My Lisbon Holidays

Tiago was an outstanding guide throughout our trip. From the initial booking stage, he conducted himself with the utmost professionalism and attention to detail. He not only planned a well-curated itinerary but also drove us across the country, offering insightful commentary and sharing his extensive knowledge along the way.

A particularly commendable aspect of Tiago’s service was his genuine care and support. When I experienced a back issue during the trip, he went above and beyond by arranging a medical appointment at a reputable hospital in Porto and connecting me with an excellent doctor.

More than just a tour guide and driver, Tiago has become a valued friend. He made sure we returned home safely and has continued to stay in touch.

We had a truly memorable experience, and I highly recommend booking your trip with Tiago for a seamless, thoughtful, and enriching journey.

Hotel Reviews

Hotel Lisboa Plaza

Lisbon

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Coffee machine in the room

Thomar Boutique Hotel

Tomar

Great location and d place

Authenticity & Character

Location

Center of the city. Close to many places

Staff

Very kind and nice

Cleanliness & Comfort

NH Collection Porto Batalha

Porto

Very rude front desk. AC was not working reliably

Authenticity & Character

Location

Center location

Staff

Front desk people can be more accomadative nicely

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Lisbon (Old Town) guided visit

Lisbon

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Belém and Cascais guided visit

Portugal

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Óbidos visit

Portugal

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Batalha Monastery visit

Portugal

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Explore Porto (Half-Day Guided Walking Tour)

Porto

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I still think of my trip, review my pictures, and share stories with anyone that'll listen! The attention to the details by Tiago was extraordinary. The app we received had all the details we needed for our trip, a fantastic online tool and reference instead of carrying paper records. I made the mistake of looking for answers online for a couple of specific thing, that had I thought about it, Tiago would have given me the answers. One: how to dress in Portugal? The site I visited was way off, and when I mentioned to Tiago, he sweetly gave the truth about how to dress for each location on our itinerary. Porto was our first stop, and what a beautiful city. We ventured down south to the Algarve and returned to Lisbon for our departure home. The Douro Valley, Guimaraes, Tomar, Evora, Lagos, Tavira, and so many other stops. We had 14 beautiful days in Portugal, it's a beautiful country, with lovely people, and fantastic food. And it's all thanks to the expertise and love Tiago has for his country. I'm so glad I didn't travel or plan blindly, I may have missed all the beauty Tiago exposed to us, We plan on going back....soon. Even hopes to find a second home in Lagos.

Hotel Reviews

NH Collection Porto Batalha

Porto

In the heart of Porto, a stylish boutique hotel, comfortable accommodations, lovely breakfast, and friendly and helpful staff. Shower was not great, had to worry about water running out of the shower stall, design was not smart.

Authenticity & Character

Charming, well designed. Elevators in all of Portugal are way too small.

Location

Everything was either uphill, or downhill from here. A lot of walking, but we got tons of steps in.

Staff

Classy, friendly, engaging, sweet people.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Stunning. Room was spotless and well cared for.

Casa dos Ofícios Hotel

Tomar

Vasco was so special. What a pleasant young man! When he explained his name was like Vasco da Gama, I misunderstood and thought he was actually a descendant! What great laughs we had at my expense. Great sleep at night. We did it all. Restaurants nearby, great stores, the history here is abundant. The staff friendly, delicious breakfast. The shower here was the best of all the hotels we stayed.

Authenticity & Character

Charming

Location

Near to restaurants and shopping. Some traveling, if you like walking, that too! More hilly roads to climb and descend

Staff

Engaged, kind, helpful

Cleanliness & Comfort

Focus and beauty, comfort, and peace.

MouraSuites Hotel

Largo da Porta de Moura, 7000-647 Évora, Portugal

The photos on their website show the more glamorous rooms. Ours was small, but comfortable. It wasn't bad, but not beyond the average.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Marina Rio

Lagos

Location, location, location. At the Marina, but our room faced the bus terminal in the back, Luckily, we didn't spend too much time in our room. The staff were kind, professional, and helpful.

Authenticity & Character

Small breakfast room. Ramps on both sides of the entry were long and steep. They did have a power seat lift. The stairs were a lot to climb into a hotel. Just not a good design. Pay to park at the corner, convenient.

Location

It was at one end of the Marina, but the local attractions, restaurants, and shops were close. Very touristy and crowded when we were there. We weren't unhappy to leave and move to the next location.

Staff

Good service.

Cleanliness & Comfort

You could hear the noise in the halls. Weird design. It felt stark and cold. No warmth to the design. Oh, and get this. Not a single trash can at the entrance, lobby, or restaurant. The public restrooms were hidden behind a camouflaged door in the wall. Trying too hard to be cool.

Hotel Britania Art Deco

Lisbon

OMG! The best of all the hotels. Don't get me wrong, every hotel that was selected for our trip was classic, different, and comfortable. I just pointed out certain 'observations' on which they could approve. But Hotel Britania was a true historic and awesome hotel. Omar, Patric, Jose, and the dining room staff were so kind, engaged, and made our stay so memorable. We will be coming back here.

Authenticity & Character

Such wonderful dedication to retaining the character and history.

Location

Close to shopping, restaurants, and high end shopping.

Staff

Loved them all! Wish I had gotten the names of the others we met there.

Cleanliness & Comfort

You will love this place. Here too, the elevator is tiny.

Activity Reviews

Rabelo Boat Tour

Portugal

Wild boat ride. The two person boat team were great!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Visit to a Cork grove or olive oil Estate

Portugal

What a pleasant surprise on a tour focused on landmarks and history, an Olive Grove Visit. The beauty of the Olive Trees, especially the one that well over 2,000 years old.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Azulejo Tile Workshop

Lisbon

I wish I was more artistically inclined. Some in the class were more talented. But it was still a great time, and we brought home our own creations,

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We took an Uber here.

We could write a book about our wonderful trip to Portugal -- but, don't worry, I'll just give you a summary of the experience.

First our specialist, Tiago: Smart, responsiveness, and knowledgeable. That would be enough. But he was also really warm and personable. Just plain nice. We had the good fortune of getting to know him a bit better because he served as our driver and guide on a day tour to Sintra and Cascais. When I am working with people in business, I sometimes run across a person who has "sparkle" -- a brightness and an intelligence that makes ever interaction great. Tiago has "sparkle".

Second our trip: Too many wonderful moments to mention -- but here are just a few:

Porto: Walking around this wonderful city was charming and great exercise (lots of steps and hills). We absolutely adored the views, the history, the shops. Had a wonderful dinner nearby at 5 Oceanos.

Douro Valley (drive and river tour): Simply gorgeous. We were late arriving for our scheduled boat departure -- but Tiago hopped right on it and rescheduled us. Problem solved. Unparalleled views of the vineyards along the river.

Tomar: What a beautiful and charming location. The accommodations were delightful and the main square was a postcard come to life.

Evora: More Portuguese friendliness and charm. We particularly enjoyed our hotel here -- the MouraSuites -- and the visits to the Chapel of Bones, the Palace Gardens, and again working are way around the city streets.

Olive Oil Making Tour: A true highlight of the trip where Joao took us through the history of his families small olive oil business that he is keeping alive through passion and ingenuity. A master class in a tour that was educational, engaging and well worth the time. If you enjoy intelligent people with incredible passion and storytelling skills, please go!

Lagos: Bustling and fun. We spent time in the Algarve looking for property -- and may have found something right in Porto de Mos in Lagos. That says it all!

Benagil Caves boat tour: Visually stunning with amazing crew, including "Lady Di" and the boat captain. Fun! Do it!

Sagres and Salema day trip: Wonderful history and views.

Lisbon: Truly a diverse, friendly and beautiful place. We could not have been more pleased with the staff at our the Hotel Britania -- shout outs to Omar, Jose, Patrick as well as all of the people who made and served us the incredibly breakfast daily.

Day trip to Sintra and Caiscais: While it was crowded, we were treated to a day with Tiago -- who was full of knowledge and knew exactly how to maximize our time to get a flavor for this amazing place. The specialty pastries in Sintra were absolutely delicisious.

OK -- perhaps I did right a book. But that is because we were captivated by Portugal -- it's beauty, charm, friendliness.

Muito obrigado!

Hotel Reviews

NH Collection Porto Batalha

Porto

Great central location and comfortable suites. A few minor maintenance issues with bathrooms that were quickly addressed by staff.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Casa dos Ofícios Hotel

Tomar

Charm, charm, charm. Friendliness galore.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

MouraSuites Hotel

Largo da Porta de Moura, 7000-647 Évora, Portugal

Probably our favorite hotel during our 2 week visit. Beautifully designed, wonderful breakfast, gracious staff.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Marina Rio

Lagos

Perfect location on the Marina for our time in Lagos.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Hotel Britania Art Deco

Lisbon

The staff was amazing -- and this old hotel has character dripping from the walls. LOVED IT!

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Omar, Patrick, Jose, and the desk and kitchen staff -- 5 star!

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Rabelo Boat Tour

Portugal

We loved the tour for seeing the beautiful scenery. Only thing keeping it from five stars was the lack of any narration of the experience by the tour operator.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Visit to a Cork grove or olive oil Estate

Portugal

Joao was amazing in telling the very special story of his family's olive oil estate. The discussion encompassed a lesson in the making of olive oil, the challenges of retaining a small traditional business vs when competing with the super large agriculture firms, how to taste olive oil (aroma, flavor, etc.) From my perspective, as a marketing professional, the branding of the product was fascinating! A highlight of the trip!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Azulejo Tile Workshop

Lisbon

Great to appreciate the history and importance of tiles in Portugal and truly appreciate the craft. Loved that we walked away with tangible, self-made tiles that will forever serve as reminders of this memorable experience.

Quality of Experience

Wonderful trip. Joao did great job of lining up variety of activities and we very much appreciated the reservations and suggestions for activities along the way - suggesting parking locations took a lot of the "stress" of trying to figure out exactly where to go.

Starting the trip with private tours around Lisbon, Cascais & Sintra with Francisco was terrific way to gain better insight into Portugal's history and introduction to the country. We feel we were lucky to experience the freedom day marches and festivities in Lisbon - added a unique and interesting touch to our short time in Lisbon. The Fado dinner was a very enjoyable evening - host, cook, and server were all terrific; singers & musicians were delightful (the evening got long, especially when still adjusting to the time changes).

All the lodging arrangements were very nice - enjoyed the boutique hotels in Tomar, Douro, and Evora - all served as great locations to explore the surrounding area. And we very much appreciate that KimKim allowed us to select our own lodging in Lagos - we ended up at a very special and unique place that made a wonderful trip even more special and memorable.

Too many highlights to mention in a short review - Obidos, Nazere, Batalha were all terrific stops as we made our way to Tomar; we stopped at a grocery store as we neared Nazere and had the first of many picnic lunches on the rock cliffs looking over the beach and surfing waves.

In Tomar we explored Christ Convent and castle and then went for a hike in the castle gardens & woods to a large swing on a high overlook - during our hike the power went out in all of Portugal, Spain & France so when we came back down to town all the stores, museums, and restaurants were closed - we enjoyed a picnic & afternoon in the park by the river and when power came back around 7:00 we found an English pub that reopened; for us the power outage was just a slight detour / blip in the trip and a relaxing afternoon.

The Old Library and Chapel at Cambria were amazing and well worth visiting on the way to Douro Valley. We set google maps to "avoid highways" on the way to Douro and traveled some amazing back country roads and villages including a short stop to watch a heard of goats and their canine keepers move up the valley along a beautiful stream. National Road 222 to Duoro was breathtaking - after checking into the beautiful hotel, we set out to an overlook spot recommended by the receptionist. The nearby village had a single restaurant that we stopped at - the chicken and potatoes were absolutely terrific - we entertained and laughed along with the few locals in the restaurant as we communicated with the owner through google translate (and with their assistance). We had rain for much of our sunset cruise, so we were only "topside" for about a quarter of the time, but our captain was very interesting and entertaining as we got philosophical about the differences between our homelands - a very enjoyable evening.

We really enjoyed our time in Evora; highlights included the bones chapel, winery visit (it was raining that morning) and we really enjoyed the ceramic workshop. The cork tour was interesting and we really enjoyed learning about cork harvesting - very glad for the experience, but it was a rather long ride for a brief visit to a couple of cork trees and back - probably the only experience of the trip that was a little disappointing or underwhelming. While in Evora, we decided to take a short guided tour of one of the marble quarries (slight departure from the KimKim itinerary) - the enthusiastic guide shared a wealth of geological knowledge and information and the ability to visit the marble quarry and stand on a platform over the deep pit was a neat experience.

We finished our trip with several days in the Algarve. We stayed in a very unique and special airbnb that we selected - for us it was the "icing on the cake" that made a wonderful trip even more special and memorable. On the first afternoon there, we hiked the entire beach/coastline of Lagos from Meia Praia to the light house on Ponta da Piedade. The sailing tour the next morning was wonderful - captain Rob and first mate Anatoli were great - here is the review I left for them after the trip - My wife and I had a lovely morning sail with Rob and Anatoli on Ocean Breeze. Wonderful vessel, delightful company, informative and patient with all of our questions and musings. A great way to see the coast at a relaxed pace and from a different perspective. My wife and I are traveling Portugal in celebration of our 25th anniversary - this is one of the highlights of our trip. Other highlights in Algarve were the ebike tour (really wonderful way to see some of the back streets, smaller villages, and dirt paths at a really nice pace), kayaking in the sea caves, several hikes along the cliffs, and exploring several beaches (we enjoyed an afternoon sunning on the beach and lunch at one of the beach side restaurants down many flights of stairs).

On our final full day, we headed back to Lisbon by way of Sagres and made short stops at several wonderful beaches along the west coast including Praia da Arrifana, Odeceixe Mar Beach, and Farol Cabo Sardão. We arrived back in Lisbon, returned car and enjoyed a late supper along the river front - Joao's advice to return to Lisbon the night before our flight was a good recommendation as it gave us time to pack and have a good breakfast at the hotel before embarking to the airport for our flight home.

We really enjoyed our time in Portugal. The people were friendly and had a great sense of humor. The history is rich and fascinating (in the review I didn't mention much about the many castles and cathedrals that we visited and admired). There are many other countries we hope to travel to, but we wouldn't hesitate to visit Portugal again and would highly recommend it to others. KimKim (Joao) did a great job of putting together an itinerary with excellent mix of activities, suggestions & recommendations, and feel like he made reservations with outstanding guides and services (and relieved us from needing to do the research, reservations, etc.). We liked the freedom of mostly independent travel and occasionally departed from the itinerary, but it was nice to know Joao was only a whatsapp chat or call away if we needed assistance or had any difficulties. Thank you.

Tiago was very accommodating and was always there to help us with anything we needed. Joel was fantastic and we highly recommend this team.

The trip exceeded our expectations! The planning with Tiago was effortless; we expressed our interests and he planned the perfect trip, totally and timely responding to every inquiry. Our driver, William to/from the airport was prompt and courteous, as were our tour guides, “Hugo 1” and “Hugo 2” as we nicknamed them. They were knowledgeable and responsive to our interests, as was Olivia, who coordinated the trip while on the island. They even switched the itinerary to accommodate the weather. Highlights of the trip included the beautiful green mountainside scenery, contrasting the blue waters and flowers beginning to bloom everywhere! We especially enjoyed our bike ride and trip to Furnas where we saw the hot springs and bathed in the garden waters. Finally the restaurants were excellent choices, catering to the local food. We could not have had a better time! Thank you to Kimkim and Tiago.

João helped design a wonderful trip for our family. It provided just the right variety of activity to appeal to everyone and he was flexible in response to our requests. Though we did not meet him personally while in Portugal, he was very responsive to any of our needs that arose and quickly helped us coordinate assistance if needed. He connected us with a simply outstanding local guide named Gustavo, who truly "made" the trip for us. He was so knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. When the weather forced a sudden change in our plans, he quickly filled the void with new ones - and our trip didn't suffer a bit. We enjoyed his company and appreciated his guidance as we explored the cultural and natural treasures of Portugal.

We had only one accommodation that was challenging, but I felt that João was very receptive to the feedback. And even with the challenges, we still enjoyed our time there.

Hotel Reviews

Monte do Serrado de Baixo

Évora

Challenging if it's your first time to Portugal and you don't speak Portuguese. The hosts aren't onsite when you arrive, and the staff that may be there speaks limited English. If you're in the off-season, not all of the written materials providing provisions and guidance for your stay apply, so it's tough to figure out. Beautiful farm, though.

Cascade Wellness Resort

Lagos

Gorgeous hotel with wonderful accommodations for a family. However, the limits on heated pool availability for children and restaurant options for guests under 16 should be understood before you arrive.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Martinhal Lisbon Chiado

Lisbon

Fantastic staff and wonderful accommodations great for a traveling family. Clean and easy to use apartment - modern amenities and great location.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Meliá Lisboa Aeroporto

Lisbon

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Cave Boat Tour

Portugal

So fun - incredible experience.

The whole trip was great! Every hotel was beautiful and welcoming. Our guide Joao was knowledgeable and fun to be with. He adjusted our excursions as needed for weather and went out of his way to show us around and accommodate our interests. He made Portugal special for us.