Many thanks to Pedro and team for 7 transformative days in Portugal!

Portugal | Nov 3 - Nov 10, 2024

We had a truly spectacular 7-day trip to Portugal early November 2024 -- our first not only to Portugal but to Europe. We credit the success of our trip to Pedro, who was the local specialist who consulted with us to truly understand what would work best to meet our needs. In our case, it was a balance of experiencing Portugal, its people, its history, its cities and more leisurely sights at a comfortable, low key pace that wasn't too overwhelming for us.

We arrived in Lisbon early on a Sunday morning, were greeted by a wonderful driver (Rui) who recommended some of the key places in the city and near our hotel (including several of his favorites). Our first stop was the Heritage Avenida Liberace hotel in Lisbon, which was a perfect and lovey location up the hill from downtown, a perfect place for exploring the city. The hotel was beautiful, filled with beautiful design inspiration. We were most grateful for the lovely and thoughtful welcome basket of wine, snacks and aromatic soaps Pedro had left for us. We strolled the city on Sunday, and were ready to do more on Monday when we were greeted by Rita for an amazing tasting tour throughout the city.

Rita introduced us to many favorite foods of Lisbon, and shared so many stories about the city and its history! Her thoughtful and delicious tour ended at the Time Out Market, where they were actually filming an episode of a Chef's show. Later that evening, we immersed ourselves in Portuguese culture by experiencing a Fado Dinner at Mesa de Frades, a delicious and moving experience we won't soon forget.

The next day, we were greeted by Helio, who was the main driver for the next several days of our visit. He was incredibly warm, flexible, knowledgeable and helpful! Funny, too. We visited the fairytale vila of Sintra and toured the Pena Palace and Gardens. Later in the day, we drove down through coast and returned to the Heritage hotel via Cascais. We had a most delicious lunch (Hello proactively made reservations for multiple meals on our behalf) of seabass and other local delicacies.

On our second day traveling with Hello, we traveled to Porto (via Obidas and the awe-inspiring Nazare, where Hello also proactively reserved a lunch of seaside delicacies (the tuna was amazing!) for us. We checked into the NH Collection of hotels in Porto, another centrally located hotel inviting many adventures on foot.

We were greeted by Bernardo for an historical walking tour the Porto . Talk about an incredibly passionate and knowledgeable tour guide! We would highly recommend Bernardo.

The next day Evol greeted us at the hotel for a day trip to the Douro valley, including a boat tour in Deltatur and a memorable and delicious lunch at the Quinta da Pacheco. Both are must-sees! Evol was a wonderful driver who shared many stories and tips about the Douro Valley and the sites we were seeing, and made a special stop so for photo opps, doubling as our photographer (thank you, Evol!).

We re-engaged with Helio on our final full day in Portugal, when he met us in Porto and drove us from the city all the way down to Cascais, via stops in Coimbra. We said a grateful farewell as we hiked into the Cascais Miragem hotel -- the views were spectacular and left us wanting to return to Portugal for more on a future visit!

Finally, Andre greeted us the morning of our last day and made sure we were all set for check in at the hotel in Lisbon. Another comfortable and pleasant drive and conversation about Portugal.

On last note of gratitude, Pedro used WhatsApp to manage our expectations with the perfect amount of detail a day ahead. He was always at the ready to respond to questions and requests, no matter how small or seemingly trivial.