The Rough Guide to Portugal

by John Fisher, Matthew Hancock, Jules Brown

The Rough Guide to Portugal is the essential travel guide with clear maps and coverage of the country's unique attractions. The Rough Guide to Portugal guides you around the fashionable cities of Lisbon and Porto, takes you hiking in the hills of central and northern Portugal, and covers every beach along the Algarve, making it the ideal companion whether you're on a city break, beach holiday, or cross-country. The guide unearths the best sights, hotels, restaurants, and nightlife across every price range — from backpacker hostels to beachfront villas and boutique hotels. You'll find specialist coverage of Portuguese history, art, and literature and detailed information on the best markets and shopping for each region. The locally-based Rough Guide author team introduces the best vineyards, country taverns, and fado clubs and provides reliable insider tips, whether you're driving Portugal's roadways or shopping for linen and lace.

Explore all corners of Portugal with authoritative background on everything from Porto's architecture to surfing at Peniche, and rely on handy language tips and the clearest maps of any guide. Make the most of your holiday with The Rough Guide to Portugal.

Genres: Travel, Reference, Nonfiction, Portugal, Guidebook

568 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 1984

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Julian Worker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The finest travel to a wonderful country

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I combed through this book carefully, both before and during our trip to Portugal, and found it invaluable. I was able to identify the sites I wanted to invest my time in and eliminate others that have been overrated. While in the country I carried the book with me and constantly referred to it to learn about what I was seeing. The many detailed maps were invaluable. Thanks to John Fisher for helping me have a wonderful vacation!

[Jack Hrkach · Rating 4 out of 5]

To anyone who reads me regularly this will sound like a broken record, but whenever I travel to Europe I use the Rough Guides and Rick Steves. Not everyone will like them as some will consider them verbose. I, on the other hand consider them packed with information, which can only make a strange place seem slightly less so. Others won't like them as there are not as many pictures - but why waste space, argue I, with photos, when you will be seeing the real thing - what one wants is to know ABOUT what one is seeing - right? Of course I am.

This Rough Guide seems to me one of the best in a great series. The writers seem to really love Portugal, in addition to being able to describe it well. It is not difficult to fall in love with Portugal - I certainly did, but this booked helped me in that way too. If you travel to Portugal - and you SHOULD! pick up this guide - you'll be happy you did!

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the few up-to-date and thorough guides to Portugal I was able to find. This one stands out since it visits small towns and single item diversions.

[Pia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never before read a travel guide cover to cover. But since I set myself a reading challenge this year, I thought I’d give it a try as I was gonna read it at least partly any way.
I actually really enjoyed myself a lot! I found myself dreaming of hikes in the mountains and strolls along the beaches. Keeping notes of whatever places I really didn’t want to miss. I thought it especially great that the chapter about Portugal’s most visited region, the Algarve, was the last in the book. After reading all about the rest of Portugal, I suddenly found myself thinking; do I even want to go there, seeing as there is so much to see up north?
As travel guides go; this one I really neat. There is enough background info about many places, I also learned quite a lot about Portuguese history. I really liked the fact that there is info on how to get just about everywhere, even without a car. Would definitely recommend it.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much great detail while still being concise. And practical tips too. Cannot wait to get there.

[Kiron Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

We used the Rough Guide to Portugal for our recent trip to the eastern Algarve. We were staying in Cabanas, a small holiday village town near more historic Tavira. The guide actually had a short entry on Cabanas which we found accurate, and we also used it for Tavira, the city of Faro and Vila Real de San Antonio (where I took the ferry across for an afternoon at Ayamonte in Spain). The guide was useful and pretty accurate in each place. We also find the language and broader contextual information useful in the Rough Guides even when they don't cover or cover much places that we are visiting.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I haven't been to Portugal, it's hard for me to rate this book. I do find the assertion that the cuisine is somewhat limited and repetitious strange. I'm not exactly sure what 'fine cuisine' is but I'm sure there's interesting fusion places as well as traditional that are a local's only secret. Good for an introduction to Portugal.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Przewodnik Pascal dobrze opisuje atrakcje poszczególnych regionów. Przy każdym rozdziale są umieszczone informacje o noclegach i gastronomii. Ja przeczytałam wydanie z 2003 roku (ale jest dostępne nowsze), ale przez Internet można bez problemu zaktualizować informacje.

[Scrabbleme · Rating 4 out of 5]

clearly better than other guides. very informative, non-pretentious.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful, but little point to a digital version if the maps don't have better resolution.

[Jmolentin]

Used a later edition around 1999 for our trip to portugal

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This guide was moderately helpful...just not quite as detailed as I would like a guide to be. I also had it on my Kindle, so maybe I felt some challenges with that. It totally worked though and got us where we needed to go!