“Hi Sofia,

We are back from our fabulous trip to Portugal…We would like to thank you so much for all that you’ve done for us and always replying promptly to our emails… We have to say that the hotels selected were always well located and that the guided tours were excellant….Thanks to Patricia and Maria. All tours were great, especially the Herdade de Esporia wine tour which was the culinary highlight of our trip. We fell in love with the Douro region and the Quinta do Pego hotel. Having the pre-programmed GPS was essential for us to travel worry free from place to place. All people we met were always very friendly and helpfull.

We have only good things to say about Portugal Trails and will not hesitate to recommend you to any traveller wanting to explore Portugal.

Thanks again…!

Pierre and Lili

It would have been great to have the point of return of the car (at Avis uptown Porto) pre-programmed on the GPS in Porto, which gave us problems when returning the car.”

“Good morning Nuno.

We just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know that we had an outstanding time in Portugal. We were very happy with the itinerary for our trip and many of the suggested stops or activities. The hotels that you selected for us were all unique and we enjoyed them all.  The car rental worked out very well and the pre-programmed GPS was extremely helpful throughout our entire trip. We put the GPS in the box you provided and mailed it from the airport in Lisbon on Saturday.

Thanks very much for your assistance with our trip. We look forward to returning to Portugal sometime in the future!

Regards,

Jim and Hazel Ringheim”

“Hello Joana we have been home for nearly one week now and the jetlag is disappearing though it has been quite bad.

We want to thank you for your organisation of our holiday in Portugal which we think is a lovely country.

Having drivers to pick us up from every arrival point and take us to our hotel is a luxury we have not experienced before but it certainly removes a lot of stress. Without exception the drivers were on time or early special mention please to Rosario who was very kind and I think conveyed to you our concern about the Lisbonaire Apartments Their location was excellent of course but the noise was truly bad. We should have tipped Rosario but we are unused to tipping and do not want to insult people anyway please thank her.

The apartment you chose in Barcelona was excellent! The location was so convenient only 5 minutes’ walk from the Picasso Museum It was very large had an always changing look out to the street and we were told triple glazing!! Highly recommended.

I wish you Happy Holydays”

“Dear Sofia,

Our trip was fantastic, thank you very much. We were amazed by the beauty of your country, and the people were generally very friendly & helpful as well. And my god, you guys make a delicious “frango asado” almost everywhere! 🙂 I hope you received the GPS?

A few things to note:

– Tavira: Pousada was beautiful, boattrip to the Ria Formosa was an amazing experience, very friendly skipper as well.

– Lagos: the Vila Galé was a bit crowded to be honest, the pool was always full of people 🙂 We did find a very nice restaurant, Atlantico, around the corner.

– Lisbon: what a fantastic city… great guided tour as well. We went to Sea Me restaurant, excellent sea food indeed. We probably would’ve liked to spend an extra day here, but that just means we need to come back 🙂 The hotel was very friendly and clean, we were in a very small room though (according to the plan of the floor, it was the smallest room on the floor).

– Porto: very nice hotel, also good guided tour. Had a great meal at LSD-restaurant on Largo San Domingo. 

– Guimaraes: hotel & restaurant in hotel were both excellent

– On our way from Guimaraes to Pinhao, we stopped for lunch at Quinta do Portal – excellent value, delicious food and very good wine/port, definitely a recommendation.

– Pinhao: the Vintage House itself was really nice, great view, room and pool. However, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant one night, and this was a very unpleasant experience: They make a big show of offering you a “free” glass of sparkling wine, and then they charge 6 EUR per person for couvert which only included bread. Food and wine was generally overpriced, very bland in taste, and weird combination of ingredients. We paid over 90 EUR for a shared starter, two main courses, one dessert and two glasses of wine. Rather unfriendly waiters as well. I would definitely warn your clients to sleep in the hotel but eat elsewhere.

– Which brings me to the absolute culinary highlight of our trip: DOC restaurant in Folgosa. Oh my god, that was delicious. Also extremely friendly and accommodating service. We changed quite a few dishes in the set menu, and they were very flexible and didn’t charge extra. Ok, it’s a bit more expensive, but it’s still excellent value for money.

– Belmonte: what a beautiful Pousada, very relaxed atmosphere. Also excellent food in the hotel restaurant. We wish we had an extra day there 🙂

– Evora: very nice hotel, very nice city to spend a few days. Herdade d’Esporao was also a very interesting tour and good food.

All in all, we had a really great trip, and your advice was a great help for us. Thank you very much, we will certainly recommend you to friends and family.”

“Hi Sofia

We have just arrived back home and want to let you know that we had a fanatic trip organised by you and Portugal Trails. Your country is truly beautiful and people so friendly. We really appreciate your effort in organising our holiday as everything went smoothly and to plan. The hotels and pousadas you chose were excellent and the road book a fantastic holiday tool.

All the car hire details and associated booking information, toll, fuel, parking and driving tips were excellent. The GPS worked well with the exception of driving into Lisbon (it seemed to get lost once we exited the bridge) and on leaving the main road to drive up the mountain to Monsanto. However, the driving instructions provided made sure that things were soon rectified. These instructions we feel were a valuable addition to the road book as well as the photo of the street where Avis in Lisbon was situated.

We did have a little mix up with getting the hire car in Coimbra but contacted your help desk number and this was fixed immediately (This was an excellent service). 

Just for your reference the car did not turn up at the hotel at 9:30 am and after being contacted by your help desk the Avis representative came to the hotel and took us to the Avis office to pick up the car. He indicated that as it was a Sunday the office didn’t open until 10am and that he also did not have instructions to deliver the car to the hotel. He was waiting for us to come to the Avis office. This was not problematic for us but just thought I would give you the feedback in case there is a problem for anyone else who might get stressed if this happened. Maybe there was a mix up in the Avis office when it was booked. 

Once again thank you for such a responsive and quality service and I will definitely recommend Portugal Trails and your service. We really appreciated the great service you provided.

I don’t know how to comment on Trip Advisor so if you let me know how to do this I would love to recommend Portugal Trails.

Kind Regards,

Julie Argeros”

“Joana,

Thank you for such an excellent tour. My husband and I are still adjusting to the time change and life back at home.  To say our tour exceeded our expectations is an understatement.  Everything was so well organized and our roadbook was an absolutely luxury.  Every tour in every town taught us so much but also allowed for us to be immersed in the culture.  Our guides were friendly, highly knowledgeable, and made us feel very comfortable.  The drivers provided certainty despite the fact that transportation in the city centers seemed very accessible.  The accomodations were all lovely (particularly the seaview in Ponta Delgada).  We followed almost all of the recommendations and that kept us busy and happy.  Thank you so much for creating such a highly organized and satisfying trip for us.  We could not have asked for more.  We will be recommending you highly to everyone.

Sincerely,

Rebecca and Mark Brinkman”