The Rough Guide to Portugal Rough Guides Mark Ellingham 9781848360891 Books
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The Rough Guide to Portugal Rough Guides Mark Ellingham 9781848360891 Books
This review compares the Rough Guides Portugal (9th ed.) with Lonely Planet Portugal (2nd ed.).We just returned from 2.5 weeks in Portugal. This was our first trip to Portugal and we took and used extensively the Portugal books from Lonely Planet and Rough Guide. We didn't visit the Algarve or Alentejo, concentrating on Lisbon and north.
Both books were good, but overall we preferred the Rough Guide book. It was better organized and more up to date. It's writing was more incisive, lively, and witty.
Here are some details as I saw them:
LP maps often covered a wider area and had more detail than the RG maps, but they were in smaller type and often difficult to read. On more than one occassion a cab driver pulled out his spectacles to read the LP map.
Rough Guide had more up to date phone numbers. LP did not have the up to date area codes (the leading 0 has been changed to a 2). In addition, for many properties in the north they had a 5 digit phone number, when now they are all six. More disturbingly, they have no update on their website for either the corrected area code or phone numbers. In fact, there was no Portugal update to the guide at all. (I'm not talking of the 'unverified travelers' reports.)
LP provided more detailed information about the nitty-gritty details of traveling, e.g., money, trains, internet access, etc.
RG presented the towns around Aveiro better. It was through it that we learned of Sao Jacinto, Torreira, and so on. These were not indexed in LP. We didn't discover that LP had some information on them until much later because it was more hidden in the Aveiro section. Since we had already decided to not stay in Aveiro we didn't think to look there. Although they were also in the Aveiro section of RG, they had their own headings and were also indexed.
Similarly, RG highlighted Belmonte in the mountains. This town was interesting in itself and also in that it now holds one of Portugal's largest remaining Jewish communities and its new synogogue. Jews had previously worshipped secretly in a town house until 1974, now replaced by the new building. (I'm writing this using a mouse pad I purchased at the Belmonte castle for $1.50 with images of columns from the Mosteiro da Batalha!)
I also preferred RG's treatment of Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela and of Parque Natural de Montesinho.
We used several recommendations for restaurants and accommodations from the books. Their batting averages were about the same: good but not great. One African dance club listed in both books was now a female stip place, as my wife discovered when seeing if the cab had taken us to the right address. (I was waiting in the cab.) I felt they were generally too generous in their evaluation of hotels and restaurants.
Both books had several failings common to them and to other guide books that we've used.
Nearly all the accommodations and restaurants are in tourist areas. We were fortunate to stay in Lisbon in a residential district. It was comforting to leave in the morning and not be surrounded by hordes of fellow tourists. Similarly, we were the only obvious tourists in the local restaurants, some of which were excellent. Nor were we out in the sticks where a car was required. We were right off the #28 tram line, recommended as the best tram to ride simply for riding it in both books.
Several other times during the trip we stayed and ate outside the centro area. In some cases a car would have been needed, but we were only several km out of center. In any case, I think both books should offer more 'out of centro' possibilities, especially when transportation is available.
LP is out front in saying that its reviewers do not stay at all the hotels or eat at all the restaurants they list. I would like it if the reviews would be initialized with the reviewers initials for the ones that they personally tried. This would also allow us to see and evaluate each reviewer's tastes and standards as our trip progressed, not to mention to see which places they really tried. One LP writer (not an author of this book) in discussing restaurants wrote: "As one of those LP writers I can tell you that it is not physically possible to eat even a 'little bit of a meal' in each of those restaurants :-) What we all tend to do is eat at a broad cross-section within the norms of natural eating times and visit the other restaurants and talk to the owner or even the diners if it can be done discretely. In the same vein we don't sleep at every hotel!"
Talk to the owners! Now there's something for an unbiased, disinterested evaluation!
Both books are oriented to train travelers, but they should have some more info on driving too, which is not expensive. For example, neither had a mileage chart between major cities and, more importantly, neither had a chart of expected driving times. Using the 'N' roads which look like major highways can take quite a bit of time because they are mostly two lane roads, often twisty and hilly, and can have a lot of SLOW truck traffic. You'd probably be better off driving on the back roads, both for time and scenery, and for that small village, local feel. But you'd never know it from these books. This complaint isn't restricted to just LP and RG, of course.
In addition, both books were quite short on history, culture and demographics. How religious are the Portuguese? (We were asked on several occassions whether we were 'religioso'.) What is the median and mean income of each of the areas (even of Portugal as a whole) and how does this compare to the rest of western Europe. What are contemporary middle-class Portuguese characteristics?
It wouldn't have taken more than an additional 10 or 15 pages for such information, and it would have made our trip more meaningful.
In sum, again, both guides were good with room for improvement, with our preferring the Rough Guide overall.
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The Rough Guide to Portugal Rough Guides Mark Ellingham 9781848360891 Books Reviews
This is a good guide, but what fails as in many travel books is they do not use modern technology.
I.e. addition
lisbon guide is not boken down into sections, e.g. It takes five minutes to scroll to the section on a particular suburb
No interactive maps
No links to content
Etc.
fine.
Being a Rough Guide fan, am never disappointed by the layout and detailed information that their guides offer. This one is no exception!
I like Rough Guides and this volume focused on Portugal is another good addition to my travel book library. Obviously, this book covers Lisbon very well and it provides adequate coverage of other regions of the country. It is accurate and up-to-date, as you would expect for a Rough Guide.
I have been having a horrible time reading this book. I got the kindle version of Lonely Planet and realized in a travel book, I just have to have the physical book. This book uses a font that is probably an 8 versus 12 and the ink is so light, that I have found just reading this book is a misery. I am an avid reader and do not have problems reading any other books. I will buy another guide book because this is just a chore to read.
Like the Rough Guide for Spain that I bought some years back, The Rough Guide to Portugal is a great go-to source for very detailed information while on a trip. They do tell it like it is! And they present information on places that other guides do not necessarily delve into.
Downside a black and white presentation, no color pictures, a very thick, heavy book that does not lend itself to being carried around during the day.
Glad I had it as a reference to use at night while planning the next day's activities.
Although I usually stick with Lonely Planet when backpacking Europe, reviews of Lonely Planet Portugal were mixed and I found Rick Steves' Portugal to have quite incomplete coverage of the whole country (just look at the table of contents for proof), so I decided to try Rough Guides. Unfortunately, this was a mistake. Note that unlike the other reviewer, I am not comparing Rough Guide to Lonely Planet; I have not had a chance to use Lonely Planet Portugal.
On the positive side, unlike Rick Steves', the book is quite comprehensive and covers many different cities across Portugal, including my favorite hilltop town of Marvao. The maps are generally good and accurate as to where streets, accommodations, restaurants, tourist information, and bars are located. I also really enjoy the "40 things not to miss" in the front of the book, complete with pictures. Good history section on Portugal as well.
However, my negative experiences with this book on the road outweigh these positives. Here are some examples
I was in Evora with an hour to go before my bus left and while on the town, I needed to know (1) where I could exchange my traveler's cheques without paying an arm and a leg and if I couldn't do this, (2) does my pensao take credit cards? This book was not able to provide either information! There was zero exchange or bank information either written on Evora or on the map, and no credit card information provided for any of the accommodations. I would point out that Evora is one of the more frequented cities in Portugal, and certainly the hub of the Alentejo region. I walked back to my pensao without exchanging, only to find they did not accept credit cards. I made my bus but had to do a lot more walking.
I also arrived in Fatima in the evening and the book provided no map of the town. While it is not a gigantic town, Fatima is a very important site for Catholics and also receives tens of thousands of visitors in both May and October. I feel a map is essential. Tourist office was closed. We spent an extra half hour trying to find a recommended hotel and had to ask directions several times.
I also didn't care for the organization of the Lisbon section and found it very frustrating. Here's why Accommodation options for all sections of town are listed first. Then, for each section of the town, the guide provides the map of the section with accommodations and restaurants on the map, then goes into the sights for that section. Finally, restaurant options for all sections of town are listed last. I constantly had to flip back and forth 20-30 pages to find the map of the right section of town (see where it is), and then find the listing for the restaurant or accommodation (see if I want to eat or stay there). Better organization is clearly needed, and the restaurants and accommodations for a single section needed to be in the same section where the map is given.
The other thing I was not happy with is putting "travel details" such as travel times between city A and city B at the very end of a section of the country. Lonely Planet usually includes this in the "Getting to and from" for each city, and it is clearly better.
One more road tested problem Portuguese-English translations are in the back of the book but I couldn't find how to say "coffee with milk" when I really needed to in a café. I later discover the translation is in the "guide to coffee" section in a different part of the book. Not helpful, needs to be in both. Same problem with ordering red wine, white wine, beer, in a restaurant.
I can't speak whether these organization problems are consistent across Rough Guides, but they were very troublesome during my time in Portugal. It just seems like they didn't actually test it out themselves on the road. I would recommend another option over this book, or at least have another book as your primary guide and this as secondary for additional restaurant or accommodation options.
I would also always recommend that you see if a DK Eyewitness Guide is available, as is the case for Portugal. I love DK Eyewitness Guides for the pictures, history, information about sights, and also the restaurant and accommodation options when you want to splurge a little more.
Now a couple of other quick tips if you are considering a trip to Portugal the pousadas are lovely places to stay and the staff is unbelievably helpful. The Barrio Alto region of Lisbon is an amazing place for all kinds of different ethnic restaurants, packed in a tight little area. I come from the world of trains across the rest of Europe, but the buses are always faster and more frequent in Portugal. Sintra, Obidos, and Marvao are must sees, the latter being somewhat hard to get to.
This review compares the Rough Guides Portugal (9th ed.) with Lonely Planet Portugal (2nd ed.).
We just returned from 2.5 weeks in Portugal. This was our first trip to Portugal and we took and used extensively the Portugal books from Lonely Planet and Rough Guide. We didn't visit the Algarve or Alentejo, concentrating on Lisbon and north.
Both books were good, but overall we preferred the Rough Guide book. It was better organized and more up to date. It's writing was more incisive, lively, and witty.
Here are some details as I saw them
LP maps often covered a wider area and had more detail than the RG maps, but they were in smaller type and often difficult to read. On more than one occassion a cab driver pulled out his spectacles to read the LP map.
Rough Guide had more up to date phone numbers. LP did not have the up to date area codes (the leading 0 has been changed to a 2). In addition, for many properties in the north they had a 5 digit phone number, when now they are all six. More disturbingly, they have no update on their website for either the corrected area code or phone numbers. In fact, there was no Portugal update to the guide at all. (I'm not talking of the 'unverified travelers' reports.)
LP provided more detailed information about the nitty-gritty details of traveling, e.g., money, trains, internet access, etc.
RG presented the towns around Aveiro better. It was through it that we learned of Sao Jacinto, Torreira, and so on. These were not indexed in LP. We didn't discover that LP had some information on them until much later because it was more hidden in the Aveiro section. Since we had already decided to not stay in Aveiro we didn't think to look there. Although they were also in the Aveiro section of RG, they had their own headings and were also indexed.
Similarly, RG highlighted Belmonte in the mountains. This town was interesting in itself and also in that it now holds one of Portugal's largest remaining Jewish communities and its new synogogue. Jews had previously worshipped secretly in a town house until 1974, now replaced by the new building. (I'm writing this using a mouse pad I purchased at the Belmonte castle for $1.50 with images of columns from the Mosteiro da Batalha!)
I also preferred RG's treatment of Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela and of Parque Natural de Montesinho.
We used several recommendations for restaurants and accommodations from the books. Their batting averages were about the same good but not great. One African dance club listed in both books was now a female stip place, as my wife discovered when seeing if the cab had taken us to the right address. (I was waiting in the cab.) I felt they were generally too generous in their evaluation of hotels and restaurants.
Both books had several failings common to them and to other guide books that we've used.
Nearly all the accommodations and restaurants are in tourist areas. We were fortunate to stay in Lisbon in a residential district. It was comforting to leave in the morning and not be surrounded by hordes of fellow tourists. Similarly, we were the only obvious tourists in the local restaurants, some of which were excellent. Nor were we out in the sticks where a car was required. We were right off the #28 tram line, recommended as the best tram to ride simply for riding it in both books.
Several other times during the trip we stayed and ate outside the centro area. In some cases a car would have been needed, but we were only several km out of center. In any case, I think both books should offer more 'out of centro' possibilities, especially when transportation is available.
LP is out front in saying that its reviewers do not stay at all the hotels or eat at all the restaurants they list. I would like it if the reviews would be initialized with the reviewers initials for the ones that they personally tried. This would also allow us to see and evaluate each reviewer's tastes and standards as our trip progressed, not to mention to see which places they really tried. One LP writer (not an author of this book) in discussing restaurants wrote "As one of those LP writers I can tell you that it is not physically possible to eat even a 'little bit of a meal' in each of those restaurants -) What we all tend to do is eat at a broad cross-section within the norms of natural eating times and visit the other restaurants and talk to the owner or even the diners if it can be done discretely. In the same vein we don't sleep at every hotel!"
Talk to the owners! Now there's something for an unbiased, disinterested evaluation!
Both books are oriented to train travelers, but they should have some more info on driving too, which is not expensive. For example, neither had a mileage chart between major cities and, more importantly, neither had a chart of expected driving times. Using the 'N' roads which look like major highways can take quite a bit of time because they are mostly two lane roads, often twisty and hilly, and can have a lot of SLOW truck traffic. You'd probably be better off driving on the back roads, both for time and scenery, and for that small village, local feel. But you'd never know it from these books. This complaint isn't restricted to just LP and RG, of course.
In addition, both books were quite short on history, culture and demographics. How religious are the Portuguese? (We were asked on several occassions whether we were 'religioso'.) What is the median and mean income of each of the areas (even of Portugal as a whole) and how does this compare to the rest of western Europe. What are contemporary middle-class Portuguese characteristics?
It wouldn't have taken more than an additional 10 or 15 pages for such information, and it would have made our trip more meaningful.
In sum, again, both guides were good with room for improvement, with our preferring the Rough Guide overall.
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