DK Eyewitness Portugal (Travel Guide)
DK Eyewitness Portugal (Travel Guide) book cover

DK Eyewitness Portugal (Travel Guide)

Paperback – January 22, 2019

by
Price
$25.00
Format
Paperback
Pages
400
Publisher
DK Eyewitness Travel
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0241358306
Dimensions
5.06 x 0.87 x 8.56 inches
Weight
1.04 pounds

Description

"Known… for its four-color maps, photos and illustrations, the [DK] Eyewitness Guides are extremely user-friendly for travelers who want their information delivered in a concise, visual way." — Chicago Tribune "The best option… Color photos, maps, and diagrams bring the place to life." — The Philadelphia Inquirer DK was founded in London in 1974 and is nowxa0the world leading illustrated reference publisher and a member of the Penguin Random House division of Bertelsmann. DK publishes highly visual, photographic non-fiction for adults and children. DK produces content for consumers in over 100 countries and over 60 languages,xa0withxa0offices in thexa0UK, India, US, Germany, China, Canada, Spain and Australia.DK's aim is toxa0inspire, educate and entertainxa0readers of all ages, and everything DK publishes, whether print or digital, embodies the unique DK design approach. DK brings unrivalled clarity to a wide range of topics, with a unique combination of words and pictures, put together to spectacular effect. We have a reputation for innovation in design for both print and digital products.Our adult range spans travel, including the award-winning DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, history, science, nature, sport, gardening, cookery and parenting.xa0DK’s extensive children’s list showcases a fantastic store of information for children, toddlers and babies. DK covers everything from animals and the human body, to homework help and craft activities, together with an impressive list of licensing titles, including the best-selling LEGO® books.DK acts as the parent company for Alpha Books, publisher of thexa0Idiot's Guides series.https://www.dk.com/

Features & Highlights

  • Your once-in-a-lifetime trip to sun-soaked Portugal starts here!
  • Whether you are looking for world — renowned beaches, serene hilltop villages, verdant islands or captivating cities — Portugal has it all! This DK Eyewitness travel guide will take you through everything you need to see and do in this gorgeous country.Inside the pages of this Portugal travel guide, you’ll discover:   • Our pick of Portugal’s must-sees, top experiences and hidden gems.    • The best spots to eat, drink, shop and stay.    • Detailed maps and walks make navigating the region easy.    • Easy-to-follow itineraries.    • Expert advice: Get ready, get around and stay safe.    • Color-coded chapters to every part of Portugal, from Lisbon to Porto and the Algarve to the Azores, Minho and Madeira     • Our new lightweight format makes it easy for you to take it with you wherever you go. This small but immensely varied country has something for everyone. If you crave adventure, travel through the soaring mountains and volcanic craters of the Azores to the subtropical paradise of Madeira to get your fix. If that is not quite your thing, urban Portugal is just as unmissable. Explore the cutting-edge galleries, cool hangouts and restaurants of Lisbon and Porto — two of Europe’s trendiest cities.This updated travel guide is your ideal companion when planning a trip to Portugal. It’s packed with expert-led insights and advice, detailed breakdowns of all the hidden gems, along with stunning photography and hand-drawn illustrations. DK Eyewitness Portugal helps you plan and travel hassle-free. It has been updated regularly to ensure the information is as up-to-date as possible following the COVID-19 outbreak.For more than two decades, DK Eyewitness guides have helped travelers experience the world through the history, art, architecture, and culture of their destinations. Expert travel writers and researchers provide independent advice, recommendations and reviews. Discover guidebooks to hundreds of places around the globe!

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(104)
★★★★
25%
(87)
★★★
15%
(52)
★★
7%
(24)
★
23%
(79)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Used to Be a Great Brand

WARNING: Many of the reviews are for older, better editions of the guide. Be sure to looks for reviews dated 2019 so that you get a sense of what the new, disimproved version is like.

DK Eyewitness Travel Guides were once the best travel guides. With their recent redesign, they've destroyed the brand. It no longer has the premium feel that it used to. It's not just the cheaper paper, it just looks...different and not in good way.

The Portugal guide has a few issues. My family comes from Caldas da Rainha, and I know that the photos used to represent it are wrong, as is the statement that the ceramics museum is in a ceramics factory. In other sections misspellings and inaccurate information mar the reputation of the once-great DK Eyewitness Travel Guide brand.
29 people found this helpful
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Poor quality reproduction

The reproduction quality is not up to the standard of other DK travel guides. The paper quality is poor and the pictures are not sharp and bright. Disappointed as it affects the joy of reading and looking at the sites.
19 people found this helpful
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NOT the same quality as the old DK series

So I have been buying DK travel books for the past decade and have used about 10 of them in that time. Paris, Amsterdam, London, Rome, Iceland, Japan, Hong Kong,... just to name a few. Those books used high-quality glossy paper, had a sturdy cover that extended beyond the inside pages for protection, and had an overall high-quality feel. They were nice a durable and withstood getting tossed around in a travel bag or getting some light rain.

Looks like DK decided to save a few cents on each book and switch to newspaper stock for the main pages and a standard paperback novel cover. You can see through the pages and the coloring is no longer vivid like a photo book.
When I first picked it up and I thought I got some cheap Chinese knockoff. I went to the DK website and I see this is their new format. Very disappointed. This will be my last DK purchase until they go back to their superior product design.

DK, if you are reading this. Stop trying to be cheap. The previous quality of your books set you apart from the competition. I would rather pay a few extra bucks to get a high-quality travel guide that I can use for my trip. I'll give it 2 stars as hopefully the content is still good, but boy was this a disappointment for a long-time loyal customer.
14 people found this helpful
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Disastrous new DK format

I just received the 2020 edition of Dorling Kindersley’s Portugal. What a disappointment. I have always been a fan of DK’s travel guides. Everything that I liked has been changed in this new format. The broad pages are now talk so that the very thin columns of text are difficult to read. The food out pages with exploded diagrams of the most important sites: gone. Replaced by drawings. Why bother? Just stick in a photo. The maps used to be informative and easy to read. Now they look like google. So I might as well use that instead The sections are colour coded as before, but because they’ve gone to cheap, matt paper, instead of the high quality glossy paper, you an no longer see the colours on the ends of the pages. Useless. the opening times of the museums is no longer given. Another reason to use google instead of the guide. there used to be lists of top ten things to see. Also the maps highlighted the most important things not to miss. All gone. This guide is completely useless. It’s filled with useless pictures and confusing pointers. The description is minimalistic. The interpretation confusing. I’ll make sure I either buy an old version in the future, or get Lonely Planet.
10 people found this helpful
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Love the pretty photos but not much else

The DK guides like this one have all been updated. By that I mean that they are heavy on the lovely photos whether they're of landmarks, sights, or food. The rest of it is just not very helpful. Bits and pieces of where to visit, where to eat, where to stay, etc. are very limited to just a few entries with one or two sentences.

So I'd recommend other travel guides for detailed information and pages of it. This guide is like a tiny coffee table book where one just sits and dreams of visiting the places in the multitude of beautiful photos. Just that there's no info. at all once you arrive.
7 people found this helpful
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Does not compare to other Eyewitness (or non-Eyewitness) guides

This refers to the new redesigned 2019 edition.

Pros:
- good use of photos, which is the point of differentiation of these guides
- good coverage of Lisbon, including a few walking tours (about 1/4 of this guide is centered on Lisbon)

Cons:
- superficial, light on information (previous Eyewitness guides were crammed with details on sights. The new guide seems more spaced out)
- limited practical use for planning (e.g. some towns such as Viana do Castelo get 2 pages only - one full page devoted to a photo and the other page consists of 3 paragraphs on the destination, with 1 attraction only and no accommodation, dining or transport recommendations. Even the 2nd largest city in the country, Porto, only gets 3 hotel listings and 2 restaurant listings - previous Eyewitness guides had several pages of these)
- poorer quality feel (the high quality binding and glossy pages are gone)
- no more compact in size than any other guidebook

I've referred to several guidebooks on Portugal and this was the least comprehensive (and frankly disappointing).
6 people found this helpful
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Not enough substance

This book is very attractive, with many nice pictures,but it does not have enough critical advice. For example, if there are two palaces in a town, which one should I visit?
2 people found this helpful
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New Version of the Guide still very helpful and colorful

I have always liked the format of the DK Eyewitness guides. Used this for a recent Portugal trip and the recommendations for sightseeing places and restaurants were very helpful. I think the other downside to the newer version is that the quality of the paper used used to be different (rather than shiny glossy paper, the paper used in the new version has a matte finish and doesn't seem as nice). The graphic illustrations and photos are still very colorful though.
1 people found this helpful
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Great Guide, Missing Component

Great guide, however, the map that was supposed to come with it in the back cover was missing.
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Great for family travel guide

I wrote more detailed comments on Spain version of DK guides. Too lazy to copy-paste that here.

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