rick steves tour of portugal

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Fun on Tour: The Heart of Portugal in 12 Days

For me, a downside of traveling alone is trying to enjoy fine dinners solo. And that’s one of the joys of taking a tour: You have company! And thanks to our “no grumps” policy , when you travel with Rick Steves’ Europe Tours, you’ll have fun company.

I just wrapped up 12 wonderful days in Portugal — laughing, learning, and exploring with a great group of 25 new friends. Here are a few highlights from our time together:

Dinner — and Lots of Wine — in Porto

The wine is so good in Portugal, it can be tough to stop at a couple of glasses. During one round of toasts on our Heart of Portugal tour , I realized the words on my T-shirt summed up what I wanted to say. So, startling my group, I stood up, unbuttoned my shirt, and (almost) bared my chest, declaring “Keep on travelin’!”

Rambling Around a Family-Run Cork Farm

Midway through each Rick Steves tour, our guides give everyone in the group a chance to evaluate the experience so far. Everyone fills out a little sheet with suggestions on how we can make the tour better — and tour members often share their highlights. On this tour, the highlights included doing hands-on activities and meeting families at local farms — farms that produce grapes for port wine and grow cork trees so that the port will stay in the bottle until it’s ready to be enjoyed.

Deep in Portugal’s interior, the wonderful Rovisco Garcia family harvests the bark off a vast forest of cork trees. Their farm has become a popular stop on our Portugal tours. They are so eager to show us around, they built a special trailer for their tractor so that whole groups can ramble around the farm together while the sons talk about their work and the cork industry. Eventually, the trailer ends up at the big farmhouse where the family — under grandma’s direction — serves the group an amazing meal featuring local produce, traditional dishes, and more of that great local wine.

Comic Relief at a Cloister

Most of us enjoy a break from American politics when we’re on vacation. But at one venerable cloister, I noticed our group was pointing and laughing at something carved into a fine old relief. It was a character, chiseled 500 years ago, that was the spitting image of our president. I’ve been visiting this monastery for 20 years…and suddenly it has an unforgettable new stop.

DIY Souvenirs

Throughout Europe, Rick Steves guides find lots of ways to help our groups roll up their sleeves and have literal hands-on experiences. For example, on my Heart of Portugal tour , we visited a tile factory and learned about the tiles that are so integral to Portuguese cityscapes — and we each got a chance to paint our own tile as a souvenir of the trip. Our personal tiles were then fired and waiting for us at our hotel the next day. I was impressed by the fun designs, the hidden artistic talent in our group, and the joy this project brought each member of the tour.

Want to join the fun? Travel with Rick Steves’ Europe Tours on a Heart of Portugal in 12 Days Tour .

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Portugal Tour Review

My husband and I just returned from the Portugal tour; our 4th Rick Steves tour. Several tour members in the group were on their 6th plus RS tour. Our guide, Cristina Duarte, was AMAZING!! She treated us all like family, and took extra time to help each of us navigate even the most mundane tasks. Her energy was boundless! Being from Lisbon and being an experienced tour guide, coupled with her knowledge and enthusiasm, makes Cristina an outstanding choice for the Portugal tour! The people of Portugal were friendly and most spoke English. However being with Cristina gave us added confidence. The only downside was unpacking and packing; even though I downsized three time before my trip, I still could have packed less. We were able to wash clothes in Portugal twice. The laundromats were exceptionally bright, clean, and uncrowded. Some of the hotel layouts were a little quirky but most hotel staff went the extra mile to make our stay comfortable. The staff at the M’ar de Ar Historic Hotel (not sure of the city) were the least friendly and helpful. My wow moment was visiting the cork farm, seeing the Cork Oaks, and hearing a presentation of how cork bark is stripped from the trees. We had a delicious lunch there and sampled several wines. We had several additional tours (cork farm, vineyard, wine tastings, Porto Food Tour, river cruise, etc) on this trip and all were fun and informative. On the last day of our tour, we returned by train to Lisbon and stayed another night at the first hotel of our tour, Hotel Lisbon Plaza. The staff at was the best and hotel lovely.

We too enjoyed this tour immensely! It's no wonder this has quickly risen to be one of the most popular RS tours (it looks about 1/2 sold out for 2018). Of our multiple RS tours we would rank this up there with Greece, still our favorite. We went a bit early to visit Sintra and also took a Culinary Backstreets tour of Lisbon. We loved both of those excursions and if we had to do it again we might add yet another day or two in Lisbon.

Thank you for this informative and lovely review of the Portugal tour. It's been high on my Want To Take list and between your review and the rave reviews of some friends I just traveled with (they were on one of the a Spring tours), it has now jumped to #1. I copied your post and filed it away for next year; you have included some great advice for pre and post tour. Thank you again for reinforcing Portugal's position on my wish list!

Thank you for the review. Portugal has long been on my list to visit.

Portugal has been on my list for a while too.

How was the food at the group meals? Were you given much selection?

Teresa, Of course breakfasts were provided at all the hotels. They were abundant! Fresh squeezed juices, fruits, champagne, breads, meats, yogurt, etc. The group meals were good also with two entree choices. Naturally some restaurants were better than others. I have a shellfish and pine nut allergy, and our guide, Cristina, made sure every restaurant knew beforehand. I appreciated this because I hate to announce my allergies redundantly. Cristina also made recommendations for non-group restaurants in close proximity to our hotels, and of course we found others during our tours around town. This tour had two luncheons at vineyards, a Porto Food Tour, a group get together with heavy hors d’ oeuvres in addition to gelato and custard tarts provided by the tour guide/RS.

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