UKC

What's the best climbing guide for Portugal ?

Can't tell you which is best but the 'Versante Sud' guide by Carlos Simes looks good.

I have a copy of the Versante Sud book though haven't used it on the crags yet due to pandemic but it looks great: text in English; lots of info for access and approaches, aspect, gear, parking etc; pretty good looking topos, lots of great action pics; covers 14 climbing areas. Not cheap but impressive looking.

I tried the above mentioned book for the Cascais / Sintra area and it served us well. 

I have used this book quite a bit in recent years. It does the job although the maps could be a lot better and some of the topos are a bit abstract, so some places take time to figure out. Some crags also have new bolted lines so the 'start at the left and work rightwards' approach (or vice versa) is also not completely foolproof.

The Jingo Wobbly guide usually has better maps (the topos vary from very detailed to abstract) but is a bit dated for some places now, as well as the usual Jingo Wobbly eccentricities.

There is also a new guide out to the wider Lisbon area (Arrabida, Sintra/Cascais, Montejunto etc.) but I have not got it yet.

I have the Jingo Wobbly guide if you want it. 
Don’t know how it compares to the other guidebooks.

Completely agree with this.  Carlos' guide is a great resource but sometimes a bit hard to follow for a first visit. There are detailed descriptions of how to find the parking, but then the walk-in is glossed over! Like Iain we've sometimes found it useful to triangulate with Jingo Wobbly. 

We've really enjoyed our climbing trips to Portugal - everyone is super-friendly. If you'd like more specific beta just feel free to PM or post again on here. 

Also worth noting Dominic Oughton's Rock Around the World blog https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/ has some very good tips for Portuguese crags, often of the type based upon hard-won experience!

For all the Portugal visitors, how does the quality of the climbing compare to better known venues across Europe? It looks a lovely place but is the climbing top notch?

Classic med limestone to high grade granite. I’d say my last trip over to coimbra was comparie to climbing in Sardinia or Spain. Some of the photos in Carlos Simes book, the rock looks amazing. 

Not sure you can really compare, what we have visited is smaller sectors than some of the continental classics, and the routes relatively short. The setting above the sea however was just great, as was the friendliness of local climbers and the food. 

I've been to Sagres, Ingrina and Rocha da Pena.  For what my opinion is worth, and speaking as a trad climber essentially, they're nice if you're there, but not what I'd call a destination.  A destination for me is somewhere like Siurana, Verdon, Handegg/Eldorado. 

Having said that, I have done very few truly memorable sport climbs in my life - one of them is the Mirror at Sagres. 

I think Sagres probably has the freshest air of any crag in Europe.  When I was there, the ab rope was being pulled directly out to sea by the current - next stop Venezuela about 4,000 miles away

Thanks for the name check Iain  

We've climbed at pretty much every one of the venues in the VS guide and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Portugal - factor in the culture, food, people and landscape along with some great climbing, and it's a tremendous road trip destination. 

For ease of navigation, here's a link directly to the Portugal section of the blog:

https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/category/portugal/

Cheers, Dom