“Hi Diana, Thank you for the Port wine, the soap and the cookies. It was a nice treat to receive when we arrived. So far the trip has been great! We found the driver right away, which was wonderful after a 3 hour flight delay. We are very happy at the Posada de Lisboa. The location is so convenient, the service has been fantastic and the accommodations are great. Additionally, we really enjoyed the tour of Lisboa with Elsa. She was so knowledgeable, interesting and helpful! We are excited for our bike ride and trip to Sintra tomorrow. The Roadbook and guide book have been very helpful. We went to St. George’s castle and Belem and have also done a lot of walking around the city. We had a great meal at Sacramento last evening. We are excited for the remainder of our trip! Here is a picture of the 4 of us at Belem tower.
Thanks! -Ronni”

“Hi Diana,
Thanks for your email. I had been planning to write to you to tell you what a wonderful vacation we had, but it has been pretty crazy at work since I got home. Thanks for all your help with the planning of our trip to Portugal! It was a fantastic vacation and we were very happy with the hotels and the activities that you had planned for us. We especially liked the tour of Lisbon (Elsa was fabulous!) and the day of bike riding with Phillipe. We also really enjoyed the winery tour. Regarding the hotels, they were all great, but our favorites were the Villa Cascais (where Pedro made us a delicious meal) and the Pousada de Lisboa (my personal favorite). I think we would have liked Covilha better if it hadn’t been snowing there! It was good, but in retrospect, it was a lot of driving for a short visit, and those days happened to be rainy and cold. We really loved Sintra, and ended up going back there for a day and going to the Pena Palace and Moorish Castle (we hiked from Sintra). The GPS was so helpful! It’s easy to know what we liked in retrospect, but we would have liked an extra day in Cascais, and perhaps skipping the time up north, although it was interesting to learn about the Jewish experience in Belmonte.
In any event, I’d be happy to write a review on TripAdvisor and you are welcome to use our feedback (…). I would also be happy to be a reference if someone wants to email or call me. We would definitely use you again if our travels bring us to Portugal, the Azores or Spain!
Thank you so much! We really appreciated your planning, your ideas and your responsiveness when we did call the help line!
All the best,
Ronni”

“Dear João,
Our time in Portugal was totally Magical. We continue to bask in the glow of our memories. You and Portugal Trails added to our enjoyment of the country. There are so many memories to recall and thank you for your contribution.
After 25 hours of travel time, it was so nice to be picked up at the airport and taken to our hotel. On both ends of the trip, the gentlemen who escorted us were friendly and informative. Your gift bag was such a nice touch. We look forward to tasting the gift of the Port very soon. And Thank You! again for purchasing the water for us. I know you made a special trip for us and at that point in our trip, we were very grateful to have what we needed and not have to go shopping.
At the Hotel do Chiado, we were given the best room in the house. It was on the top floor and overlooked a street that was decorated with Christmas Lights. Here is a picture from our balcony:
It was so delightful to look out upon this street each evening.
In both Lisbon and Porto, the walking tour guides were both delightful and we were so glad to have them. We learned so much about Portugal from both of them. Each of them really added to our enjoyment of seeing and understanding the country. They also provided insight into the thinking and culture of the people within the country. Oh, and the Fado music and dinner was very enjoyable. We saw three different singers that night and each of their interpretations of the music was very good. And by the way, the food and the wine in Portugal was SO.O.O.O.O delicious. Even in the smallest restaurant, we were given good food and very good wine. It seemed the people of Portugal have great pride in their offerings.
We were so grateful for the GPS. We couldn’t have gotten around without it. At one point, on our way to Navarre, it took us through the loveliest country road. It was so nice to see the farms that people tend and the soil that they work with.
There was one, hilltop hotel we stayed at, I think it was the one at Guimaraes, where the decor of the room was so beautiful, I nearly cried when I saw it. There was such peace there.
We loved touring the quieter roads of the country while in the in the Eastern mountains and enjoyed the vineyards of the Allentejo.
Also, we enjoyed our tours at Churchill Port Cellar and the wine tour at Herded de Esporao. We learned so much at each of these tours and were treated well in both places.
In fact, we were treated very well in all the places we went. While in Evora over the Christmas holiday, the front desk called around and found us restaurants to eat at. One of them, a very small place, was exceptionally good. Throughout our trip it seemed that all the restaurants were especially good, even the smallest ones.
As I look through the Trail Guide provided by you, I realize there are so many things we didn’t see. The driver who took us to the airport said: “You didn’t see it all, so you will have to come back. See you next time.”
I can’t say Thank You! enough for the gracious, thoughtful and thorough ways you took care of us on our first tour of Portugal. Your service made the trip easy, unique and memorable for us. We loved it.
The people at your help line were very helpful and knowledgeable on the two occasions when we called.
I will post a positive review on your website which you are welcome to quote. I have already posted a recommendation for Portugal Trails on Facebook, and will continue to recommend your service to friends and colleagues.
Sincerely,
Jeff & Janhavi”

“Hello Diana,
From start to finish, we were extremely happy with the arrangements you made for us. Rosario and Celia (drivers) were courteous, helpful and on time (if not early). Hotel staff at Inspira and M’ar were also very helpful. Both hotels were conveniently located. Inspira was smaller than M’ar, but that is what we expect for large city accommodations. We enjoyed Ervedeira Winery but are unable to ship directly to U.S. They do have a distributor near to us. We did buy some wine but we could only bring back a limited amount in our suitcase. We loved the wine tasting in Lisbon. Very creative use of an old space. Perfect selection of wine, cheese and meat. We went back there the next night to have a drink prior to the Fado Show. Both tour guides very great. Informative and knowledgeable. The highlight was the cooking class. My husband really enjoyed it even though he does not cook at home. Sofia taught some new cooking techniques.
I would absolutely use Portugal Trails again and would highly recommended it to others.
Arlette Steinberger and Robert Sadowsk”

“Hi Nuno, we had an amazing time on the trip and appreciate all of the work that you did to put the tour together. We were able to see and experience so many wonderful activities as a result. We did see the soccer match and it was very good!! A definite highlight of the trip. We will most certainly refer you to all of our friends. I will write a longer email over the weekend with more in-depth feedback and recommendations. Cheers!!”

“Dear Sofia,
Thank you for arranging such a wonderful trip. We enjoyed it immensely. Everything went very smoothly.
The guides were excellent – we were especially impressed by their knowledge and ability to convey it, and by their genuine warmth and concern for us. Ricardo, Fernando, George and Patricia were a delight to be with and listen to as they discussed the sites we visited with each. Celia, our driver in Lisbon, took very good care of us.
We would be more than happy to highly recommend Portugal Trails, and our guides.
Cordially,
Steve”