Let's Go 2007 Spain & Portugal [Paperback]

I read the reviews for the previous edition of the Let's Go Spain & Portugal book, so I was expecting a book with recommendations that might not always live up to my traveling standards. And that's what I got.

I still give this book 4 stars because it does a great job of suggesting inexpensive places, but sometimes you really do get what you pay for! For the record, I generally travel pretty cheaply and don't mind minimalistic accomodations as long as they are clean. These were generally that, but the bathrooms were often the downfall.

If you're 18-25, this is the perfect book. Many of the suggestions for accomodations and things to do are geared toward younger people who may not have as much money to spend.

If you're 26-40, this is a good book if you like to save money. When looking at accomodations, pay attention to the cost ratings (1-5) and you'll probably want to shoot for the 3-5 rating to get a place that's up to par and still inexpensive. For example, we stayed at the top recommended place in Sevilla and it was insanely cheap (15 euros per person), but the bathrooms were dismal and the showers so small you couldn't possibly bend over to get your shampoo. If you don't need to shower every night, then alternate your nights (1 or 2 star one night, 3 or 4 the next) as the rooms are often better than the bathrooms at the cheap places.

If you're 41-65, you may enjoy some of the places recommended. If you enjoy saving money and don't mind having small rooms and mediocre bathrooms, you'll save a ton and you can spend it on your food!

If you're over 65, I wouldn't recommend the book. The accomodations are almost all one or two stories above ground and few with elevators. They're often in the more bustling parts of town, which can mean noisier at night.

Fado in Lisbon
We took the book's recommendation for a Fado house in Lisbon, Cafe Luso, and while the book said that it was a minimum 20 euros, 22-29 euros per plate, we found it to be an extremely expensive night out. Granted, the music was wonderful, the ambience perfect, and we didn't worry about it too much because we'd saved so much on hotels. But all told it came to 160 euros for 4 people. They charged 8 euros per bottle of water and the food was so salty that we needed two. The wine, unlike any other place we went, was 25 euros. And the minimums were complicated and we felt like we'd been had when the bill came.

They had a 7 euro "couvert" that was required. This consisted of olives, cheese, a bun, and little sausage pieces. We had become accustomed to being charged for the olives and bread/cheese that were delivered to our table (this is customary throughout Portugal), so we tried to send them back. They kept bringing new things (bread, sausages) to our table and when I questioned it, they said, "no, no, you no pay." Oh, we paid. Whether we ate it or not, we would have paid as it was a required charge in addition to the 25 euro plate minimum.

So beware the Fado house. Luso was wonderful, but if you go, go for the drink option only. The music starts very late, so go out for dinner elsewhere and then pay 15 euros for the drink option versus buying dinner there.

Things to Do
The book has a nice system of listing things to do and places to see and they include nice brief writeups about these places. We found this to be very handy and helpful and generally hit the recommended places.

Food
We didn't use the food section very often, but when we did we found the recommendations were okay, but not great. The exception was Sintra. If you go to Sintra, you must go to the Sapa store for queijadas. Everything they sold was excellent and inexpensive.

Maps
The maps were excellent and we used them often for getting us into town before we had a tourist office map to get around with. In several cases, the map in the book was better than the tourist office map. I only wish they had parking indicated on them. We were often driving into towns where we wanted to park on the outskirts and then walk to find a place to stay.

One Recommendation
Photocopy the maps. I found them to be very useful, but carting around and using the massive book was not. So if I did it again, I would definitely photocopy (and enlarge when possible) all of the maps for cities I knew I'd be visiting.

Enjoy your trip!

Like many independent budget travelers, I have usually depended on Lonely Planet guidebooks for advice. But with that company's decision to focus more on a middle-class demographic and leave backpackers behind, I have been exploring other guidebook lines. In preparing for a transit through Spain in the course of hitchhiking from Germany to Senegal, I checked out the 2007 Spain guidebook by Cambridge, MA outfit Let's Go. I was very disappointed.

Some flaws of the guidebook are likely found throughout the Let's Go line. What first offends the reader are the advertisements spread all throughout the book. While looking for travel guidance, one must avoid sales pitches for mobile phones, ISIC cards, and hostel-booking websites. The publisher claims that placement of advertisements is done by a separate agency, and the writers do not endorse or get kickbacks from these companies, but it makes the whole production look amateur and unreliable.

I was hoping that Let's Go might show travelers the new, cheaper ways to travel that have come with the rise of certain Internet communities. Indeed, Let's Go is the only guidebook that mentions hospitality clubs. But here, they inexplicably recommend a hospitablity club that is moribund, GlobalFreeloaders, instead of suggesting the easy combination of HospitalityClub and Couchsurfing. Hitchhiking is getting easier than ever thanks to Internet compendia of tips on places to stand and signs to hold, but Let's Go doesn't mention any of that. In fact, the section on Hitchhiking is several paragraphs of "It's dangerous, don't do it", which at least in the European Union, of which Spain is a part, is irresponsible hyperbole. Lonely Planet, at least, gives a standard boilerplate "We don't recommend hitchhiking" before giving some general local guidance.

The travel direction that Let's Go give seems concerned mainly with boozing instead of any real contact with local culture. Throughout hostels, those impersonal spaces where one only encounters other foreigners, are listed as ideal places to stay in a given community. The company claims that their charter allows them only to employ current Harvard students, which means that the writers are not the sort of "travel as lifestyle" gurus I would prefer to get guidance from, but rather people who undoubtedly visited these places for short-term relaxation.

In terms of matters specific to Spain, I found that the information here is nowhere near as detailed as in the 2007 guidebooks by Lonely Planet and the Rough Guides. Both include information on how to enter Morocco from Algeciras, for example, while the Let's Go does not. While the Canary Islands are covered, Spain's possessions in North Africa are not. All in all, get the Lonely Planet or the Rough Guide. Both of those lines are no longer focusing only on the budget travel, but are still more useful for a sincere and curious traveler than Let's Go.

...and I used this guide both times. Incredible amounts of information for the budget traveler. I especially appreciate how accurate everything is. The food recommends are great, too.

Basically, of the guides I have used before, this is the best for somebody on a budget. Also, this guide seems the best for anybody traveling alone.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 12 reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars