“Dear Sofia

What a wonderful holiday!

We want to thank you (and Portugal Trails) for all the work in setting up our trip. It was amazing! Everything-the accommodation, the transportation, the excursions, the guide books and the drivers were excellent. Rosario and John were so accommodating when we asked to make a few changes to our itinerary. And we really appreciated the lovely welcoming gifts of port wine, cookies and soap!

We are now faced with the task of organizing our hundreds of pictures so we can show our awesome travel experience to friends and family. We will definitely promote Portugal as a travel destination and Portugal Trails as a company that gives excellent service.

Thank you!

Bob and Christine Townsend”

“Sofia,

I wanted to thank you for all the help you gave us during our Vacation.  Everything you did worked perfectly – and on time!!  We had a blast, and through your efforts and planning we got to do all we had planned and more.  Your guides were really good.  Maria and Ana were “A+”– friendly, knowledgeable, excited, great stories — we had great times with them.  Andrea 1 and Andrea 2 in Portugal were also very good – friendly and knowledgeable and good English – we rated them “B+”.  David in Seville was okay, maybe a “C” — his English was not as good as the rest, and he was really quiet — tough on long drive to and from Jerez.  But he did pick out a great Sherry Tasting at Tio Pepe.  The guide their spoke excellent English, and was very entertaining.  Cooking Lisbon was great.  We also enjoyed the Flamenco Dancing and FADO.

All in all we had a very good time.  Gave you a good write-up in Trip Advisor (though I spelled your first name wrong…. I have asked them to fix it).

Warm regards,

Richard Hayes”

“Hi Diana

We had a fabulous time, the car was great and driving was quiet easy with the wonderful navigator, it just made the trip so smooth.

Loved all the stops and all the accommodation you booked was beautiful. I especially loved Sintra is a really magical place and then the Douro Valley.

We will be recommending your company to anyone who is going to Portugal. Your company and your helpful staff made our holiday a wonderful experience.

Allison”

“Hello Tiago,

Sorry for such a late response.  I have been a little busy since our return to Canada.  Whenever I would see this email, I would start to think about any pros and cons and then get busy and forget to reply.  So here is our feedback!

Pros:

You provided excellent customer service. You demonstrated extreme patience with my one million questions and changes in preparation for our trip.

You designed our vacation to suit our every wish of places we wanted to see (including giving some good advice when we wanted to add more to our itinerary. You advised not to pack in too much as we would lose the time to enjoy)

Knowing we were active and enjoyed walking, your itinerary including information on hiking trails in many locations, and the city tours were “walking” tours.  We loved them!  We loved the intimacy of having the guide all to ourselves!

And for your information, we walked the 621 steps up to the church in Viana do Costelo, as well as the 687 steps up to the church in Lamego (the town near Folgosa in the Douro Valley).  We also walked all the way up to the Palace in Sintra with many tuk tuk rentals stopping and asking if we wanted a ride as it was a very long walk!

We appreciated the recommendations of places to see and the local shops and restaurants in the guide book.

We loved the boat trips and winery tours that were included.  These are things we would most likely not have participated in, but because it was “already paid for”, we went, and thoroughly enjoyed them.

All hotels were lovely and in great locations, and all had breakfasts included, which made everything so much easier.  There were actually a few hotels that we felt would be priced WELL ABOVE what we would normally budget for, and when searching Expedia, found them to be VERY EXPENSIVE.  But…..the total price of the overall trip was agreeable to us.  It was a nice treat to stay in these higher quality hotels than what we would have picked on our own!

As for Cons….. 

We really don’t have any with respect to the quality of service provided by Portugal Trails.  In thinking about the trip, there was one aspect that we felt we MIGHT have done differently.  By the end of the trip we were getting tired of packing up that suit case so many times!  We considered perhaps staying more days in more central locations with the ability to drive (take more day trips returning to the same hotel), but…..we also felt that we would not have been able to see as much or get to as many as many places this way.  We felt we would end up driving through the same areas on the day trips and therefore “wasting” in a sense, the time we had,  seeing the same countryside more than once… so, not really sure what the answer is.  That is what travelling is all about I guess!  It really depends on what each individual wants.

But absolutely, we will, and have been, recommending Portugal Trails to our friends who are considering traveling to Portugal!

Thank you Tiago!  I am sorry we did not get to meet in person!

Myrna and Dick”

“Hi Joana!

I just wanted to say thank you again for all the work you put into our trip to your beautiful country. Our honeymoon was exactly what we envisioned and we’re so thankful for all your help!

Also I just want to make a point in saying that everyone you set us up with was absolutely excellent! Patrick was an amazing guide, Rosario was so kind and a lovely lady who was always on time (even for our early morning flight), and Sofia’s cooking class was amazing, definitely one of my personal favorites. They were all fantastic and I wish them all the best!

I totally forgot about the Garmin and forgot to drop it off at the post office in the airport. I’m so sorry! I just opened my luggage today and saw it and felt so embarrassed. I’ll be shipping it to you in the next couple days, again I’m so sorry about that.

Lastly thank you again for everything, I’ll be definitely recommending Portugaltrails to anyone who wants to visit your beautiful country!

Take care,

Zach”

“Tiago,

I have been meaning to write back to you about the trip. Overall, it was excellent. All the accommodations were great.  I would definitely recommend that you put Quinta do Vallado on your list.  It is terrific, although I guess expensive. Great wine tasting there, and the rooms and views are fantastic. The guides were all excellent. We loved Portugal. Highlights were Sintra, Nazare, and the Douro Valley.  The last day was hectic, we just made it to Porto in time to check in to the hotel, return the car, and meet the guide for a walking tour from 5 – 8 pm. We could have used another day in Porto. Also, for some reason, we had a lot of trouble driving in Coimbra (between the river and all the round abouts), but we ended up walking into town from the hotel, which was fine. Maybe a few more restaurant suggestions for Lisbon would have been good too.

Overall, a great trip.

Thanks for your help.”