Discover Portugal

I will leave you what we said in notes to our tour guide and driver on this tour:

Dear Sonia,

Both of us wish to extend our heartfelt thanks for the unforgettable tour experience you provided. Your depth of knowledge, passion, and enthusiasm truly enhanced our travel experience, making it not only informative but also incredibly enjoyable.

From the moment we met, it was clear that you are not just a guide but a storyteller with a profound connection to the places we visited. Your insights into the history, culture, and hidden gems of each location brought everything to life in a way that no guidebook ever could. Your ability to weave facts with engaging anecdotes kept us captivated and eager to learn more.

Your patience and attention to detail ensured that every aspect of our trip was seamless and stress free. Whether it was answering our myriad of questions, offering personalised recommendations, or ensuring we were comfortable, your dedication did not go unnoticed.

Thanks to you, we not only saw the sights but truly experienced the heart and soul of each place we visited. This journey has left us with cherished memories and a deeper appreciation for the world around us and especially Portugal.

Thank you once again for your exceptional guidance and for making our trip an enriching and memorable adventure.

Warm regards,

Bruce and Jacqui Hayward

Dear Mellow,

Thank you for your exceptional service during our journey. Your professionalism, skill, and friendly demeanour made our trip not only safe but also incredibly enjoyable. Your punctuality, knowledge of the route, and attention to passenger comfort were greatly appreciated. You went above and beyond to ensure we had a smooth and pleasant experience, and your efforts did not go unnoticed. It's not often we find a driver who truly enhances the travel experience, and for that, we're extremely grateful. Thank you for making our journey memorable and stress-free.
Warm regards,

Bruce and Jacqui Hayward

Caro Mellow,

Obrigado pelo seu serviço excecional durante a nossa viagem. Seu profissionalismo, habilidade e comportamento amigável tornaram a nossa viagem não só segura, mas também incrivelmente agradável. Sua pontualidade, conhecimento da rota e atenção ao conforto dos passageiros foram muito apreciados. Você foi acima e além para garantir que tivéssemos uma experiência suave e agradável, e seus esforços não passaram despercebidos. Não é sempre que encontramos um motorista que realmente melhore a experiência de viagem e, por isso, somos extremamente gratos. Obrigado por tornar a nossa viagem memorável e sem stress.

Atenciosamente,

Bruce e Jacqui Hayward

Informative trip. Good size of group and length of time. Going to places not seen before especially having local guides with great knowledge.

Good trip with an excellent tour leader Sonia
Felt probably didn’t need to spend a full free day in Douro
Could have left at lunchtime and then more time in Porto

This is a great way to see Portugal. There are fantastic inclusions. I thoroughly enjoyed the excursions, getting out & exploring. Accommodation was outstanding

Excellent tour. Exceeded all my expectations

I have already left a brilliant review
Edwina our guide & Melos were superb & air hotels & tours were very good & I would definitely recommend Back Roads Tours Value for money

I enjoyed the tour. Excellent choices of accommodations and interesting places to see and visit. A great history tour for me.

Great hotels..lovely having suitcases collected and delivered. Great activities...always delivered more than promised. Edwina and Melo were absolutely the dream team, friendly, knowledgeable and good communicators. The tour bus was very comfortable and safe. I enjoyed rhe "backroads"..much nicer than motorways. You found places for me that I would not have discovered on my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this tour, the accomodation was excellent, both the tour guide & driver outstanding & the included experiences were well worthwhile.
However, spending a whole day in the Douro Valley with nothing to do was a real disappointment. I appreciate a driver needs a day off but to be so far from any tourist activities or sights of interest was a waste of a day. I walked to both nearby towns & there was nothing to see or do at either

Enjoyable overall.
The day of free to wander in Portal winery
was boring, especially when the weather was wet, we took a long walk to Sabrosa and saw Magellan’s birthplace, that was good. The wine tasting in the afternoon should be an included activity since it was
advertise in the itinerary.
The day in Braga could have included a planned excursion to Bom Jesus Santuary since it is such a magnificent place and we did have time. More free time in Sintra
would have been nice.
Our guide Edwina and driver Melos are both excellent. Obliging, helpful, and beautiful story teller is Edwina and a very reliable driving skill Melos.

A great trip, you go to out of the way places and stay at some quirky hotels. Overall another great trip from Back Roads

Excellent

Mercedes and Melos were wonderful in leading our tour. Saw so much of Portugal without feeling rushed and stayed at great hotels and enjoyed wonderful food and wines.

Excellent small group tour. Tour director & driver Friendly & helpful.
Stay in great hotels in unique towns & even a vineyard.
Good included tours & many meals.

Great trip…wonderful driver & tour leader..only glitch was with Goway who we purchased the tour through…they made a mistake when booking our requested extra night at end of tour which ended in Porto where we had tickets for train to next destination…they booked hotel over 100 km away but it said Porto on itinerary…luckily our Blue Roads tour leader told us where it actually was a few nights before…Goway didn’t want to admit their mistake and wanted us to pay for changing…worked out in end after much back & forth …we travel a lot…not sure would use Goway as booking agent again.

Accommodation was wonderful, bus & driver great, tour guide excellent, experiences fabulous.
Disappointed on last day finishing in Porto at lunch time, could have been more to see in afternoon and finish with a dinner.

Would like to have seen more wineries, cheese fishing markets etc .

Less churches!

loved the size of our bus (16) people tour.
Top guide very friendly and caring.
everything we visited was great with added touches by the guide
Accommodation was tops
Bus driver was part of our tour he joined in.

We had a fabulous guide she always went the extra mile and made each day enjoyable she also treated us to a few special treats and generally made the tour a very pleasurable experience. The bus driver was wonderful and it was excellent that we had WiFi on the bus and were able to charge our phones.

This is our 2nd tour with Backroads tour and we loved it. Our guide Rocio was very knowledgeable and easy to get along with. Also our bus driver Milo was great. Couldn’t complain about anything on the trip and would do another one for sure.

Excellent tour with a great variety of experiences.
Our guide Rocio, had extensive knowledge. Her warm personality, passion, and enthusiasm made our “Discover Portugal” a truly unforgettable experience.

The tour was fabulous the tour guide Rocio was extremely informative and friendly lots of fun and very kind. It is very nice to have a driver who is such a gentleman and an excellent driver I felt very safe Melo was his name

Discover Portugal was an excellent tour. It was the perfect combination of organized tours and free time. We painted tiles, explored Medieval cities, and tasted wines, olives, cheese and a cherry liquor. We took an extra stop to visit The Boca Inferno, this was a great stop. Our tour guide was fantastic and so was our bus driver. They both told us about non-touristy places to visit and restaurants to best experience the local cuisine. Each hotel was better than the last and we experienced both many of Portugal's large cities and small towns. It was a wonderful trip!

Loved back roads tour through Portugal, we traveled through history. Compared invaders and conquerors influences both positive and brutal. We met producers, that would have been not on our radar and toured sites that held great importance. One warning though if your heading to Portugal with an interest in delving into port it’s not a focus at all, my only real grip!

So much to experience. Although rushed at times, albeit with quiet days as well, we experienced a lot. A lot of variety of visit-sites vs activities, a well curated tour.

The Back Roads Discover Portugal tour was excellent. the destinations great a mixture of cities and smaller places. the small group is ideal, hotels beautiful in fantastic locations. both tour guide and bus driver were professional and caring. i did find it a little surprising that in this world climate of COVID those who tested positive had to leave the tour. I would have been happy with wearing masks and using hand sanitizer as now there are no legal protocols in place as I understand. The minute each of us chose to fly overseas I see it as a risk we were all willing to take. If someone travelled with an underlying condition, they did so at their own peril.

Loved the size of the people and bus

Excellent tour enjoyed Portugal has some picture perfect scenery.

Great trip. Excellent guide.

The tour manager Georgina Gentile was excellent , looked after all the team and the 2 clients who developed Covid without compromising others on the tour nor the affected people. The hotels were very good all most enjoyable those attached to wineries in t( Douro valley very both extra special.
The driver Carlson Melo was most professional and always helped us from the bus.

Interesting, visited great places.

There were not enough interesting experiences provided to rate this tour highly. The guide did the best she could to make it interesting. Local guides were excellent.

Choosing Back Roads Discover Portugal Tour Code DPLP40529 was the best decision I made. It lived up to my expectation of travelling to small villages, experiencing olive growing farms and sheep milk producing cheeses. Our guide, Ana, was a source of information and historical facts. She went over and above what I believed to be her duties. I would not hesitate in recommending Back Roads tours to my friends.

We had an excellent time. Our tour guide Laura and driver Melo were wonderful. Laura was knowledgeable, fun, friendly, kind and truly made our tour of Portugal memorable. Melo was a safe and experienced driver who always welcomed us with a smile. We learned so much about Portugal and visited so many amazing places. Discovered beautiful wineries, visited traditional cheese and olive oil makers and tasted all the many delicacies that Portugal has to offer.
We loved our tour.

Very interesting showing both north and south Portugal. Landscape very different in both. Accommodation as usual varied interesting and great quality. Guide and local guides when used extremely knowledgeable and entertaining.

The was excellent , the crew Laura and Mello, were first class.
The planning, the detail, and the thought that went into the trip rates it right up there.
Congratulations and we will be recommending Back Roads.
Rob Elliot.

The tour was very well organised from the first detail with Backroads. Highlights were the wonderful tour leader Laura , who had the right amount of knowledge, enthusiasm and humour. Nothing was too much trouble, so helpful and thoughtful.
Melo our bus driver was fantastic, the most amazing smile and great friendliness. Again nothing was too much trouble , so polite and great humour.
The accommodation was very good , loved the 2 nights at the Cooking and Well ness Hotel and the exceptional 2 night s at the vineyard/ villa and the wonderful dinners . So memorable. The tour group was great company and a really easy group.
Finally, it was very well priced and exceeded expectations. Recommend it highly

Everything was very well-organized but at a relaxed pace. Our tour guide Anna was fantastic, and our Driver Rui made sure we got everywhere safely.

Portugal was very interesting and the schedule was extremely well planned and we visited some lovely places

The itinerary and experiences were excellent, the pace of the tour was good and the guide and driver were both fantastic. We had some lovely sites to visit and, overall, I thought the tour under-promised and over-delivered. Our travel companions were all very pleasant.

Really enjoyed this tour: great hotels and well balanced between rural and city locations.
The included dinners were really great and the activities were interesting.
Our guide was excellent who added a lot of information and advice.

I already completed a review on-line and sent it in.

Our tour guide Sonia was a treasure, and she took care of things. The itinerary was interesting, although I suggested some changes in my write-up. Roy our bus driver was very responsive, skilled, and fun to be with. The hotels were great. Would have been nice to have some included lunches and a couple more dinners. Being 'on our own' in the middle of the afternoon in an unfamiliar town to find lunch was not the best arrangement - especially in Coimbra.

Outstanding tour! Good pacing, many things to see and experience without being too hectic. Enough free time to explore areas on our own. Would recommend extending time in Lisbon and definitely Porto as the tour does not spend too much time there. Portugal has lots of history and culture to offer! Our tour group was great, made some new friends and shared lots of pics!

We loved every aspect of this tour and our tour guide, Georgina, was the best we have ever had. She deserves a lot of credit for making our holiday so wonderful. She was caring, enthusiastic and looked after everyone and showed her enjoyment of being without group. We would certainly look to do another Back Roads tour in the future.

I’ve done bus tours in the past but back roads topped the lot of them. I found the smaller groups and smaller bus incredible. The tour guide was amazing and as a result all the passengers became like family towards the end of the trip

I was so happy to do this tour! I was taken to and shown amazing places - without the onslaught of large tourist buses and main highways. Our tour guide Georgina spoke fluent English and Portuguese and went over and above what is expected of a tour guide. The hotels were often out of the way amazing locations with fantastic facilities. We went to Fado, tile painting, wine and olive tastings and even experienced local Portuguese dancing. I would definitely do another Backroads in a heartbeat!

Melo and Georgina did a fantastic job they were both thoughtful and kind and made our trip a joy

Great coverage of history sightseeing & enjoyable dining experiences.

This is our 6th Back Roads tour.
The itinerary was well put together giving a taste of all things Portugal.
The accomodation was excellent 4-5 star.
Meals provided were of a high standard especially those in the D’Ouro valley.
The welcome and farewell dinners included local entertainment.
Laura, our tour guide, provided detailed commentary and no “Challenges” were a
problem. She even added in a few sites not listed in the itinerary.
Finally our driver, Rui, safely drove us around the countryside.

I enjoyed the tour. The accommodation was very good. The tour leader and driver were excellent and very helpful. I think however the tour could have been a few days longer, as in some places there was insufficient time and felt very rushed. My biggest disappointment was that we didn't travel on back roads as we did on other tours in the UK.

Our guide Laura was excellent, would highly recommend her, she was very knowledgeable about Portugal and all the sites visited.
The hotels were not all the same quality properties for the price of this trip. The Cooking and Nature Emotional Hotel had great food, rooms and common areas to just hang out. Hotel Quinta da Pacheca is a 5 star property listed I was really looking forward to but was changed to Casa das Pipas( it does state in small print or similar) which had great food at the restaurant that is a good walk from the main building, but the rooms need refresh and service in the main building was difficult to find staff.
These 2 hotels were not even close to similar in quality or service!
Our tour to Obidos was too short, would not go to Cascais to visit the beach add that extra time to enjoy more time at Obidos.

Excellent itinerary. Laura was an exceptional tour guide with her knowledge and enthusiasm. The hotels were first rate and the meals were very good, especially the evening dinners with wonderful dishes and great wine selections.

This tour was much more than we expected. A group of 17 was good size and a fabulous group of people. All the experiences and accommodation far exceeded our expectations. The food especially was out of this world. But what made the tour so exceptional was our guide Laura- she was so helpful, funny, accommodating to everyone’s needs and provided so much energy and enjoyment to the group. 👏👏 Laura. And big thankyou to driver Rooi who was always happy to help and be flexible! Would definitely recommend this tour. We LOVE Portugal!!

We have travelled with Back Roads 6 times and have not been disappointed in our tours. This tour was an excellent introduction to Portugal. The accommodation and meals were exceptional. Also our tour guide Lara was wonderful providing first class commentary.
Highly recommended.

We were blessed with a great tour leader and a really wonderful group of travel companions. The destinations were were well selected and very interesting.

We saw some of the best aspects of Portugal. The experiences were really well organised and executed.
Our guide Helio De Costa made sure we were all happy at all times.
This tour greatly exceeded my expectations.

We thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of our trip. Our guide was excellent and every activity was interesting and enjoyable.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in a Portugal! The itinerary was well prepared and accomodation was great! We really enjoyed the two night stays as it gave us a chance to relax! The variety of accommodation gave y y s C m any experiences!

It wasn’t as well organized as I would have liked. For instance we were in a town early in the day of May 1 holiday when public places like the museum were closed. And we had quite a few hours there. It was a wasted good part of the day. We spent 2 nights each in two marvellous places one being a Cooking and Nature hotel, the second a winery resort. The dinners at the winery resort were included but our guide’s and our documents said that the wine wasn’t. The restaurant was set up for ‘wine paring and dinner’ so they did it their way anyway. And it really didn’t make sense on the part of Blue Roads to have you stay at a winery resort and not have the wine or wine pairing included. Our guide was knowledgeable about the places and very good. But it was his first time doing this particular route and most of us felt that he wasn’t well informed or instructed by Blue Roads.

Tour of Portugal was amazing . Sonia our tour guide was excellent.

after becoming ill, I was abandoned by tour

We shared nine days with a wonderful group of travellers. Many interesting sites and lots of interesting food!
The hotels provided were top notch!
Our guide Sonia Bugarin was wonderful and full of information. She was the best!!!

Possibly one of the best tours I've ever done. A lot of this was down to our tour leader, Ana.

Tour was fantastic. Would have been five stars except for the early Lisbon portion was tedious due to all the bus restrictions of the city. Also, we missed all the other sites in Sintra, which were more interesting than the palace. Porto was magical and so were all the other rural sites.

As above. I can't add any more.

It gave an excellent overview of Portugal and I particularly enjoyed seeing the smaller towns and out of the way places which would have been hard to get to on my own.

The only reason this is a four rather than five star was the weather we experienced. Lots of rain which was totally out of Back Roads control. It did make visiting some places a bit damp and uncomfortable. More especially from my perspective with a dodgy ankle and knee l needed to be extremely careful of the slippery marble surfaces of stairs and footpaths. The tour was otherwise wonderful trip.

At the time of purchase I thought it was expensive. But the actual process was OK.

Great guide and itinerary, relaxed pace, top people, Felt I really got am authentic taste of Portugal.

Great value for such a long trip/10 days!

The interesting places we went which were off the beaten track. Good variety of activities. Compatible group. Very good guide who went the extra mile to help with any problems. The last night dinner she organised was excellent and great fun.

Tour was well organised and leader very knowledgeable. Great accommodation especially wineries and Braga. Travel time great not too many long driving days.

The Hotel in Lisbon was not good at paying attention to detail. They gave conflicting information about charging rooms prior to tour starting. They also had to be asked 3 times to provide an iron for guests use.

I previously stated my reason

Beautiful country. Backroads showed us some wonderful highlights to this country with a deep history. Accommodation was excellent

This was the 2nd Blue-Roads trip I have taken. Like the first trip, I enjoyed the locations visited, the wealth of information received from the tour guides, and the uniqueness of the hotels we stayed. The small group of no more than 18 people allow you to easily get to know others during the 9-day tour and to travel into areas where large buses cannot go. Justin, our travel guide, is extremely knowledgeable and a wealth of information. I would definitely take another Bule-Roads trip and would recommend it to others. It would be nice if Blue Roads offered airport pick-up and 2-day excursions before and after the tour begins/ends. Also, it would be nice if the single rate wasn't so much more than the double rate.

Amazing places to visit, exceptional hotels

Excellent guide
Free time
Great place to visit

It was a well organised and very professional tour with a fantastic guide and a great driver. They had to be mindful of the extreme heat and were flexible on the day’s activities to work around it as best they could.

Great tour guide, driver and itinerary. Good mix of cultural and historical places of interest. Everything ran very smoothly and we were blessed with perfect weather.

It was easy to book and easy to deal with Backroads.

The tour generally was good. However, we felt there was too much down time around from 12-2pm in some towns (where there was little to do).
We loved the experiences with locals and would have liked more contact with locals, or have had options such as kayaking, or a forest walk.
The historical knowledge of our wonderful guide Eddi was expectational, along with her calm nature and willingness to assist made the tour very enjoyable.
Our driver Melo was an absolute gentleman with fabulous driving skills.
Hotel in Lisbon was in a good location, however the room was cramped and dreary.

Done that. What has happenned to my review?

Interesting locations, accomodation was good,

We visited some beautiful cities and medieval towns. Our activities were varied and interesting and our tour leader was very knowledgeable about the history and landmarks we visited.

Great and highly recommended.

Apart for Lisbon Hotel as previously mentioned; it was a thoroughly enjoyable tour experience.

see above for my comments on the trip

Excellent. We saw a lot of Portugal between Lisbon and Porto. And the scenery and attractive towns very appealing.

Too much of the same thing, I would have liked more diversity in the tour

A helpful, informative guide, Sonia, with excellent English backed up Melo, by a skilful, cheery driver set the scene for a great value trip.

Fascinating country Fabulous introduction with excellent tour guide leader Eddie Fischer and friendly group to sample the food and culture.

Beautiful country, so much history, friendly people. The places we discovered just incredible

There were no issues . And they were helpful.

See above…. .… …………………………..no

I really enjoyed the different hotels and entertainment that was provided. thanks for this!!

A well-run tour. Excellent leader.

As above. Good guide and hotels. Very interesting tour

Confort and great services.

A lot of history but what do the people feel about their country!

Excellent tour. Portugal was very interesting and we saw many beautiful places. We stayed in very good accommodation.

Loved the itinerary. Accomodation was fabulous and included lots of surprises. Just one small suggestion, would have been great to commence the tour the night before so we could meet and greet everyone before setting off on the tour. Would have liked to see a little more of Lisbon

There were too many small towns where we stopped for lunch with absolutely nothing to do. Most shops were closed. 2hours plus was too long at theses destinations. Tour guide was friendly, but a bit indecisive. Lisbon, Nazare, Duoro Valley and Oporto were excellent. Fatima was good too, but only if you were interested.

This was not a shopping trip and I just bought a few souvenirs

Our guide was very knowledgeable and looked after our group well. I felt cared for as the lone vegetarian she made sure I had menu choices to suit ahead of the meal venue. Much appreciated.
All our tour guides were exceptional. Our group melded well which added to the fun. Accommodation all memorable in a good way.
Coach comfortable and drivers smooth.

Value for money, a pity about the weather