Portugal Books

Don't go to Spain without this! Yeah, I know you know your Spanish food, but you don't know it like this book.

The book is small and easy to pack and carry with you. It has everything you need to know to order wisely off an unfamiliar menu. It even has star ratings for the foods (and they are dead on). I travel frequently and extensively in Spain and still need this book occasionally to sort out regional fare. If you are going for the first time, you will find it worth its weight in saffron.

I had to use this book for my senior honors thesis. It is wonderfully written and intriguing. The book examines the difficulties entering the mouth of the Tagus river in the early 17th century. Through archealogical research Castro enables his audience to understand the makeup of the rivers mouth. The Pepper Wreck is just one example of many disasters at sea. If you are interested in early modern european maritime trade, this book is good. I would also suggest, providing you have both the time and patience, reading The Tragic History of the Sea ed. by C.R> Boxer. It's a collection of primary sources relating several ship wrecks along the Portuguese shipping route to Goa.

It's been a while since I've read this book, but it still lingers. Selby, a middle-aged woman biking alone through the Pyrenees and across Spain to Santiago de Compostela, is full of wit, great stories, and endless energy (how she kept peddling after quaffing a bit of the free vino offered to pilgrims itself is amazing). It inspires an amateur bicyclist like me to pedal a few extra miles whenever I envision her journey. Even if you are not a bike enthusiast, you'll love her tales of the people she meets, the tiny towns she travels through, and the sense of triumph she feels upon reaching her destination

I recently spent one day in Madrid and bought this guide to help me get the most out of my 24 hours. And it was great! The book touches on the major sights organized by the city's 3 areas. It has a metro map as well as an excellent fold-out street map of the city center. This is not a book I would necessarily purchase for a longer trip, although it would be a very good supplement.

This extraordinary work of scholarship is sure to become the definitive resource for scholars while serving as a readable and rewarding historical narrative for the rest of us, with illustrations that bring the text to life. The topics discussed have strong contemporary relevance at a time when conquest, exploitation and independence are at the forefront of our attention.
Scholars will rejoice in the careful documentation of every statement while non-scholars will find that such documentation is included so discretely that it doesn't interfere with the pleasures of the text.

Kenneth Maxwell has given us one of the few available studies in english of one of the giants of the XVIII century, and it is worth every penny. An attractively bound book with both black and white and colour plates it is a valueable and beautiful reference. Maxwell's style is both scholarly and readable. Often forgotten, the dreaded Marques de Pombal was Portugal's Richelieu. A man to be feared and obeyed. Yet he was responceable for the increadable recovery of Lisbon in the wake of the cataclysmic earthquake of 1755. Lisbon, one of the great cities of the world was almost anihilated in less than a hour, and Portugal's very existence threatened. Pomabal's responce was brilliance itself; swift, courageous, and humane. While he did not utter the famous "let us bury the dead and care for the living" he was the man to put the sentiment into practise. He was also a ruthless and dangerous man. Any enemy of the state, real or imagined he viewed as a contagion, either to be cured or if not, eradicated. He was responsable for the most sweeping positive reforms Portugal had seen in centuries, and of gruesome excesses in the name of "the State". Towards the Jesuits, whom should have been his natural allies, he harboured only suspicion and hatred. Culminatting finally in an open attack upon them which would lead to their expulsion and eventual suppresion, a tragic loss for europe as a whole. While I still regard Pombal in an essentially negative way, a brilliant and inspired monster, but a monster nonetheless, this book helped me see the old devil in a new light, and to appreciate his devotion to his nation and countrymen. So, sip a glass of port, relax and meet the Marques.

There are two strong books on Portugal - my opinion - and the two books are the Eyewitness Travel (DK) guide which I personally prefer or Lonely Planet Portugal. These two books both around 500 pages and are both tremendous efforts, very well balanced with photos, maps, history, etc. and both are clearly 5 star guides.

I would both (and DK Eyewitness Travel and Lonely Planet) head and shoulders ahead of Frommers, or Rough Guide or similar books that are less well balanced. Overall, the DK guide has better photos and visuals and makes for a better souvenir so it gets the nod as the better book.

Portugal is an old country with lots of fun things to see and do. I prefer to Algarve region but also enjoy visiting Lisbon - which can be expensive. Also I like to go well armed with maps and books because unlike the USA or Canada some areas have no English signs so the more information the better.

This book is well balanced and like the DK guide is that it pulls a lot of things together such as history and culture, food, towns and lots on Lisbon. The book brings it all to life with just magnificent photos and maps.

Either case this is an excellent buy. 5 stars.

Book came sooner that I was expecting. It was in every bit as good as condition that it was described. The seller is outstanding and one I would use agin in the future.

to enjoy this terrific travel guide. The pictures and descriptions are wonderful enough. Now I can't wait to go.

Whatever you do, don't buy this book or recommend it to others!
It is so beautifully written and so hauntingly tempting that Portugal, one of the best kept secrets of the Culture Smart tourist, might just be over-run by the masses if news of this book leaks out. Sandy Guedes De Queiroz is more than your average travel writer. Besides capturing the sights, sounds, feelings, aromas and flavors of this beguiling country as she goes along, she takes the reader beneath the skin to it's streets, cafes, countryside and beaches in a way that has you aching to go back: even if you've never been there in the first place!
So, whatever you do, don't tell a soul. Keep it to yourself.