Writing a Guidebook to Portugal

As we make our way around the entire of Portugal updating our guidebook “Drive Around Portugal” for its third edition, we are constantly taken for first time tourists.

Who else, people reason, would walk around a town with a guidebook in their hands making notes in its margins? Certainly only someone without a clue, about Portugal, who must rely on a guidebook to find interesting things to see, and then check them off the list before moving on.

This mistaken identity does give us an interesting perspective on how local people regard tourists. Instead of snickering at this couple they see as neophyte visitors, they approach us and ask if we need directions. They smile and say “Bom Dia” or they try out their English on us.

They escort us personally to places where the route is too difficult to describe. They draw us little maps and they politely correct our pronunciation of a place name if they think it will confuse the next person we ask.

In short, the Portuguese are perfect hosts. They behave as I would want to behave in my own hometown if I encountered someone from afar. They are endlessly patient with the terrible way we butcher their language and they will try several others until they find one we can communicate in.

And when they do find out that we are the authors of Drive Around Portugal, they do not ask the obvious question: why would someone who doesn’t live here have the nerve to write a guidebook to Portugal?

It’s a good question, and one we often ponder ourselves. The answer is that as foreigners we find interesting and noteworthy those things that other travelers would see. While a native might know more little details, they would also find commonplace those very things travelers seek. They would hasten to point out – as hosts often do – the new and the up-to-date that they think foreigners seek and will be comfortable with.

They often fail to realize that the fun parks, the modern resorts and the shiny new attractions are much the same everywhere, and that travelers planning a trip seek that which is different and unique to that place.

But the Portuguese are too polite to ask, and they are delighted to help us. They sense our love for Portugal and its charming Old-Worldy-ness, and they even show us places they would probably prefer tourists did not invade – just because it’s the hospitable thing to do.