Hi Nuno,
Sorry for the long delay in responding to your feedback request.

Overall, we have been pleased with how Portugal Trails have managed our tour.

Our welcome gifts were much appreciated.

Except for a few hiccups, the GPS was well set, and the instructions accompanying the handling of it was well organised. Yes, the GPS has a few strange ideas of what route we should take. At one time we entered a rod we could not get through! But it all sorted itself as we got used to it.

As was the itinerary. We enjoyed the tour of the very modern vineyard and the degustation lunch that followed. The wine and cheese tasting was interesting. The organised walking tours in Porto and Lisbon were very informative and interesting.
Also the grotto boat tour was very nice and the guide did not rush us through. The fado music was ok, but because it started so late and we could not understand any of the son, it felt a bit flat (it would be so easy to have digital translation above the singers, like they do nowadays for opera).
We added a visit to Fatima, which we found very interesting in particular as I am a long term meditator and just completed the Camino. It was easy to program in.
We also added a visit of the ancient stones, and it is a shame it is not better set up from a tourism point of view.

Your organisation allowed us to miss on some activities if we felt tired, or to do them in a different order.
Most hotels we were booked in were of a good standard.
It was very helpful for us to have booked twin share and included breakfast.

However, there were a few setbacks.
Accomodatedat Folgosar instead of Pinhao meant unnecessary driving, and there was little there to do.

Having the car in Lisbon for 3 days without using it added unnecessary expenses.

Suggestions?
An extra day at the start ( take a night off from Pinhao ) would have been good as Porto has so much to offer.

I suspect it would have been better to start in Lisbon, and we found afterward that there was a bus direct from Santiago to Lisbon.

On the whole, we have enjoyed a tour of your country and would be happy to recommend you.

Thanks very much for your organisation which gave us a very different appreciation of Portugal, to what our pre-conceived views were.

Love & light

Alain Romary

“Hi Marta:

Our trip was a terrific experience, thanks mostly to the excellent plan and prepaid aspects Portugal Trails provided. The vouchers simplified everything: checking into and out of hotels; tours, etc. Everyone was courteous and we had no difficulties with using any of them.

Covering the country and experiencing the regional differences was a delight. Our tours were excellent. They, and the tastings, were extra special due to their small size. We didn’t cover everything but we covered and enjoyed 1978 Kms and, it seems, almost that much walking since almost everything was uphill!

We thought you might enjoy hearing about some of our adventures in dealing with our travels.
The biggest challenge was negotiating the street system. We missed some streets because we drove by them thinking they were for pedestrians. Some were raised or reached by driving over the sidewalk. Then there were the hard to find street signs or lack of signs. We were lost for an hour trying to find the hotel in Porto because streets on the GPS were closed. We called the hotel and found we were nearby. They talked us back to the hotel.

After check in we were told the garage was down the street. Mort couldn’t find it and spent a half hour getting back to the hotel. He was shown two double doors right next to the entrance. Strange that such a good hotel wouldn’t think to put up a sign (garagem?) – we’d never seen garage doors like that. After parking we realized that was part of the fun of travelling. Did we mention that we found the streets narrow?

The GPS was “fun”. We never found the Pizza place. Somehow, leaving Sagres, we missed a turn or took a wrong one. We wound up on the highway and were detoured through a wonderful golf community and then onto a dirt road going up, up. We eventually wound up in a wind power electrical field next to one of the wind towers and a locked road. Turning around we found a downhill route and were back on the highway heading for pizza. Nearing Sagres, the GPS said we had 30 Kms to go but when we left Sagres it said 15. We drove for a while then gave up. It was an experience. We think we were on the road that services these wind towers.

Late in the trip we noticed the GPS made mistakes like saying “take the third exit” when the proper exit was the second, or fourth. Perhaps that’s what happened on our way to pizza. We discovered that the GPS was even programmed for sights within the city – but we wanted to walk. We never found the Roman Baths, in three tries. But the walking was great.

Finding the car return was a riot. It took 4 circuits. The GPS would say “turn right onto ………..” but we didn’t see a street, only a BP station. On our last circuit we saw the office on a 50 meter strip of pavement parallel to the main road. The entrance to this alley was not visible and was hidden behind a bus. The highlights of our circuit were stalling on a hill on the main road and Mort having trouble getting restarted. Somebody pulled in next to us. We expected anger but the driver simply smiled, asked if we needed help, and said “relax”. Portugal is relaxed and relaxing to its guests.

We loved the people and the widespread use of English was a plus. Speaking to the car representative provided a great insight. He was working to raise money for a return to university. A grocery store cashier with a British accent was from Bangladesh via London. He said he would never leave Cascais. In returning the GPS, we met a Dutch woman who led us to a post office. She’d lived there for 40 years and only goes “home” to visit relatives. She would never go back – “it would be crazy” she said. Our guide in Porto was a history teacher whose hours had been cut back so he was using his Tourism certification to make up some of his salary loss. Our vineyard tour to d’Ervideira was by a Tourism graduate. She said she took up tourism to ensure employment. It’s amazing how resilient and happy people were.

By the way, there is an error in your personalized guide for Evora. It refers to a three page description beginning on page 155 of the guide. It actually begins on 224.

We truly enjoyed the Fado evening. The dinner was superb and all-inclusive, plus we were proud that we got there by transit and didn’t get lost!

We marveled at the castle in Marvao as we had been watching on TV in Toronto, the re-creation of a castle in the north of France which is in its 17th of 25 years of being rebuilt using only the original materials available at the time it was built. The documentary helped us truly understand the logistics of this incredible fortress.

All the hotels were centrally situated except for the one in Porto. It was in a strange district and quite a distance from anything.

We have more tales but we can sum up by telling you that never on our travels have we had so much to talk about and so many memories. obrigada (and obrigado).

Nadia and Mort”

“Hi Diana,

I have just reached back to Singapore and had a lovely time in Portugal thanks to you and Portugal Trails. It was a successful and memorable trip which was well organised.

The hotels were well located and sights and sounds were very well chosen. Sintra was beautiful and so were the various castles in Marvao, Constancia etc.

Me and my wife had a great time. The recommended restaurants were great as well. We managed to patron most of them. It was also easy to navigate with the GPS. Only once, the GPS brought me off the map a little but that’s a small matter and only happened once.

Overall, thank you so much and I will recommend you and Portugal Trails to my friends who wish to explore Portugal.

Oh yes, also the transport limousine service was very good. The drivers were very friendly and helpful. Also, I already post back the GPS and I believe you would receive it by now.

No bad comments, only good ones.

Thanks,
Wesley”

“Filipa – sorry for the delay in responding. Needed a little break after 3 great weeks in Portugal and Spain.
It was a great trip with wonderful arrangement made by you and PortugalTrails. Everything went smoothly and we had a great new experiences during our 3 week adventure (even the pick pocket was a new experience…and didn’t negatively influence our wonderful time). Beautiful scenery, very friendly people, great food and wine!

“Here are a few of our comments regarding the overall itinerary (for your info):
• Private city walking tours were great. Enjoyed all 3 tour guides…added a lot to our understanding of Lisbon, Porto, and Santiago
• Hotels were great
• Directions (written and GPS) worked great
• Day 4: Would have liked to have more time in Sintra…lots to see with limited time…but got the highlights
• Day 5: We did not go to Nazare…added Batalha instead
• Day 6: We were not too impressed with the Moliceiro boat trip in Aveiro. Took some time to walk to/from the hotel to the remote dock location, there were some delays waiting for others also booked to arrive (ended up being a group of small school children…operator finally decided to launch with just the 2 of us when the kids were still not ready to go after arriving 15 minutes late). Wine and pasty tasting was just a small bottle of wine and a couple of pastries in cellophane. Believe we could have easily booked with one of the operators right outside our hotel and had a similar or better overall experience.
• Day 14: Was nice to have a slow day, but really not all that much to do/see in Belmonte area
• Day 17: FYI – we were not able to finalize last-minute arrangements for a cork factory tour…due to cork harvest and other arranged special group tours, their only available tour was at 10am and with a 3+ hour drive from Evora we were not able to get there in time. They did offer us a special restricted tour at 6pm but would have meant not getting to Lagos until after 8pm, so we decided no. We did stop at a museum and saw a video on cork harvesting along with some hands-on displays.
• For us, we could have shortened the Lagos stay to 2 nights instead of 3…but was nice to have a slower pace at the end of the 3 weeks
• Day 20: As an added bonus, we were able to see the Portugal National Team celebration in Lisbon after their Euro Cup Victory…fun to see the excitement of the large crowds of fans, see the players and the trophy (watched with my hand on my wallet at all times )

As with all trips, we would probably do a few things differently based on what we know now…but we still give the trip and your planning/arrangements an A+! We will certainly recommend PortugalTrails to anyone looking for Portugal travel planning and would be happy to be a reference if you have potential customers looking for feedback. (Note…we ran into a few other travelers that had also worked through PortugalTrails (the orange travel binder was a definite give away)…and all seemed to be very happy with the planning/arrangements!)

Thanks for your help!”

“Dear Vanessa,
We had a great time on the trip. Can’t believe that we checked into 8 hotels, rented two cars with a transfer in between, went on at least 7 excursions and there were zero hiccups! Your organizational skills were amazing. I hope you don’t mind but I have copied Julie Beck on this email. She is traveling to Spain and Portugal and we would like to make her our first referral to you. There will be many more. Julie is a world class traveler and knows everyone so the word will spread fast about you if she is as happy with your services as we were.
I’ll try to summarize the high and low points below (there weren’t many lows)

1. Regions
Favorite cities – Porto and Seville
Favorite small towns – Pinhao (probably the highlight of the trip for us) and White hill towns (particularly Grazelema, Ronda, and Zahara) Evora would be next followed by Valencia and Malaga. Lisbon was okay but didn’t have any sites better than Porto or Seville and was more difficult to get around. The only towns we didn’t like were Jerez and Arcos de Frontera.

2. Dining
Best two spots were DOC in Douro and Carmen Mirador de Aixa in Granada (both with amazing food and beautiful), followed closely by a meal we had on the waterfront in the Triana area of Seville called Abades Triana. .
Best inexpensive dive would have to be Ora Viva in Porto ,1/4 Para as 9 in Evora or El Aji in Seville. We ate at lots of quality Tapas Bars in Valencia, Seville, Ronda (Tragatapas), Porto, and Lisbon. The only tapas restaurant I would not recommend would be Bodegas Castaneda in Granada. Service was horrible. We actually left after drinks and before dinner was ordered because they were so rude.
The meal at the Fada dinner at Mesa de Frades was authentic and a pleasant surprise.

3. Hotels
A real highlight of the trip. All hotels were outstanding in their own way.
Best Splurge was definitely the Yeatman. Stunning hotel and worth the price. Only downside was long walk to town but it felt good to stretch our legs after the big dinners.
Slightly behind the Yeatman but still amazing was the Vintage House in Pinhao.
3rd through 5th place would go to the three posadas/paradors (Rhonda, Evora, and Lisbon, probably in that order).
Rounding out the stellar list would be the Hotel Becquer in Seville, the Suites Gran Via in Granada, and the Vincci Lys in Valencia (in that order). All were centrally located and roomy.

4. Activities
A. Planned activities – Our favorites would have to be the guided tour of Porto with Ricardo, who was outstanding, and the Alhambra tour (although the guide wasn’t great). A nice surprise was the wine tasting in Evora. The surroundings were not great but our guide was excellent. Patricia was a good guide in Lisbon but the city wasn’t as interesting as Porto. The Fado dinner was great. The singing was professional but we tired of it after a few hours and it was getting very late. The Flamenco night was a little bit of a disappointment. The singers were just so so and talked amongst themselves instead of interacting with the audience. We got the impression that they were very arrogant. We wished we had gone to a more authentic show in the Sacromonte district of Granada. The Douro cruise was relaxing but the views were better from the roads.

B. Unplanned activities – I’ll rate these by stars since we did so many.
5 stars – Hike down into Gorge in Ronda near Puente Nuevo. Electric Bike tour of Albaicin and Sacromonte in Granada. Bike Ride to Arts and Science Center in Valencia (spent half day in Oceanographic Sea Park, very nice). Personal walking tour of Seville (good during day but even better at night) including downtown, Plaza de Espana, and Barrio Santa Cruz. Visiting Livraria Lello bookstore in Porto.
4 stars – Picasso Museum in Malaga. Hike near Grazelema. Porto wine tasting in small Quinta Marrocos near Peso de Regua in Douro area. Visiting Bull fighting ring and museum in Ronda.
3 stars – Climbing towers in Valencia, Porto, and Lisbon. Walking tour of Evora. Wine tasting in Porto. Bike ride in Seville.

C. Activities we didn’t get to but kind of wish we did Vuelve Carolina Restaurant in Valencia – looked nice but fully booked.
Visit Murcia, Belmonte, Almarante, Guimaraes, Obidos, and Sintra which were all nearby.
Arabic baths in Granada
Watch flamenco in Sacromonte instead of Seville.
Take a tour of Alcazar and Cathedral in Seville (we passed because of recent visits to Alhambra and other cathedrals) Watch a bullfight – timing just did not work out.
Eat at Ode Porto Wine House and Majestic Cafe in Porto- just not enough time.
Visit Monastery and tower in Belem area of Lisbon.”

“So Filipa, here we are again back in Montreal. Vacations go too quickly.

The trip was great. We really enjoyed the east coast of Spain and all of the hotels were perfect in terms of quality and location. Walking tour was great, GPS well programmed and hotel/airport pick-ups on time. Finally the itinerary worked well. Perhaps Zaragoza could have been dropped as there is not too much to do, but it was interesting as it was a bit of an insight into the non-touristic part of Spain. Barcelona and Valencia were wonderful. Hotels in just the right spot made touring through the city easy. In Barcelona we were five minutes from the Gothic Centre and five minutes from the beach if we wanted to relax. Tarragona was very interesting. The Hotel, Mas La Bella, was out of the town, but so beautiful we took the opportunity to eat there (wonderful meals if a bit pricy). Finally Gerona was the perfect ending. We were ten minutes from the town centre, which is the most beautiful medieval city I have ever seen (mind you the hotel is on a mountain overlooking the town and while it was ten minutes down to the town, it was a taxi back to the hotel). The surrounding area was an adventure. As you recall I had a concern with driving through mountains. Well we went to Cadaques and Tossa de Mar. Not for the faint of heart! Having conquered the drive to Cadaques, I regretted not keeping your first itinerary.

Net net Filipa, we had a great trip. Thank you. We will happily send comment to your web site if you wish.

Warren & Johanne”