About Us
Guest Book
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Lynn Pieron, USA, May 2015
“Hi Diana,
You must have guessed from our silence that everything has gone smoothly in Lisbon and that we’ve been too busy to write. Tomorrow we leave for Evora and the excitement of driving on our own. I’m sad to leave and know I must come back one day with my husband.
Our book club has enjoyed everything that Portugal Trails proposed. The hotel is comfortable, welcoming, well located and offers a truly copious breakfast. Our guides were delightful and very knowledgeable. The guidebook has been a very helpful resource especially for restaurants and the side trips to Sintra and Cascais were perfect. The people of your country are so gracious- friendly and helpful to lost visitors. We will be enthusiastic ambassadors for Portugal when we get home.
Meanwhile we are off to the next stage of our adventure. Thanks again for all that you and your firm have done to make this a superb trip.
Best,
Lynn”
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Heather & Phil Brush, USA, May 2015
“Hi Diana,
I hope my email finds you well.
The trip overall was just amazing. What a beautiful, beautiful country. I’ve had more than a few friends look at my pictures & say they now want to go. Don’t worry I will give them your info!
I would have to say that our favourite places were Porto, the Douro Valley and then Cascais/Estoril. We loved Porto as I was pretty sure we would and the location of the Pestana Porto Hotel was just perfect. We felt like we could have stayed there one more day. (We ran out of time to try a franchesina.) Quinta de la Rosa was a perfect spot. The terrace for breakfast/dinner was just lovely. We felt we could have handled another day here as well to maybe do some more visiting of the local quintas. The river cruise on the Douro was a truly memorable experience as well. We ran into our only glitch here (other than the GPS). Our road book said we were due in Pinhao for a 1700h wine tasting at the CS Vintage Hotel but when we got there & pulled out our voucher it was actually for the following day at 1300h. We had run into the couple I had our tour with in Porto (Monica was awesome by the way) and they were staying at the hotel and they were booked in for the 1700h wine tasting. The hotel was very accommodating & allowed us to have our wine tasting together and honoured our voucher for that day. The wine tasting was a lovely treat as well and we enjoyed sharing it.
The day we left Pinhao headed in the direction of Belmonte there was a half marathon being run in Regua so a policeman turned us around & made us go via Vila Real. The GPS helped us but was that ever a white knuckle drive up and down the hills! WOW!
The Pousada de Belmonte was breathtaking! Did we ever feel pampered here and at all the hotels. We ended up having dinner at the Pousada twice. It was as good, if not better than “advertised.” We even got to spend an afternoon by the pool here.
Évora was a perfect stop. By this time we were getting a little tired. I have to say that the itinerary was a little overwhelming for us and we got to the point where we just didn’t want to see every single town as they were getting a little repetitious. Phil struggled with all the hills because of his artificial knee and it got to the point where he was just too sore and tired. The Convento was perfect for a 3-night stop allowing us to slow down and we got to spend time by the pool here too. The outing to Herdade do Esporao was a perfect way to spend the day. The lunch was outstanding and here we ended up having lunch with an American couple who were also doing a Portugal Trails itinerary. Our tour guide was amazing and we had a nice ride into the vineyards.
We found a great little restaurant for lunch that had been recommended by the American couple. Unfortunately I don’t recall the name right now. I would have to find the business card I have tucked away. The husband/owner spoke virtually no English but his wife did. He made the best white sangria EVER! We ran into very few people who did not speak English but when we did those people were so friendly & helpful while we figured out what each other way saying.
Cascais is breathtaking! The ocean is always appealing. We had a couple of meals in the centre square. We took the road towards Sintra but made a detour and ended up having another white knuckled ride through back streets to Sintra which turned out well as there was no parking to be had on the hills so we got to see Sintra without actually ever stopping other than right on the main street for a short few minutes.
We also quite enjoyed Estoril. The office for the car rental return was not programmed in the GPS (at least I couldn’t find it) but we had parked & had lunch along the beach so we happened to see the office on our travels. I believe the road book said something about a shuttle being available to take us back to our hotel, but there was no such shuttle. We just grabbed a cab (with a female cab driver who was missing her front teeth and entertained us all the way to the hotel.)
Since I started at Porto with our favourite let me back track to the beginning of the trip: Lisbon. We did enjoy Lisbon & Patricia our guide was lovely. Even though it was right at the beginning of the trip Phil was feeling the hills already (I may have pushed him a bit too much the first day) & she was very accommodating to make sure we didn’t have any major hills to go up or down. The Fado dinner was lovely & a definitely must see for anyone. We were glad we only had that much time in Lisbon. It is a beautiful city but we much preferred the rest of the country.
Coimbra was lovely. We had a couple of GPS glitches between Lisbon and Coimbra where the GPS wanted us to to make a turn the wrong way on a one-way street so we missed a few things. We could not get ourselves parked at the University in Coimbra but we went up and down those hills so many times we felt we got a good overview of the city anyways. We had a nice lunch down by the water.
So, I think that just about covers everything. Despite the fact that we left a few things off the itinerary we felt we got a good overview of the country. We did not feel like we missed things because we didn’t do everything. We chose the things we wanted to do from a whole list of available things. We were glad we were not on the move every day and the timing of the stay in Évora made us very glad we did the tour in the order we did rather than the opposite way round. Every hotel was impeccable and the staff at each one were very, very accommodating. The breakfast at each one as well was excellent. We do not have a single complaint about any of the hotels. The gentleman at the car rental office was very helpful as well.
We ran into several other people who were using Portugal Trails services and every single person had nothing but praise for your company. That is very admirable!
I bet you weren’t expecting quite the essay! Thank you so much for all your assistance and the lovely arrival gifts. I enjoyed the Ramos Pinto port so much I brought a bottle of the same one home (along with some ginja!)
Thanks again,
Heather & Phil Brush”
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Bart & Josiane Cobert, USA, May 2015
“Hi Sofia,
As promised, some follow up after our trip. As we said, it was absolutely great. Your choices, itinerary, guides, everything were top notch.
Some specifics:
The GPS – Worked very very well. Your programming was great. The comment that the wine tasting/lunch in the winery in Evora was a bit off. The directions in the book you sent us talked of the big white building. That was not the place to go. Rather one continues on the road another km or so and turns right to several minimally marked low white buildings where the tour and tasting occur. The GPS was actually correct though said it might not be. The whole day was superb. Excellent lunch and charming tour. The rental car was fine though the chap was late delivering the car to the hotel (traffic) and the young fellow who brought it and signed us up was brand new on the job (he admitted) and had no idea what the insurance and other extras were about. Fortunately you prepared us well in the booklet.
The Travel Kit – Thanks for the soap, cookies and Porto! Your personalized day by day guidebook was excellent though it required a lot of cross referencing as the directions (which we really didn’t need) were mixed in with the daily advice, schedule, and restaurants. That is a quibble however. We used it daily. I kept a copy on my iPhone and used that when we were walking around or when I did not want to carry the book in my backpack. The printed book you supplied was ok but I also used Lonely Traveler which was quite useful. We also used the Green Michelin guide for walking itineraries. An area where you might consider adding a bit more detail is for the small towns you suggest visiting (e.g. Marvao). You suggest stopping in the local tourist office to get a walking map. This worked when the office was open but the bigger problem was finding where the tourist office was located. Almost no city maps anywhere on the streets (as the French do). Paris is full of maps particularly near metro stops showing the local neighborhood and “you are here”). You might consider, especially when you suggest parking in a particular parking lot (e.g. outside the walls) to say specifically where to go to either get to the tourist office or where to walk. We used the Michelin guide for this as they give several suggested one hour or so walking tours.
Hotels – All excellent except Marvao which was OK but nothing more [El-rei Dom Manuel]; it was satisfactory. I gather that there are not too many hotels there and this is one of the better onew. The rest were wonderful, particularly the Belmonte Pousada and Casa do Visconde de Chanceleiros (which probably was the best one of all). The Cascais hotel (Gale) was great to relax in with a wonderful pool.Driving – Except for the day we drove from Porto to Pinhao with several stops along the way, the driving was not excessive. You had noted in the book that one should arrive at the hotel in Pinhao during daylight as the ride up along the mountain can be…interesting. Indeed it was and we sort of rushed to get there but still missed the wine tasting. Traffic and construction. We also stayed in the hotel for dinner both nights as we did not want to drive back up and down that road for dinner (with wine…) or risk doing it in the dark or if there was rain (which there wasn’t). Dinner at the hotel was fine those two nights though you had to eat the one dish they were offering with no other choices available I think. Not a problem as we eat everything.
Cascais – Delightful way to end the trip (though we did do another 2 days in Lisbon where I had some business to tie up). Lovely hotel, town, museums and we had some superb meals.
The Itinerary – Perfect, we were not overtaxed (we’re in our 60s but still very active) but saw an enormous amount of things in your beautiful country.
The guides – All were excellent, knowledgeable and charming!
Restaurants – We followed a few of your suggestions but did a lot of experimentation both upscale and downscale including little “holes in the wall” in tiny little family restaurants all of which were fine. We tend to avoid recommendations of hotel concierges. If we do ask the concierge we’ll look at the reviews in Yelp and Trip Advisor. I think the Lisbon Plaza recommendations were a bit off. Suggested a touristy expensive restaurant which was not well reviewed. We are adventuresome eaters and don’t mind local joints with menus not in English. (This method does not work in China however though we did go into busy local restaurants and ordered by pointing to other diners’ dishes and saying we want that. Almost always works well).
So in summary, I can’t think of anything you could do to make it better ! We’ve mentioned this to our friends and family here and perhaps they will go through Portugal does not seem to be high on the current bucket lists of many folks which is a shame.
Do you do other countries (e.g. Spain) or have affiliates in other countries (e.g. Italy)?
I will drop a lovely note in Trip Advisor and anywhere else you might wish.
Thanks again!
Bart & Josiane”
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Casey and Cornelis Leuven, Canada May 2015
“Okay, so about our Iberian adventure. It truly was the trip of a lifetime. Casey and I have travelled extensively but this was the best. Portugal is a very special country. It felt like home, especially after the second stint in Spain. I don’t know if it’s the people, the landscape, the food, the wine, the flowers, the heat, or what but it’s an extraordinary place. If it wasn’t so far away, I think we’d buy property and spend several months a year there. I know the kids want us to.
I’ll write something suitably glowing and post it on Trip Advisor. I just need some time to come up with enough superlatives.
Cynthia”
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Debra Gaines and Alberta Piche, Canada, April 2015
“Good Day Cristina,
I want to thank you so very much for taking such good care of me before Debby arrived.
The guided hike with Bruno was amazing…he was excellent and showed me the small villages along the coast. Hiked to a very pristine beach that I got to dip my toes into. He was very attentive and never tired of my questions. Very gracious and I highly recommend that he continue on your roster of guides.
The road book was very well thought out and presented all the highlights and great as a testament to your work.
The wine tour, the Fado dinner were highlights I would not have wanted to miss. Except the GPS is okay with directions to the Winery, as opposed to written directions.
The transfers worked very well to and from hotel, and bus stops. George was just like family in his greetings and I was so happy to see his face in the bus depot. Thank you for all the details you provided. My single adventure was awesome, and the Quinte on the top of the hill provided all the necessities. The owner and the staff were very attentive, and even came down in the evening to pick me up after dinner. Very personalized service.
Debby and I had an amazing trip, all your planning paid off, The GPS had some glitches but I think
Debby told you about them..updates for Braga and Aveinda. We put 1,500 KMs on the car!!!!
The guides were so kowledgeable about all the history , and Nuno was so gracious and we hiked 22 KMs and I was thrilled that 11 KM on the El Camino…which is what I have dreamed about.
The lodgings, esp the Psoudas will provide long lasting memories.
Your dedication and commitment to make sure your customers have a perfect trip speaks to Portugal Trails as the best supplier for self-guided trips to Portugal. I will recommend you and your company to anyone that wants a great experice!
I will get the picture to you and send from home.
Take care, Happy Summer…I am sure you will be very busy with travellers from all over the world.
Cheers,
Alberta”
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Bill Baptista, USA, April 2015
“Hi Cristina,
The whole trip went GREAT! (though poor Matt was sick for 10 of the days, hurt to drink even water, we left Fado dinner before even getting dessert and thus did not see the show though grew up listening to such music at family events).
Drivers – each of the drivers you selected were professional and on time.
Hotels – each of the hotels were what we expected, a “3” star type. Though on the last day in which we got up at 0400am
to get out to the airport to return to USA we had no hot water for our showers!
Group Tours – each one was quite enjoyable. The Inside Lisbon tour we actually got to sample some cheese, deer meat, another sausage meat and a glass of wine which we did not expect being part of that tour.
Lunch – the lunch at the winery was wonderful but the lunch during the drive tour in Madeira was just as good if not better!!
At the table waiting for us was a bottle of both red and white wine along with a bottle of water. It was a four course lunch like at the winery. Both lunches were wonderful. The meal itself at the Fado dinner was also very good.
Your choice of having a free day after taking a group tour worked out real well.
Adding Jenny was not a problem and no one was surprised as their records showed 2 plus one. I gave the voucher and then Jenny just paid her own way. She got her room in each hotel we stayed at as well and also paid for right to breakfast at the hotel.
Train – this was only concern all trip as leaving Lisboa for Evora we did not know what line to be standing at. Luckily one man heard our conversation approached us and said to follow him and he actually stayed until we got on the correct line.
I actually contacted one employee at a train that stopped and asked for assistance and was told different company, wrong line but did not advise me where to go.
We also did not pay for the cable car as the driver, Benny (Benny dos Ramos 00351-963-672-387 of Madeira Tourism Driver), said her boss told her to buy our tickets for us. I was expecting to pay. Matt and I did the sledging back down the hill. Benny was terrific both days, second day we stopped and had samples of different ports as well which again was unexpected and wonderful!
The Madeira tours were exceptional!!!
Only activity we added on our own was in Porto and it was the 55 min. boat tour of the 6 bridges. It included a port sample at 3 different locations. One such location we saw educational films about the valley and the making of the port wine in the region.
Matt took all photos with his cell phone so will forward photos when I get them from him.
The trip was worry free, we were made to feel very welcome by all.
Cristina, thanks again for putting this all together. I will be setting down with friends from down the block who want to go to Portugal next year and I will show them my road book, guidebook and what you did for us. Granted, in this day and age one can most likely book hotels, tours online and possibly save money but it was great to have it all done, drivers all set up, etc…You putting it all together was worth any extra we paid!
I think I covered it all but if you have any questions, comments, feel free to contact me.
As you may have gathered early on, I was very apprehensive about doing business with your company, sending thousands of dollars to a company I have never heard of though I did read about Portugal Trails on Trip Advisor.
The final reason to proceed was (I reached out to several travel agents asking if they had heard of your company) when a travel agent advised me as follows “I checked with the Portuguese Tourist Office in New York and they told me it was a very reliable travel company, therefore you will be in good hands”. Well, as it turned out we were in very good hands and feel very fortunate to have booked with your company and having worked with Cristina.
Thanks again,
Bill Baptista ”