A Special Vacation to Portugal

Portugal | May 1 - May 10, 2024

Our trip to Portugal was a special vacation for us. Since we don't like planned tours or large tour groups, it was important to be able to design an agenda that appealed to things we liked to do. Typically I do all of the planning, but after coming across kimkim, we thought that a local person who is familiar with the places we wanted to go would be even better. Helena did a great job of putting together a plan for us. She was open to making changes as we went along, and gave good suggestions. Her choice of hotels was fabulous! They were all of high quality, provided good service, and gave us a luxury environment. Having Helena take care of our train tickets and our rental car made it so easy for us.

Despite one "blip" with a pick-up from the train to the hotel, our transports were excellent. It was tricky to find our driver at the airport, but once we did, we were pleased. The issue we had was difficulty getting in touch with the company after our driver had left us at the station due to our train arriving late. The phone number we were given had been changed, and the automated message letting us know the new number was so fast that it took us listening to it three times before we could catch all of the numbers. When we called the new number, we were told that someone would be coming for us in 15 minutes and to wait inside of the station. We split up so as to not miss the driver, but nobody came. After yet another call, we were told that a black car would be there shortly; however, someone in a light colored vehicle showed up and then didn't know where we were going nor where the hotel was located. After speeding down narrow streets, we were finally let off at the top of a steep cobblestone street where we had to drag our suitcases down two blocks to our hotel. Later we learned that transportation companies and taxis are permitted to access the pedestrian street in front of our hotel. We were just grateful that none of us fell down the hill or were injured, but that was completely ridiculous! After being told on the phone by a kimkim representative, Carin that the company is one that is often used and the disbelief that the phone number had changed, I sincerely hope that kimkim reconsiders using the company in the future.

The tours and tour guides that were set up for us were very good. The guide to the Douro Valley, Joao Campos, was friendly, interesting and accommodating. We really enjoyed the boat ride, visits to a winery, and lunch at a quinto was a highlight for us. Out 3 hour tour in Porto with Sandra Tavares was not exactly what we expected. Sandra was energetic and knowledgeable, however, we walked for 80% of the tour. The classic car picked us up near the end of the tour which lasted almost 6 hours. We were able to see a lot of Porto, but at the end were left far from our next tour without transportation. The amount of walking was also very difficult for some of us to handle, and did result in soreness the next day. Right after the first tour, we had a walking food tour. Fortunately, when we told the guide that we were exhausted and not up for a lot more walking, she was able to accommodate us by using streets that were less steep. The places we visited were definitely off of the beaten path and the food was eclectic from wine and cheese to beer and dessert. We had a great time with the others on the tour who were from various countries. Driving to Evora, Lagos and back to Lisbon was very easy. We were sad that our balloon ride was canceled due to the weather, but that is out of our control. Evora was very interesting, and the hotel there was outstanding. We didn't stop at Coimbra, but opted to relax at the hotel instead. We enjoyed the tour with Jones. He was also personable and knowledgeable. Our only concern was that his vehicle was small for all of us and not very comfortable. He showed us the cork factory and an old town with a former palace that had wonderful views. In Lagos, our tour to see the sunset at St. Vincent's Cape in Sagres wasn't exactly as written. Pedro was not our guide, Miguel was. His vehicle was a loud jeep-like truck that didn't have seatbelts that worked consistently. He would drop us off and then go off to smoke. He had some crazy stories and really couldn't answer some of our questions. He was a nice guy, but we felt unsafe driving with him. He brought wine to the sunset, but no binoculars or chorizo, as promised. We did enjoy lunch at Morgado Do Quinto that we drove ourselves to. The hostess served plenty of food and wine, and gave everyone a tour of the property. She also told us about the grape vines, almonds and cacao trees. It was very good. In Lisbon, our guide, Jose Antunes, was very good. He knew a lot about the city and walked us to see sights without going into a lot of buildings. Our day was a bit hectic after that because we had to travel by Uber across the city to paint tiles with Ana which was very cool! After leaving there, we met Mariana who gave us a tour at the tile museum in Lisbon. She was excellent. She was well prepared and really knew about tile history. After that, we were back across the city to the Earthquake Museum which was so-so. I think we call were less impressed with that. Following the Earthquake Museum was the Banksy "Museum". We found it interesting to review his work over time, but it was a tiring day. Our final day we toured with Marta to Sintra and Cascais. She was friendly and also very knowledgeable about the area from a resident's perspective. We went to a park to see the palace there which was spectacular, but involved a lot of trail walking. Then we had lunch at a local restaurant where we tasted all types of meat. That was also interesting.

Our trip exceeded our expectations. We loved Portugal: the people, the food, the history and the scenery. The one thing that was a bit concerning was being given all of the options for our trip but not knowing how much each item cost separately. In some ways, it was good because we got to do what we wanted and had the experiences without worrying about the cost. In other ways, it would have been nice to have some choices that may have saved some money.