pegtrip

Can anyone recommend a small group tour company or a travel agent to help plan a trip to Portugal?

thursdaysd

It is extremely easy to plan a trip to Portugal on your own. You can connect places with trains and buses, and book hotels using the usual sites, such as booking.com. You might start by buying or borrowing some guide books....

If I wanted a group tour I would probably start with https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/por...-portugal-tour or possibly Road Scholar if I were older.

pegtrip

Thanks for your input but we really don’t want a large group tour. We like to have 2-3 days in each place and a slower pace. We are 80 and in good shape but don’t feel comfortable driving in foreign countries any more. Has anyone used Portugaltrails.com? Is Uber popular in Portugal? We will need a driver for places with poor train or bus connections. I’m just starting to plan this trip so any info would be appreciated!

thursdaysd

What is the size group you want? Rick Steves' groups are considered small, although I prefer the twelve max you get with Intrepid, but you need to be fit.

How long a trip? If you are just hitting towns you won't need a car and driver. Doesn't look like Portugaltrails does anything you can't do yourself.

aulop

Hi

I haven't used Julie Dawn Fox but she has good reviews for itinerary planning.
https://juliedawnfox.com/

I have used yellow bus, it's a hop on hop off bus that goes to the tourist attractions in the available cities.
https://www.yellowbustours.com/en/li...n-hop-off-tour

I have also hired taxis for the day but it's more expensive option.

Happy travels

bilboburgler

I've used cycles and trains a lot in Portugal, https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en and seat61.com give you good train and get you to most interesting places, centre to centre.

Are you considering the islands as well, Azores or Madeira?

KarenWoo

I can't recommend a travel agent or tour but I will start off by suggesting some guidebooks. I use Fodors, Lonely Planet, Michelin Green Guide, and Rick Steves.

How many nights is your total trip? What time of year? For starters, I recommend spending 5 nights in Lisbon. This would be a nice slow way to see and savor Lisbon. Then perhaps 3 nights in Sintra to visit all the castles and palaces. You can get to Sintra from Lisbon by train or uber. These are the only places I've been in Portugal so far but when I was planning my trip and hoping it would be a longer trip (which it wasn't) I was considering Porto and the Evora area.

We did use Diana Tours for a daytrip to Sintra but I don't know if they do longer trips. If you have the time, I recommend spending 2 or 3 nights in Sintra, which I think is better than a day trip. We just didn't have the time.

pegtrip

We are planning on about 2 weeks, in late April, early May. Lisbon and Porto are musts. Probably not interested in beaches at that time of year so will skip the Algarve. The posadas sound interesting. Should we try to stay in them where we can?

maitaitom

"Is Uber popular in Portugal?"

We used Uber in Lisbon, Sintra and Porto. Yes, it is popular. The one downside from the States, is that we found your driver will cancel on you more often in Portugal, but there is usually another one that picks up the slack. They were very cheap, as were the taxis, so don't forget about them. I'm doing a trip report now (just started), and there were about four or five on the board this past spring, so I think you could get some good dining suggestions once you know where you're going to go.

leah_beridze

If you are planning on visiting Lisbon, I'd recommend Veerle, she is a local expert Her inst account is Lisboneye https://www.instagram.com/lisboneye/