Update on Experience with Portugal Guidebooks

Thank you for your reviews.

@Barkinpark, I'll post more updates once I get a copy of the Rough Guide to Portugal. I may even then re-evaluate whether I'd want to get DK Eyewitness to Portugal or their more specific ones to Lisbon and Porto.

Honestly, I'm a little surprised that some of the makes of these guidebooks don't copy useful features from each other to make their books more robust. For instance, the Moon Guide to Lisbon and Beyond may be good for someone already somewhat familiar with Lisbon and doesn't need a good orientation and walking maps. But it really isn't good for someone fresh to Lisbon who is trying to plan and imagine how they can guide themselves through the various parts of the city. Rick Steves' book is good for that and Michelin has some of that too. Moon Guide to Lisbon is already so specific and is a good sized book so why would it lack all that information?

Very helpful post. My go to guides have always been DK Eyewitness Guides and have used them for countries all over the world. Surprised you didn’t like them in the past.

I can't speak for the Portugal books but DK Eyewitness is my guide for inspiration and Rick Steves for practical information. The RS guide is the only one that makes it on the trip.

Funny, during my trip in Portugal I only saw RS guides in the hands of the tourists. I recognize a RS fan from far away due to the yellow-blue cover of the book.

@Suki and @Allan, very interesting use of DK Eyewitness! I used to not like them because they were visually so heavy but I can now definitely see how they are useful for both inspiration and having some idea of what one might do at the various places.

@stash2015, funny story about RS guides! :) I am often not a fan of guided tours but it could be because of the kinds of guided tours I have been on. They are often very surface level, involves a lot of bus rides, a quick stop at some site followed by lots of shopping and shopping. I hate those kinds of tours and luckily those have always been tours I was invited to and paid for by other people, not myself. I wouldn't pay for those kinds of tours. In reading up more about the RS tours offer, it seems to be more the kind of tour we would personally do which involves a lot of walking, poking here and there, and explore. We don't care for shopping.

The kind of traveller we are generally are that we want to really explore and absorb a place, not just be catered as just tourists with money to spend/shop. Though we are tourists, nevertheless we want to have some local feel and experience.

Supposedly my Rough Guide to Portugal is arriving today, so I'm hoping to both receive it and to actually like it. Fingers crossed!

Update on a few more guidebooks:

So I've spent some more time with some guidebooks I already have and also spent time with new ones. Here are some further updates:

Michelin Green Guide to Portugal (2020):
I still think it's a pretty good book, but beware that the portions on Porto specifically are a little slim. The Lisbon section is fairly strong. I would love to see Michelin Green Guides specific to Lisbon and to Porto, but I doubt that would happen.

DK Eyewitness to Lisbon (2023) vs. DK Eyewtiness to Portugal (2021):
Now, I'm obviously only comparing between the two with regards to the Lisbon section. I sat at Barnes and Noble to compare whether I should get the Lisbon specific or Portugal general guidebooks. I was quite impressed and inspired by some of the visuals and details. It looks to me that the Lisbon specific guide has more details including a few more additional suggested walking tours that are just left out from the Portugal specific book. I think perhaps this could be said about the DK Eyewtiness books (at least the ones for Portugal and Portugese specific cities) is that what they do talk about they provide some depth, but overall they seem to cover less areas/sites/sights.

Rough Guide to Portugal (2023):
Overall, I think this is a pretty good book with good details provided for Lisbon, Sintra, and Porto. In a way, its depth, details and density reminds me a bit of the Lonely Planet Portugal (2019) edition which I do appreciate.

So far, I think I have armed myself with a good set of books which I think I'll bring with me during our Portugal visit: Rough Guide to Portugal (2023), Michelin Green Guide to Portugal (2020), DK Eyewitness to Lisbon (2021).

We don't have a guidebook that is just specific to Porto though I'd like to get one but it isn't too crucial since we won't be in Porto for long. I did take a look at the DK Eyewitness Top 10 Porto. I don't think it's the right kind of book for me. As the title suggests, it's a list of various top 10's and, to me, a bit harder to visualize how to think of my day to day in Porto. We aren't quite the kind that likes to have a list of sites/sights to hit and checkoff. We are more of the kind that yes we will go to the major sites (or at least some of them) but we also very much appreciate just meandering around and exploring in order to get both a geographic feel and schematic feel for the city, even if it is ever so superficial. If DK did a version of their Eyewitness to Porto like they have for Lisbon, I probably would buy it.

I do see that there are the following on Porto which I am now getting curious about:
Pocket Rough Guide to Porto (2018; 2024 edition coming out in January but too late for me);
Mini Rough Guide to Porto (2022)

Just a thought, if you get the Rough Guide to Portugal, that will probably have the info. that would be in the Pocket Rough Guide to Porto.

@carrie, thanks for the thoughts. I was wondering about that!

It's sometimes a little maddening when publishers come out with multiple editions when they may just be repeated information. I really appreciate RS for pointing out that their Lisbon guide is just the excerpt from their Portugal guide.

Anyhow, I feel like I'm getting just a little obsessive with guidebooks. Hahaha :) But, it is also kinda fun. I almost wish that someone would combine the information that the other books don't have. Anyhow, I started pencil writing in details in my Michelin guide, details that come from RS and other books. I do say, I love the physical format of the Michelin guide.

These reviews are nicely written, but one thing missing from them is commentary on how comprehensive the guidebooks are, and thus how useful they would be for people like me, whose aim is to get off the common tourist trails. For my 2014 trip to Spain, I consulted a Rick Steves guidebook and found that two of my intended destinations, Zamora and Zafra, were not in the index. (Maybe he has added them since; anyway, I was glad I had consulted a library copy before making the mistake of purchasing one.) I basically gave up on Mr.Steves' guidebooks at that point, but earlier this year I read in this forum someone complaining (as I would) that her RS Portugal book does not list the beautiful northern town of Guimarães. If this is true, then his Portugal guidebook would be as useless for a traveller like me, as his Spain guidebook was in 2014.
You did not specify who your target audience was, though I realize that I may not be in it. I should point out that for my kind of independent, "off-the-crowded-trail" travel, I have found Lonely Planet guidebooks to be consistently great.
I'll admit that if recent RS guidebooks include Zafra, Zamora, Guimarães, and the other great but little-visited Iberian towns I have seen, then my comments on those books are irrelevant, but the main point remains: the comprehensiveness of a guidebook would be an essential guidebook quality for travellers like me, unless we are not in the audience you are reviewing for. (Which would be understandable, since no one can write for everyone.)

Oh yes, the way I was looking at these guidebooks are pretty specific to Lisbon, Sintra, and Porto.

I having looked at and reviewed commentaries about Rick Steve's books, including his own remarks, he makes it very clear that he only selects the specific places that he thinks are worth going to, so his guidebooks are not comprehensive.

My overview of these guidebooks are not comprehensive either. I'm really just looking at them from the point of view of someone travelling to the three major places for the first time.