Regis St Louis' longtime admiration for wine, rugged coastlines and soulful music made him easy prey for Portugal - a country he has travelled extensively over the past decade. Favourite memories from recent trips include negotiating sheep-filled lanes near Alvito, feasting on percebes (goose barnacles) along the Costa Vicentina and exploring mesmerising industrial ruins in Portalegre and Sào Domingos.
Regis has contributed to more than 50 Lonely Planet guidebooks, and he has also written for the BBC, the Telegraph and the Chicago Tribune. A regular visitor to Portugal, Kate Armstrong first backpacked around the country over 25 years ago and fell for central Portugal's fortified villages (and their ghosts), coastal seafood and Portuguese hospitality. Lured by the language of fado, she later returned to study Portuguese.
For this edition Kate hiked in the Serra da Estrela, entered more castles than a soldier in medieval times, and consumed quantities (ahem, kilos) of convent cakes. She is published regularly in Australian and international publications. Ever since Kerry Christiani first clapped eyes on Porto : the historic centre's houses piled higgledy-piggledy like Jenga blocks above the Rio Douro, and the pure Atlantic light - she knew it was love.
That love has intensified over the years, and now goes way beyond the city's looks and straight to its soul - the wonderfully hospitable tripeiros. Kerry studied Portuguese translation to MA level before going on to author more than a dozen Lonely Planet titles, including Pocket Lisbon and Pocket Porto. A long-established travel guide author, Marc Di Duca cut his Portuguese teeth hiking the levadas of Madeira, a tiny piece of paradise to which he wrote the first edition of Lonely Planet's guide in 2015.
Swapping samba for fado and bananas for oranges, Marc traversed the Algarve for this edition of Lonely Planet's Portugal, by far his favourite region of the mainland. When not on the road for Lonely Planet, Marc can be found in Sandwich, Kent, with his wife and two sons.
