Travel Guide by Bwana_Brown
About 2 months before we left Canada for Portugal, I bought a DK Eyewitness Travel Guide book (for about US$30) in order to get some background information on this new (to me) country. After looking at Fodors and Lonely Planet as well, I picked DK because it is totally loaded with colour photographs, maps and helpful hints. It really made a huge difference to us to be able to see the various attractions and read the detailed descriptions of each one.The book even has various suggested tour routes with all the relevent details, such as the Serra de Sintra drive or even one near Evora to see ancient cromlechs! For Lisbon, it also provided us with detailed street maps of the different sections of the city as well as another entire chapter on the delights in the area immediately surrounding Lisbon. There are sections describing the time-line of Portugal's history, its various rulers down through the ages, local food customs and a whole wealth of information!
It's useful restaurant phrases and a small Portugese/English phrase section all came in very handy! To get maximum enjoyment out of your trip, I strongly suggest that you get a guide book of any description to give you some understanding of the culture and attractions of the country that you are visiting!
