"Time Out" Lisbon

View books by Time Out Guides Ltd.

Not updated and full of mistakes - Rated
While I have been an happy timeout guide customer in the past, I was extremely disappointed by this guide, and sometime amazed by its errors.

The most amazing one is about the bridge: Vasco da Gama is located in
East Lisbon, while this guide described it in details and with a
wrong picture in Belem (West Lisbon). The picture is on page 85 and
this is NOT Vasco da Gama bridge!!

Among the other wrong information:

- misplaced tube stations which left me wondering for tens of minutes
(I was luckily rescued by a local map I got there)
- the highly advised tram 28 is instead 28E (28 is a bus that travels
a completely different route!)
- while I understand that prices change, this guide (printed less than
a year ago) reports taxi prices from the airport at 14 euros, while it
is now more than 18 euros: an outrageous increase or an outrageous
mistake?

It seems that this guide is not a 2007 edition, but a much older
one...

On a positive side, the guide to restaurants is amazingly good.

Still a favourite - Rated
This was the only book I bought when I first visited Lisboa over 9 years ago and it more than did the job. Whilst I have bought and read several other books since then, this is still one of my favourites and I often recommend it to family and friends.

Really good guide - Rated
I went to Lisbon knowing very little about the city, and used this guide. There's a good amount on the cultural side, but where the guide comes into its own is nightlife. I followed up loads of the tips about places to eat, shop, party and drink, and in every instance the advice was sound: where to get the best pasteis (in Belem), where to see great fado (Senhor Vinho in Lapa), nightclubs, wine shops, a place to get a really good rodizio ("eat as much as you want" for carnivores). Time Out guides are always pretty savvy, and this is probably the best I've used. You may want to invest in a good street map once you're there, though, as exploring some of the knotty little neighbourhoods requires you either to be totally relaxed about getting lost or totally in command of where you are - and the latter definitely calls for a quality street map!

The BEST guide to Lisbon on the shelves!! - Rated
I've lived in Lisbon for 4 years and am a bit of a collecter of guide books to this wonderful city. This book is quite simply the best.

It's obvious on reading this book that it is written by people who live in Lisbon and know the city extremely well, particularly in the listings for restaurants, bars and cafes. The historical information in spot on, and the book is well laid out and easy to use. If you are coming to Lisbon and want to know where people who live here go, what they think and how Lisbon is to a local, then this is the book to get...Far superior to the very bit-ty and out of date Rough Guides (the new edition of which contains ALOT of out of date information). This is right up-to-date, totally cool and if you can't find decent bars and get a decent night out after reading this..then there's something wrong with you.. Not for nothing did The Independant recently vote Lisbon as the third best place in the world for summer nightlife (after Ibiza and Ayia Napa..) And OK, so the Bairro Alto is a little run down..that's all part of the charm. But in the summer, when you're wandering from bar to bar at 2am in the morning and the temperature is still in the high twenties, the narrow streets are full of people having fun and the night feels like you want it to roll on until dawn...then you'll understand..

Also, check out the listings for the beaches, particularly across the river on the Caparica coast for some of the best beaches outside of the Algarve with beautiful cafes (great juices and salads) to take in the sun-set.

A great book that thoroughly captures the spirit of one of the most under-rated cities in Europe.

Good in most respects but it exagerates the nightlife - Rated
Having relied on this Time Out Guide we expected quite a lot from Lisbon. But having been there we feel that Time Out has completely failed to emphasis Lisbons reserved and serious atmosphere (which included the St.Anthony's Festival). Furthermore it hyped the Bairo Alto areas nightlife, venues and (we also later realised) didn't include any pictures of what much of it looks like (much is sadly delapidated, untidy, heavily graffitied and pidgeon infested). Perhaps the city has changed a lot in the year since this books publication... A more honest guide would have been useful but I suppose then you wouldn't buy the book.