Just came back from a week in Lisbon, side trips to Sintra and Evora.
First the "bad". let me disclose; i find his books very good. I don't particularly like him; i find him preachy but his books - esp his walking tours -are very good. I strongly strongly disagree with him about the value of his books vs. Trip Advisor. We've used TA for 15 years and have never been steered wrong. You just have to know how to read the reviews. Three 5-star reviews about a hotel are a lot less valuable than 1900 4 star reviews. Also look to see how recent they are, and read the comments. And realize that they are way more up to date than his books and can be helpful if there is an acute change in a venue such as a new owner or closing.
Having said that...this was an excellent resource. The "bad" was that we found the walking tour in Evora almost useless. We finally had to backtrack and go to the "I" and get a local map.
But that was about it. the guides to Sintra, the Alfama, Bairro Alto, and Baixa and the Belem area were all excellent. Up to date, very reliable, good information. One place they highly recommended was actually closed for renovations (and to their credit, TA had it wrong too). We stayed a hotel not in his book, and were absolutely thrilled. WE picked our restaurants and sights based on TA and found they corroborated with his book pretty closely. His description about how to get to Sintra and Evora on the trains and how to get around Lisbon were very good. One thing - we walked almost every where - I did a lot of research, and almost every site in Lisbon was within 1-1.2 miles of our hotel, so we didn't take the public transit. So the via viagem card wasn't for us. We bought tickets at the Oriente station for the train to evora (and the people at the ticket kiosk were fantastic!) and at the Rossio station for Sintra (also very helpful, but with a huge line). We took the Gloria funicular one day - you could pay the driver in cash. We did take a streetcar - one of the modern articulado's - like 2 buses on street rails, and there was a machine in there to buy tickets - you could use cash or coins, and could get instructions in English if necessary. BUT - after we did all that, it never printed out a ticket. There are no conductors, so it is a matter of whether they decide to board and inspect tickets on your particular tram. Other than those tips, right on.
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