[.ca] Eyewitness Travel Guides Lisbon (ISBN 078949566X)

The Best:
Lisbon is one of the most beautiful and unique cities in the world. All someone needs when they get there is this book. I would give it 5 stars, but since the city has changed a lot in the past few years (with the addition of "Parque das Nações"- the former Expo98 site), this 1997 edition does not even begin to cover the "new" city, although it does it better than any other book you may find. The maps are excellent. But if you want to explore more of Portugal besides Lisbon, I strongly recommend the "Eyewitness Travel Guide to Portugal" instead.

First-timer in Lisbon?:
Just back from a week in Lisbon, we used this guide & found that we could have spent a month or more & still not have come anywhere near exhausting the possibilities shown in the book. The previous reviewer made the point that this guide (1997 edition) is a bit out-of-date; true, but what it does include is excellent & very well presented. The book is a convenient size, has a sturdy cover, & is easy to carry with you as you explore the city. I usually go for Lonely Planet travel books, but chose this one instead because of its excellent illustrations. For your first visit to Lisbon, I don't think that you can go wrong with this book. By all means, go & see this marvelous city, an intriguing mix of old & new, but be sure to wear your most comfortable walking shoes; Lisbon is built on 7 hills, & everything is either up- or downhill. The walkways are paved with stones & are not smooth, but that is part of the charm of the city. We plan to go back again.

Another top-notch Eyewitness Travel Guide:
Eyewitness Travel Guides are really great value and this is a very nice guide book. Take an Eyewitness Guide and a Cadogan Guide (if available) and you will have all the information you might possibly need. Forget the competition. This is the kind of intelligent tour guide you have been waiting for. The introduction is a beautifully illustrated time line of Portuguese history since the 1200s. The city and surrounding area is then broken up into sections and each is introduced by use of picture-driven accounts and easy to read descriptions of what you will encounter. There are nice maps and each area is described in such illuminating detail that you cannot help but get up early and get down to it. Each place of interest is preceded by a list of opening times, map locations and details of how to get there by using public transport. It's all highly readable and also gives useful tips on where to eat, what to do, where to stay and how to get about. The nice thing about the hotels and eating guides is the way this book breaks down its recommendations by price - allowing travellers of varying budgets to enjoy their time in this fascinating of cities. This is a very good book indeed.