This blog post is better than even the best Lisbon Guide book!
Instead, as certain travel publishers use this period of downtime to introduce new customers to their e-book offering, we will see them focusing their efforts on finessing their digital output – websites, apps, e-books, podcasts and social media content.
We haven't used guide books for ages.
Being hardcore travellers in the 80’s and 90’s Lonely Planet, Rough Guide and Le Guide du Routard were important ‘tools’ in our life. These guide books were the best access to updated information about how to get from A to B, accommodation options, border crossings etc when travelling off-the-beaten-track. The way the travel landscape has changed – and especially how easy it has become to get access to information when you need it – has made printed guidebooks history.
When we know where to go, we use the endless source of valuable information you find on countless blogs and travel communities to plan and book all you need to get away. And while being on the road all essential information is only a click away. But what’s best are all the experiences you – back in the old days – knew were just-around-the-corner but impossible to find – these parties & events are not only relatively easy to get. If you are curious and open minded you may be lucky to get invitations from like minded locals to take you there…
I don’t even remember the last time we bought a printed guide-book – but it must have been in the last century.
We used to get inspiration from Lifestyle Magazines, Inflight Magazines & Travel Magazines, Newspapers, Travel Features and Novels. But even here online blogs have taken over.
Thanks to Google alerts, WordPress Reader, hashtags etc I wake up to a long list of inspiring readings that could keep me busy all day….
If you are planning to go to Lisbon – or maybe you’ve already decided to go – you may find the links below useful. It’s a selection we have selected from LisbonLisboaPortugal hundreds of links. When it comes to Traditional Guide Book information this is the best travel guide to Lisbon in our opinion. There are thousands of other – and probably better alternatives out there. But the links below will cover most of the travellers’ needs.
Enjoy
Annette & Thomas
Guide books may still be good for inspiration...
The rivers are Amazona’s Highways Randy Smith wrote in and old National Geographic I found in a backpacker bar. Lets go boat hiking to Regal Bar in Eifel’s Iron House in Iquitos, Peru. I said to Annette. We we’re in Coca at Rio Napo in Ecuador. 10 days later we arrived – but only because of Annette’s Comminicator 1999 we used to get hold of Randy who gave us the necessary information about how to get there, what to bring etc. That was in 2001
We have been first movers – no doubt about that. We meet many travellers who insist on using guide books.
But that must be history.
Covid changed peoples lives in many ways. The most radical change was how the world almost instantly accepted online services even the most conservative online ignorants have refused. Today they use Bolt, UBER EAT, Amazon, and all kinds of online retailers.
In 2023 when the world opened up again the first thing people will do is to go online to check the first thing they did was checking the possible travel destinations, shopping tickets and reading the inspirational links algorithms send in your direction.
That was the death of the physical Guidebooks.