restaurants, and off the beaten track sites -- maybe because once something is in the RS book, it is no longer hidden. Also, RS book does not try or claim to cover the majority of the country.

I just returned from Portugal and, as usual, found Rick Steves’ guide’s information on Lisbon and Porto invaluable (as has been true of his guides to other places I’ve visited in Europe). His specific, detailed instructions were helpful. His lists of important attractions (and ratings thereof) were accurate. The walking tours highlighted the cities’ most important sights. I, too, believe that the benefits of his guides far outweigh their reasonable cost. On my most recent trip, my first to Portugal, I carried the book with me each day and referred to its information and maps regularly.. The book was published in 2021 and there were some discrepancies I found, but all were related to ticket prices.